San Jose and the San Jose metro (the true definition of Silicon Valley) have become synonymous with innovation. One of the ways we can gauge this is by the number of patents filed in each region. In this metric, San Jose completely crushes any other metro in the US with 9,798 patents filed last year. NYC came in second with 6,275 patents and San Francisco got the bronze with 4,919 patents. That is already extremely impressive. But that's not the whole story...
The San Jose metro has a population of 2 million people. NYC, the runner up, has a population of almost 20 million people (!!!). So despite having 10% of the population, San Jose still filed more patents than an area more populous than most States. Even when you look at our neighbors up North, the SF Metro includes Oakland and Alameda County and has a total population of 4.6 million. So again, despite being less than half the size we filed double the patents as the SF metro. This is a key reason why the US Patent Office decided to open a satellite location in San Jose, not San Francisco.
Make no mistake, we are still the innovation capital of the world by far.
Top 25 Most Innovative US Metros (Patents Filed)
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA (9,798)New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA (6,275)San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA (4,919)Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA (3,773)Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA (2,091)Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH (1,798)Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, VA (1,489)San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA (1,190)Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI (896)Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA (812)Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI (770)Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL (761)Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX (626)Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE (532)Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX (499)Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX (453)Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC (404)Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN (321)Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY (315)Raleigh-Cary, NC (289)Bloomington, IL (282)Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO (265)Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA (238)Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT (235)Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ (185)Source:
Bay Area Inno
