2thinknow City indicators are a balanced assessment of actual city performance.
Indicators measure multiple data points and give each city a Simplified Benchmark Score and Rank.
The Simplified Benchmark Scores form the input variables for the annual Innovation Cities™ Indexes.
Simplified Benchmark Score
2thinknow Simplified Benchmark Score provides a simple performance reference 0-5 for each city on any indicator. Being simple, it's easy to see relative performance at a glance.
Global Ranking
Global Indicator Ranking - for each indicator a global ranking is generated for all cities in the set. You can now see how any city ranks on any indicator. [New in 2018]
Data Points
Each indicator is comprised of a few Data Points, with sources and date of data. Most indicators contain around 4 standard data points (as few as 2) and as many as 10.
Data Format
All data is the most current year available -- in many cases 2015 to 2017 (sometimes as recent as a couple of weeks ago).
Data package provided in convenient Microsoft Excel format.
Package provided in convenient Microsoft Excel format.
Indicators give you a quick way to see and discuss a cities performance on key areas.
Cultural Assets
| Indicator | Measuring |
| Architectural Layering | Architectural complexity and layering of a city (architects refer to this as ‘grain’), balancing preservation and new building. |
| Decorative Features | Presence of decorative features in buildings, and related sectors (stone masonry, carpentry, sculpture, street art). |
| Green Architecture | Cutting edge green buildings, experimental or new sustainable building designs. |
| History_ | The age of the city since its first major urban/population incarnation, with older cities having higher tourism value. |
| Neighborhoods | Quality of decentralised neighbourhoods that are walkable and interconnected. |
| Cinema & Film | Diversity of cinema offerings including film festivals. |
| Cultural Festivals | Cities with cultural festivals that attract a multitude of global (Edinburgh Comedy Festival), regional, national and local visits. |
| Dance & Ballet | Dance companies and ballet companies resident or transient in the city. |
| Handcrafts | Measuring support for local crafts and artisan items, substantial evidence needed. |
| Private Art Galleries | Measuring art dealers and related industries. |
| Public Art Galleries | Public art galleries can profile a city and support the art in that city. |
| Public Artworks | Public statues, external 2D and 3D art and external exhibitions or artistic items. |
| Public Museums | Measuring breadth and depth of museum infrastructure in city. |
| Satire & Comedy | Measuring support for comedy events. |
| Theatre & Plays | Theatres and plays (not movie cinemas) within CBD and surrounds accessible to visitors and residents. |
| Youth Activities | Data points on breadth of available activities for youth (from pre-school to teenage). |
| Designers | Measures design (with a focus on graphic, business and industrial design) as a core skill of the innovation economy |
| Green Business | Potential for multiple green business development in city. |
| Video & Film Production | Measures video and film production facilities and achievements relative to other cities. |
| Hotel Range | Range of hotels, motels, hostels and accommodation options with a strong mix and bed supply being optimal. |
| Inbound Visitors | Number of inbound tourist arrivals in area by all recorded modes. |
| International Conferences | Conference popularity and facilities within city, and whether all year round or seasonal. |
| International Students | Number and professional mix of international students in city, compared to competing cities. |
| Visitor Entry | Measures visa requirements for entry and classifies degree of burden placed on a potential traveller. |
| Visitor Information | Quality and quantity of printed, web and mobile information in English and other languages, that is easily available. |
| Wealth Distribution | Equity in the society based on wealth equality, using best recorded Gini coefficients and other proxies. |
| Air Cleanliness | Measuring the city air cleanliness, and potential for air quality in given geography. |
| Climate & Weather | Is the weather consistent and conducive to work? Data points measuring the average climate. |
| Emissions | Data points on emissions at a city level where available, or state/national level in some cases. |
| Natural Disasters | Measuring recent history of natural disasters and potential impact of natural disaster such as earthquake, flood, bushfires, cyclones. |
| Nature | Natural environmental assets such as beaches, parks, wetlands which may affect life quality, and drive tourism/eco-tourism. |
| Noise Limiting | Measuring noise causes, and classifying limitation measures. |
| Public Green Areas | Measuring city park protection, and natural and wildlife preservation areas within immediate metropolitan area and inner-city. |
