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. All these journals are in the English language. They were selected by a 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, Beijing was the city in the world with the largest scientific output, accounting for 2.8% of the world's total. New York City was second in the world, with about 2% of the world's total. Overall, China has the most cities in the top 100 list, followed by the United States.
List
Listed below are the top 100 cities and metropolitan areas with the highest share of articles published in scientific journals in 2024, according to the Nature Index 2025 Science Cities:| Rank | City/Metro area | Country/Region |
| 1 | Beijing | |
| 2 | Shanghai | |
| 3 | New York metropolitan area | |
| 4 | Boston metropolitan area | |
| 5 | Nanjing | |
| 6 | Guangzhou | |
| 7 | San Francisco Bay Area | |
| 8 | Wuhan | |
| 9 | Baltimore-Washington | |
| 10 | Hangzhou | |
| 11 | Tokyo | |
| 12 | Hefei | |
| 13 | Seoul | |
| 14 | Paris | |
| 15 | Tianjin | |
| 16 | Xi'an | |
| 17 | Los Angeles | |
| 18 | Shenzhen | |
| 19 | London | |
| 20 | Hong Kong | |
| 21 | Chengdu | |
| 22 | Chicago | |
| 23 | Changsha | |
| 24 | Changchun | |
| 25 | Singapore | |
| 26 | Philadelphia | |
| 27 | Jinan | |
| 28 | Zürich | |
| 29 | Cambridge | |
| 30 | Munich | |
| 31 | Qingdao | |
| 32 | Berlin | |
| 33 | Suzhou | |
| 34 | San Diego | |
| 35 | Chongqing | |
| 36 | Seattle | |
| 37 | Houston | |
| 38 | Oxford | |
| 39 | Melbourne | |
| 40 | Xiamen | |
| 41 | Fuzhou | |
| 42 | Dalian | |
| 43 | Harbin | |
| 44 | Toronto | |
| 45 | Atlanta | |
| 46 | Ann Arbor | |
| 47 | Copenhagen | |
| 48 | Lanzhou | |
| 49 | Sydney | |
| 50 | Barcelona | |
| 51 | Madrid | |
| 52 | Daejeon | |
| 53 | Stockholm | |
| 54 | Montreal | |
| 55 | Lausanne | |
| 56 | Vienna | |
| 57 | Kyoto | |
| 58 | Zhengzhou | |
| 59 | Pittsburgh | |
| 60 | St. Louis | |
| 61 | Amsterdam metropolitan area | |
| 62 | Taipei | |
| 63 | Heidelberg | |
| 64 | Boulder | |
| 65 | Osaka | |
| 66 | Tsukuba | |
| 67 | Dallas–Fort Worth | |
| 68 | Austin | |
| 69 | Ithaca | |
| 70 | Nanchang | |
| 71 | Brisbane | |
| 72 | Milan | |
| 73 | Madison | |
| 74 | Minneapolis–Saint Paul | |
| 75 | Durham | |
| 76 | Nagoya metropolitan area | |
| 77 | Vancouver | |
| 78 | Dresden | |
| 79 | Chapel Hill | |
| 80 | Urbana | |
| 81 | Rome | |
| 82 | Shenyang | |
| 83 | Kunming | |
| 84 | Moscow | |
| 85 | Ningbo | |
| 86 | State College | |
| 87 | Edinburgh | |
| 88 | Denver | |
| 89 | Hamburg | |
| 90 | Leuven | |
| 91 | Geneva | |
| 92 | Kolkata | |
| 93 | Columbus | |
| 94 | Bengaluru | |
| 95 | Manchester | |
| 96 | Central National Capital Region | |
| 97 | Mumbai | |
| 98 | Zhenjiang | |
| 99 | Helsinki | |
| 100 | Nashville |
Leading cities in different fields
The 10 cities and metropolitan areas with the highest share of articles published in the fields of biological sciences, Earth & environmental sciences, chemistry, health sciences, natural sciences and physical sciences:| Rank | Chemistry | Physical sciences | Earth & environmental sciences | Natural sciences | Biological sciences | Health sciences |
| 1 |  |