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List of cities by scientific output

Adapted from Wikipedia · Adventurer experience

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This article lists the cities and metropolitan areas that create the most science in the world, using something called the Nature Index. The Nature Index checks how many important science articles and papers come from a place. It only counts papers from 82 very good journals, all written in English. Experts chose these journals.

In 2019, Beijing was the city with the most science. It made up 2.8% of all the world’s science. Next was New York City, with about 2% of the world’s science. China had the most cities in the top 100 list, with 28. The United States came next with 27.

List

Here is a list of the top 100 cities and areas where scientists published the most articles in important science journals in 2024. The list is based on the Nature Index 2025 Science Cities.

RankCity/Metro areaCountry/Region
1Beijing China
2Shanghai China
3New York metropolitan area United States
4Boston metropolitan area United States
5Nanjing China
6Guangzhou China
7San Francisco Bay Area United States
8Wuhan China
9Baltimore-Washington United States
10Hangzhou China
11Tokyo Japan
12Hefei China
13Seoul South Korea
14Paris France
15Tianjin China
16Xi'an China
17Los Angeles United States
18Shenzhen China
19London United Kingdom
20Hong Kong Hong Kong
21Chengdu China
22Chicago United States
23Changsha China
24Changchun China
25Singapore Singapore
26Philadelphia United States
27Jinan China
28Zürich Switzerland
29Cambridge United Kingdom
30Munich Germany
31Qingdao China
32Berlin Germany
33Suzhou China
34San Diego United States
35Chongqing China
36Seattle United States
37Houston United States
38Oxford United Kingdom
39Melbourne Australia
40Xiamen China
41Fuzhou China
42Dalian China
43Harbin China
44Toronto Canada
45Atlanta United States
46Ann Arbor United States
47Copenhagen Denmark
48Lanzhou China
49Sydney Australia
50Barcelona Spain
51Madrid Spain
52Daejeon South Korea
53Stockholm Sweden
54Montreal Canada
55Lausanne Switzerland
56Vienna Austria
57Kyoto Japan
58Zhengzhou China
59Pittsburgh United States
60St. Louis United States
61Amsterdam metropolitan area Netherlands
62Taipei Taiwan
63Heidelberg Germany
64Boulder United States
65Osaka Japan
66Tsukuba Japan
67Dallas–Fort Worth United States
68Austin United States
69Ithaca United States
70Nanchang China
71Brisbane Australia
72Milan Italy
73Madison United States
74Minneapolis–Saint Paul United States
75Durham United States
76Nagoya metropolitan area Japan
77Vancouver Canada
78Dresden Germany
79Chapel Hill United States
80Urbana United States
81Rome Italy
82Shenyang China
83Kunming China
84Moscow Russia
85Ningbo China
86State College United States
87Edinburgh United Kingdom
88Denver United States
89Hamburg Germany
90Leuven Belgium
91Geneva Switzerland
92Kolkata India
93Columbus United States
94Bengaluru India
95Manchester United Kingdom
96Central National Capital Region (Delhi) India
97Mumbai India
98Zhenjiang China
99Helsinki Finland
100Nashville United States

Leading cities in different fields

This list shows the top 10 cities and areas where the most articles are published in important areas of science. These areas include biological sciences, Earth & environmental sciences, chemistry, health sciences, natural sciences, and physical sciences.

Related articles

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on List of cities by scientific output, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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