| Water features | The major water features in terms of importance (e.g. major river), range of amenity and cleanliness. |
| Fashion Designers | Measuring fashion designers and fashion events within the city. |
| Cafes & Tea Rooms | Diversity, range and sheer number of cafe’s / tea rooms and suitability as multi-purpose business and visitor venues. |
| Fine Restaurants | Quality of restaurants, especially destination restaurants. |
| Food Diversity | Measuring the breadth in diversity of food cuisines. |
| Meal Affordability | Affordability of basic sandwich and beverage (or local equivalent) relative to other cities at a ‘walk-in’ food establishment. |
| Bookstores | Measures presence of bookstores and book outlets (may include new media/ebooks). |
| Magazine Availability | Magazine availability and outlets for printed periodicals. |
| Media Censorship | Measuring media censorship (and media manipulation) by central authorities blocks economic opportunities, as events over take centralised bodies. |
| News Journalism | News journalism sources in the city (of all kinds). |
| Public Libraries | Libraries and media centers for the public to access free information are crucial to new types of innovation. |
| TV & Radio Networks | The number, existence and independence of local TV and radio networks. |
| Underground Publications | Measures independent underground newspapers, zines or other ‘dissent’ publications. |
| Web Censorship | Web censorship or control can lead to the blocking of business opportunities, and rampant industrial espionage (an emerging problem). |
| Bicycle Friendly | Availability of protected and designated bicycle facilities, as well as bicycle support. |
| Streets | Width and layout of streets, major streets that are well known globally. |
| Walking City | Safely walkable CBD with supporting transport modes. |
| Classical Music | Successful choirs, orchestras and classic music groups. |
| Music Venues | Measuring if the city has a comparable number and breadth of music venues? |
| Nightlife | The quality, variety and mix of nightlife venues and the regulation (or self-policing) of venues. |
| Opera House | Is there an Opera House, and what is the degree of support for opera measured by opera infrastructure. |
| Popular Music | How many popular musicians or how much support for future contemporary music does the city provide? |
| Alternative Population | Evidence of alternative population may be evidence of creative and new ideas. |
| Education Level | Level of educated workforce availability now and in future. |
| Equality of Women | Are women equal (not in number/quotas) but in access measured by actual positions held (such as Mayor)? |
| Population | Population of the city indicates size of the market. |
| Places of Worship | Number of churches, mosques or all places of worship. |
| Fitness Facilities | Presence of gyms, and indoor and outdoor facilities for amateur and professional sports. |
| Sports Fanaticism | Level of support for a variety of sports codes, and general sports industry support. |
| Sports Stadiums | Quantity and modernity of stadium infrastructure in or near city. |
Human Infrastructure
| Indicator | Measuring |
| Electricity & Gas | Measures renewable energy, availability and reliability of current electricity supply. |
| Food Supply | Food quality measured with lower degree of processing, and proximity of farms/food supply to urban centre. |
| Public Water Supply | Water supply quality and purity, and process of water supply. |
| Waste Management | Comprehensiveness of waste treatment and recycling programs |
| Business Approach | Measures whether the city is pro-business versus impediments to business. |
| Card Acceptance | Acceptance of major credit cards across all business and payment types. |
| Banking & Finance | Central Bank independence and bank stability. Important: no bank failures. |
| Company Tax | Measuring the cities rate of company taxes, with lower company taxes allowing companies to establish in the city, and more easily attract innovative companies. |
| Foreign Exchange | Availability of Foreign Exchange in major currencies and formats to business and private travellers. |
| Multi-National Headquarters | No. of multi-national corporations headquartered within driving distance, and relative importance of proximate multinationals. |
| Professional Services | Availability of a range of accounting, consulting, legal and other professional services across all advice areas. |
| Public Meeting Spaces | Availability and affordability of meeting spaces of various types |
| Sales Taxes | Is the city a globally competitve destination for low sales taxes, which thus drives greater revenues from product innovation? |
| Global Airport Connections | How well connected and how close is the airport to other major airports in flying hours? |
| Languages | How many languages do the citizens of a city speak? Are those languages international languages, or regional dialects. % of English fluency is a key enabler of trade. |
