List of cities by scientific output

The following article lists the cities and metropolitan areas with the greatest scientific output, according to the Nature Index. The Nature Index attempts to objectively measure the scientific output of institutions, cities and countries by the amount of scientific articles and papers published in leading journals. Differences in quality are taken into account. Only Articles published in 82 selected quality journals are counted. These journals were selected by an independent committee. If authors from several institutions from different cities are involved in a scientific article, it is divided accordingly, assuming that all researchers were equally involved in the article.

In 2019 China's capital city Beijing was the city in the world with the largest scientific output, accounting for 2.8% of the world's total.

List

The top 100 cities and metropolitan areas with the highest share of articles published in scientific journals in 2019 according to the Nature Index 2020 Science Cities.

Rank	City/Metro area	Country	Total Share
1	Beijing	China	2.846%
2	New York metropolitan area	United States	2.066%
3	Boston metropolitan Area	United States	1.910%
4	San Francisco Bay Area	United States	1.692%
5	Shanghai	China	1.480%
6	Baltimore-Washington	United States	1.371%
7	Tokyo metropolitan area	Japan	1.156%
8	Nanjing	China	0.980%
9	Paris metropolitan area	France	0.977%
10	Los Angeles Metropolitan area	United States	0.902%
11	Chicago metropolitan area	United States	0.802%
12	Seoul metropolitan area	South Korea	0.787%
13	Wuhan	China	0.730%
14	London metropolitan area	United Kingdom	0.720%
15	Guangzhou	China	0.662%
16	Zürich	Switzerland	0.610%
17	Singapore	Singapore	0.608%
18	San Diego metropolitan area	United States	0.576%
19	Cambridge	United Kingdom	0.567%
20	Hefei	China	0.548%
21	Philadelphia metropolitan area	United States	0.511%
22	Berlin metropolitan area	Germany	0.496%
23	Munich	Germany	0.487%
24	Tianjin	China	0.486%
25	Oxford	United Kingdom	0.472%
26	Hangzhou	China	0.456%
27	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	0.411%
28	Seattle metropolitan area	United States	0.400%
29	Houston metropolitan area	United States	0.388%
30	Melbourne	Australia	0.375%
31	Toronto metropolitan Area	Canada	0.368%
32	Shenzhen	China	0.364%
33	Ann Arbor	United States	0.346%
34	Xi'an	China	0.345%
35	Lausanne	Switzerland	0.345%
36	Atlanta metropolitan area	United States	0.338%
37	Chengdu	China	0.326%
38	Changchun	China	0.325%
39	Sydney	Australia	0.300%
40	Barcelona metropolitan area	Spain	0.295%
41	Changsha	China	0.290%
42	Madrid	Spain	0.280%
43	Boulder	United States	0.279%
44	Montreal metropolitan area	Canada	0.274%
45	Suzhou	China	0.272%
46	Kyoto	Japan	0.272%
47	Stockholm	Sweden	0.262%
48	Copenhagen	Denmark	0.251%
49	Vienna	Austria	0.248%
50	Ithaca	United States	0.247%
51	Madison	United States	0.244%
52	Tsukuba	Japan	0.244%
53	Osaka	Japan	0.242%
54	Jinan	China	0.242%
55	Pittsburgh	United States	0.240%
56	Heidelberg	Germany	0.234%
57	Fuzhou	China	0.232%
58	Daejeon	South Korea	0.231%
59	Durham	United States	0.228%
60	Urbana	United States	0.228%
61	Nagoya metropolitan Area	Japan	0.227%
62	Austin	United States	0.223%
63	Xiamen	China	0.222%
64	Dallas–Fort Worth	China	0.222%
65	St. Louis	United States	0.219%
66	Minneapolis–Saint Paul	United States	0.216%
67	Amsterdam metropolitan area	Netherlands	0.213%
68	Dalian	China	0.212%
69	Dresden	Germany	0.211%
70	Moscow	Russia	0.210%
71	Edinburgh	United Kingdom	0.203%
72	Santa Barbara	United States	0.195%
73	Chapel Hill	United States	0.195%
74	Vancouver metropolitan area	Canada	0.191%
75	Grenoble	France	0.191%
76	State College	United States	0.188%
77	Taipei	Taiwan	0.186%
78	Qingdao	China	0.185%
79	Chongqing	China	0.182%
80	Geneva	Switzerland	0.177%
81	Brisbane	Australia	0.175%
82	Hamburg	Germany	0.175%
83	Bristol metropolitan area	United Kingdom	0.168%
84	Manchester	United Kingdom	0.167%
85	Lanzhou	China	0.162%
86	Davis	United States	0.161%
87	Göttingen	Germany	0.161%
88	Milan	Italy	0.158%
89	Columbus	United States	0.156%
90	Basel	Switzerland	0.155%
91	Rome	Italy	0.155%
92	Rehovot	Israel	0.153%
93	Mainz	Germany	0.152%
94	Tel Aviv	Israel	0.151%
95	Sendai	Japan	0.147%
96	Irvine	United States	0.144%
97	Bangalore	India	0.144%
98	West Lafayette	United States	0.141%
99	Kolkata metropolitan area	India	0.141%
100	Prague	Czech Republic	0.139%

Leading cities in differen fields

The 10 cities cities and metropolitan areas with the highest share of articles published in the fields of Life Sciences, Earth & environmental sciences, Chemistry and Physical Sciences

Rank	Life sciences	Earth & environmental sciences	Chemistry	Physical sciences
1	New York metropolitan area	Beijing	Beijing	Beijing
2	Boston metropolitan area	Baltimore-Washington	Shanghai	Boston metropolitan area
3	San Francisco Bay Area	New York metropolitan area	Nanjing	New York metropolitan area
4	Baltimore-Washington	Nanjing	Tokyo metropolitan area	San Francisco Bay Area
5	Beijing	San Francisco Bay Area	San Francisco Bay Area	Tokyo metropolitan area
6	London metropolitan area	Los Angeles metropolitan area	New York metropolitan area	Shanghai
7	San Diego metropolitan area	Boulder	Boston metropolitan area	Seoul metropolitan area
8	Paris metropolitan area	Boston metropolitan area	Wuhan	Paris metropolitan area
9	Los Angeles metropolitan area	Wuhan	Tianjin	Baltimore-Washington
10	Cambridge	Zürich	Guangzhou	Chicago metropolitan area