San Jose, the heart of California's Silicon Valley, heads the 2005 edition of the World Knowledge Competitiveness Index (WKCI), followed by the U.S. regions of Boston, San Francisco and Hartford, Conn. Seattle ranks fifth. The report, which compares the knowledge economies of the world’s leading regions, was published in mid-December by Robert Huggins Associates.
The highest-ranked non-U.S. region is Stockholm, Sweden, which climbed seven places to eighth position. Tokyo, which ranks 23rd, is the highest ranked region outside of North America and Europe.
The WKCI is an integrated and overall benchmark of the knowledge capacity, capability and sustainability of 125 regions across the globe, and the extent to which this knowledge is translated into economic value, and transferred into the wealth of the citizens of these regions, utilizing 19 knowledge economy benchmarks, including employment levels in the knowledge economy, patent registrations, R&D investment by the private and public sector, education expenditure, information and communication technology infrastructure, and access to private equity.
| 2005 World Knowledge Competitive Rankings
Rank Region
1 San Jose, US
2 Boston, US
3 San Francisco, US
4 Hartford, US
5 Seattle, US
6 Grand Rapids, US
7 San Diego, US
8 Stockholm, Sweden
9 Rochester, US
10 Los Angeles, US
20 Uusimaa, Finland
22 Tokyo, Japan
29 Île de France, France
37 West, Sweden
44 Switzerland
45 Brussels, Belgium
46 South Sweden
50 South Netherlands
SOURCE: Robert Huggins Associates
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Alongside Stockholm, the Nordic regions have almost all improved their rankings for the second year in a row. Both West Sweden (37th) and South Sweden (46th) move up, and are now competitive with the majority of US regions, while Denmark (up 11 places) and Norway (up two places) also perform strongly. Uusimaa (Helsinki) consolidated its phenomenal growth in recent years and is 21st ranked. These rankings are based on very high levels of knowledge-based employment and high levels of research and innovation.
Elsewhere in Europe the picture is more mixed, with the UK regions of London (56th), South East England (55th)and Eastern England (62nd) dropping down the rankings. With the exception of the UK, most Western European regions have seen an improvement in their position. Ireland improved 17 places to 74th, indicating that the country's economic growth has been correlated with a similar expansion of its knowledge base.
The majority of U.S. regions have seen their performance either remain static or fall. All six ranked Canadian regions have seen their position fall since 2004.
The region that has shown the best growth in creating a thriving knowledge-intensive economy is Shanghai, which more than doubled its performance since 2004, and is now ranked second only to Tokyo in terms of patent registrations per capita. Also, Mumbai and Bangalore in India have seen improvements in the performance, although they remain towards the bottom of the index.
Amongst the list of indicators, the WKCI also benchmarks the availability of private equity, including venture capital and start-up investments.
According to the report, Asia-Pacific is particularly strong in IT and Computer Manufacturing activities, while North America's strength comes from its spending on R&D and education, and high patenting levels. More access to private equity is also a North American advantage.
Europe's model appears to be an under-performing version of that operating within the North American regions, although it does have strength in high technology sectors such as instrumentation and electrical machinery.
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