| Tourist Entry | Ease of visitor entry for wealthier national tourists and casual visitors to country. |
| Travel Advisories | Travel advisories by one of the UK, US, Canada, Australia or NZ can indicate negative reasons against travel. |
| GDP Per Capita | On a Real basis and PPP (where available). GDP per capita is measured at a city metropolitan area level. |
| Property Prices | Property prices for units and houses, relative to income and value in the inner-city. |
| Unemployment Rate | Current unemployment rate at a city level, or analyst adjusted estimate based on state/region/national data adjusted for city. |
| Arts Education | Arts education drives arts and design industries. Measuring tertiary and commercial arts institutions. |
| Business Education | Mix and availability of business education options, international ranking and quality of business schools. |
| Science & Engineering | Science and engineering facilities and competitive position of city. |
| Student Population | Student populations size — a proxy for fresh approaches and affordable labor for new business models and experiments. |
| University Breadth | Data points for breadth of university offerings in the city. |
| University Commercialization | Measuring ability of universities to commercialize technology. |
| Government Responsiveness | Online, Gov 2.0, open data and eGovernment initiatives as measures of responsiveness and service provision capability. |
| Government Stability | Type of government model combined with recent history to provide a stability analysis. |
| Political Transparency | The transparency and openness vs. potential for corruption within a city. |
| Public Servant Professionalism | Measuring institutional basis for professionalism, education and independence for public service as a branch of government. |
| General Medicine | Number and breadth of doctors and facilities relative to competing cities. |
| Hospitals | Private / public hospital coverage and classifying overall delivery of services to community. |
| Infant Mortality Rate | Infant Mortality normalised into performance bands (national where city not available). |
| Life Expectancy | Life Expectancy normalised into performance bands (national where city not available). |
| Waiting Lists | Availability of elective and emergency medical services to the community in the city. |
| Industry Clusters | Are there world leading clusters (e.g. Silicon Valley) in specific segments in the city? Clusters can balance industry diversity, and sometimes if integrated support development. |
| Manufacturing Breadth | Breadth of manufacturing activity by sectors of industrial manufacturing. |
| Manufacturing Quality | Quality of manufactured outputs and level of advanced manufactures. |
| Publishing Industry | Measuring publishing industry and publications distribution chain. |
| Resources | Measuring available resources at a national level with best available city allocations. |
| Textile Industry | Data points for textile supply chain through to finished production and sale. |
| Wine, Spirits & Brewing | Size and representation of alcohol industries covering wine, spirits and beer manufacturing. |
| Clerical Wages | Average wage affordability for a senior MS Office qualified clerical worker, and language fluency. |
| Labor Force | Labor force availability % applied to the population to show available workforce. |
| Working Visa | Time and cost of achieving working visa for qualified Western nationals. |
| Citizen Rights | Restrictions on citizen rights, such as freedom of speech, expression and potential non-structural separation of powers. |
| Policing | A community police force that is integrated and achieves lower crime and lower impact crime. |
| Separation of Powers | Structural separation and number of branches of government. |
| Container Freight | Container port efficiency in tonnage of port nearest to city, and relative ease of reaching port via road/rail. |
| Freight | Multi-modality of freight, and integration of freight modes. |
| Postal System | Postal services availability, and classifying reliability and frequency. |
| Railway Track | Measuring railway track available to a city using calculations. |
| Airport Transfers | Modes of airport transfer and direct integration and support on city transit networks. |
| Automobiles | Road quality and expansiveness, as well as car-sharing and environmental initiatives. |
| City Transport Infrastructure | Availability of protected and designated bicycle facilities, as well as bicycle support. |
| Inter-City Connections | Availability of super-fast/fast-rail (higher benchmarks), rail or alternately airports or buses (lower). |
| International Airport | Major modern airport with full facilities measured against best airports. |
| Service Delivery | Reliability of services, and amenity of services on an average day. |
| Service Frequency | Frequency of services to most suburban areas during the key peak and off-peak times. |
| Taxi Service | Availability, safety and reliability of taxi service and government policy towards taxis. |
