Canada Drops in Ranking of World’s Most Innovative Cities

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An annual ranking of the world’s most innovative cities by data analysts 2thinknow released this week finds the U.S. flourishing and Canada tanking. While Tokyo, Japan, took the top spot, cities in the U.S. showed surprising strength. For the first time in 14 years, more than half of the top one hundred cities were located in the U.S., a “jaw-dropping, unexpected result,” the analysts said. Canada, meanwhile, saw its cities’ rankings plummet by an average of 95 places. Toronto, which finished as the 10th most innovative city in the world in 2019, fell to a dismal 43rd place this year. Montreal fell from 22nd place in 2019 to spot 36. Vancouver and Calgary didn’t even make the top 100 this year, after placing 36th and 89th, respectively, in 2019. Christopher Hire, director of 2thinknow, blames the performance on Canadian government policies that stifle competition. The data analysts credit the strong showing by smaller U.S. cities this year to the rise of remote work. While Canada also saw many employees working from home, it didn’t have the same effect on innovation. Meanwhile, Europe also suffered in the rankings this year, with the exodus of workers from cities slowing innovation instead of stoking it. Cities in Germany and France saw an unprecedented drop in their rankings, plunging an average of 77 and 85 places, respectively. The U.K. didn’t fare much better, with “decades of gains reversed. “Innovation is tied to growing mid-size companies, and European use of the coercive instruments of state like lockdowns has damaged their innovation economy,” Report said. The data analysts determined how well suited a city is to fostering innovation by consulting 162 indicators. They measured digital transformation, startups, economic recovery and development, mobility, liveability and COVID-19 cases and policies, among other criteria. The pandemic weighed heavily on the ranking this year, the analysts said, making it especially volatile. Lockdowns, the resulting reduction in small- and mid-sized business activity and changing public health measures all had an outsized impact on cities’ innovation economies. Those measures have temporarily helped countries such as the U.S. and China, whose cities jumped an average of 77 places, and hurt those in Canada and Europe. Researchers expect the volatility to last into 2023.