America’s Tech Scene Is Expanding Beyond Silicon Valley

Washington, DC, the best large city for technology

America’s Tech Scene Is Expanding Beyond Silicon Valley

The stakes in the tech industry are rising fast with AI reforming everything in sight. What if you were to learn that America’s next tech capital isn’t California, or even on the West Coast?

A new study from Lemon.io shows that America’s next emerging tech hubs aren’t necessarily where the majority of people would expect. The demand for people who can sense-check, build and understand AI, says Lemon.io CEO Aleksandr Volodarsky, is skyrocketing.

“The cities in the ranking highlight where some of the best tech minds reside,” he explains.

Looking into the details, Lemon.io’s study considered 250 of the country’s most populated cities to determine where tech talent is thriving right now. To keep the comparison fair, researchers standardized data on a 0–10 scale and weighted factors like WiFi hotspots, graduation rates, tech programs, job openings, and Glassdoor-rated companies to create a final score out of 100.

THE TOP 30 CITIES FOR TECH IN THE U.S.

	City Name	State	Number of Institutes Offering Computer Programs	Average Graduation Rate at Computer Institutes	Number of WiFi Hotspots	Total Number of Tech Jobs (Glassdoor)	Number of Information Tech Companies Above 3 Stars (Glassdoor)	Overall Index Score (/100)
1	Washington	District of Columbia	10	65%	1,237	17,350	2,924	80
2	St. Paul	Minnesota	7	62%	395	2,159	998	78
3	Pittsburgh	Pennsylvania	7	64%	405	1,565	665	75.8
4	Miami	Florida	6	61%	3,895	2,108	1,167	75.1
5	Irvine	California	5	67%	300	2,369	2,211	75
6	Atlanta	Georgia	9	56%	1,020	5,646	1,853	74.8
7	Newark	New Jersey	3	54%	614	4,466	4,278	73.6
8	Boston	Massachusetts	12	56%	1,035	4,846	1,518	70.5
9	Baltimore	Maryland	11	55%	468	6,455	1,118	69.1
10	Cincinnati	Ohio	4	55%	909	1,450	548	64.7
11	Minneapolis	Minnesota	7	52%	544	2,160	998	64.6
12	Arlington	Texas	1	57%	859	6,001	2,285	64.6
13	Orlando	Florida	5	42%	1,209	1,213	578	62.6
14	Anaheim	California	3	53%	207	2,723	2,211	60.4
15	San Francisco	California	6	52%	1,661	5,890	1,906	59.9
16	Seattle	Washington	7	46%	1,345	8,937	1,271	59.3
17	Long Beach	California	2	49%	4,900	2,211	567	59.1
18	Dallas	Texas	8	61%	1,920	7,142	2,285	58.3
19	Portland	Oregon	6	63%	1,618	1,137	618	58.3
20	Tampa	Florida	4	44%	913	2,191	900	57.8
21	Riverside	California	5	59%	450	436	265	57.4
22	Raleigh	North Carolina	6	51%	340	2,214	906	55.9
23	Oakland	California	3	29%	743	6,975	1,906	54.7
24	Cleveland	Ohio	3	55%	591	981	466	54
25	Kansas City	Missouri	5	51%	959	1,352	562	53.9
26	Denver	Colorado	5	46%	1,185	3,658	1,062	52.5
27	San Jose	California	4	44%	1,278	10,974	1,441	51.1
28	New Orleans	Louisiana	7	48%	337	349	188	50.8
29	Austin	Texas	5	49%	1,664	4,319	1,181	50.6
30	Milwaukee	Wisconsin	5	58%	675	874	478	50.6

At the top of the list sits Washington, DC. This city, surprisingly to some, is outperforming many of the usual suspects. DC has a collection of 17,350 tech jobs, 10 institutions offering computer programs, and nearly 3,000 tech companies rated three stars or higher on Glassdoor.

St. Paul, Minnesota, follows closely in second place. This city scored high due to its impressive 62% graduation rate among its students pursuing tech-related programs.

Third place goes to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Like St. Paul, students here also had impressive graduate rates at 64%. What kept Pittsburgh from climbing higher was likely its relatively modest 1,565 tech job openings.

These three cities show that tech opportunities are expanding outside of historical hubs like Silicon Valley.

THE EXTRA DETAILS

Looking at the rest of the results, Miami landed in fourth overall, despite having just six institutes offering tech programs. This city’s massive 3,895 WiFi hotspots helped compensate.

Irvine posts one of the highest graduation rates at 67%, yet has fewer institutes than most top-10 cities.

Newark lands seventh with just three institutes, but an eye-popping 4,278 highly-rated tech companies. Then there’s Oakland, which has a surprisingly low 29% tech graduation rate, but still cracks the top 25 thanks to nearly 7,000 tech jobs and strong company ratings.

Next Page: Indiana’s Biggest Universities Are All About AI

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