| Transport Coverage | Distribution of multiple transport modes across the city in existing and new suburbs. |
| Crime | Measuring theft and predominately non-violent, non-lethal crime. |
| Violent Crime | Violent crime rates from murder, rape to assault and punishment effect localized at a city level. |
| Department Stores | Breadth and range of department stores of a general or specialist nature within city area. |
| Ecommerce Sales | The total volume and percentage of ecommerce shoppers within the city. |
| Local Markets | Local markets including delicatessens, fresh food and other small shop functions within city. |
| Local Shopping | Prevalence of ‘high street’ shops, and shopping ‘streets’ attractive to visitors, and/or ‘destination’ local malls with diverse (as well as global chain) wares. |
| Retail Establishment | The ease, predictability and facility of establishing a retail presence. |
| Small Retail Clusters | Retail cluster development in small and diverse mixed-use clusters. |
| Company Setup | How long does it take to set-up a private company? A more transparent, fast company process is part of entrepreneurial culture. |
| Growth Business Funding | Measuring the breadth and depth of venture capital availability options. |
| Start-Up Economy | Measuring the number of start-up enterprises, and relative strength of the 'start-up' economy at a city level. |
| Start-Up Office Spaces | Are the spaces for start-up or branch office companies to use for first offices? Do spaces allow collaboration? Are they affordable? |
| Broadband Internet | Measuring estimated broadband internet penetration the cities economy relative to competing cities. |
| Fixed Phone Network | Measuring the presence of a fixed phone network can be valuable in a crisis, and is still part of global business, even in a mobile world |
| Government IT Policy | Government should be a customer of local I.T. and promote trade and exports. Is government supporting I.T. development? |
| Internet Users | How many internet users are there in the city relative to competing cities? |
| Mobile Phone Network | Measuring how many mobile phone users there are relative to competing cities. |
| Wireless Internet | Wireless networks, and world class connectivity are a key part of business and service access in any global cities. Measuring business grade wireless. |
Networked Markets
| Indicator | Measuring |
| Multi-Lingual | Multi-lingual cities, speaking major global languages, are open to further trade diversity than more isolated single language (or dialect) cultures. |
| Social Media | Social media is a modern tool and platform for enabling innovation, and low cost global business message communication. |
| City Branding | Perception of city brand (commonly referred to as Placemaking or City branding) now drives the potential economic opportunities presented to a city. |
| Smart Devices | Smart devices provide the mobile infrastructure to create technology that delivers innovative services to each city through apps and mobile browsers. |
| Embassies & Trade Ambassadors | The presence of trade and diplomatic facilities globally. |
| Relationships with Neighbors | Neighbor relationships impact trade and long-run economic wealth. |
| Domestic Market Health | The health of the domestic market at a city-level not national based on key industries. Accessible domestic market size estimated for economic area (within own borders). |
| Domestic Market Size | Accessible domestic market size estimated for economic area (within own borders). |
| Exports | Exports national data points. Also attributed to city level through calculation. |
| Foreign Direct Investment | Foreign direct investment is a key metric. Attributed to city level through calculation. |
| Imports | Imports at a national level. Attributed to city level through calculation. |
| Neighbors Market Size | Measures market size of immediate bordering or closest trading entities (states or nations, as applicable). |
| Reserves | National. Foreign exchange and gold reserves normalized into tiers. Includes calculations of city shares of reserves |
| Trade Diversity | Measuring the cities diversity of trading partners. |
| Trading Partners Economies | Health of major trading partners or free trade bloc for the city. |
| Freight Dependencies | How dependent is the city on foreign freight and what is the potential for blockages, loss or slowing of the supply chain? |
| Physical location | How favourable is the geographic position of the city, and how favourable the traditional geographic features? |
| Trade Routes | Where is the city relative to global trade routes, and how does the city work as a current or future juncture in physical trade? |
| Relative Military | What is the relative military strength of the state, and to a lesser extent, city in real terms? |
| Strategic Power | How is the perceived power of the city and it’s host nation expressed as an ability to enforce favourable terms of trade? |