Chinese cities account for greater than half of the world’s high 10 scientific analysis hubs, in line with the most recent Nature Index complement, with Beijing retaining its place because the main global science metropolis — a title it has held since 2016.
According to the “Nature Index 2025 Science Cities” complement, the variety of Chinese cities among the many global high 10 rose from 5 in 2023 to 6 in 2024.
While Beijing tops the chart, Shanghai holds second place. The different Chinese cities on the record are Nanjing (fifth) in Jiangsu province, Guangzhou (sixth) in Guangdong province, Wuhan (eighth) in Hubei province and Hangzhou (tenth) in Zhejiang province.
The New York metropolitan space, the Boston metropolitan space, the San Francisco Bay Area and the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan space, that are all within the United States, are additionally among the many global high 10 scientific analysis hubs.
The complement, compiled by a company related to worldwide writer Springer Nature, attracts on the Nature Index open database, which tracks all contributions made by global analysis establishments to 145 high-quality natural-science and health-science journals.
Shang Yanran, deputy chief planner on the Tsinghua Tongheng Planning and Design Institute in Beijing, mentioned the newly launched complement reveals that China performs an necessary function in driving global scientific and technological innovation.
“Innovation is highly concentrated geographically, with North America represented by Silicon Valley, Europe by London, East Asia by Tokyo and Southeast Asia by Singapore. China has diversified the global innovation landscape, forming a structure centered on Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, with other key cities collaborating in innovation,” she mentioned.
Chinese cities lead in three of the 5 main topics evaluated by the index, particularly chemistry, bodily sciences, and Earth and environmental sciences. Among these, Chinese cities have, for the primary time, swept the highest 10 ranks in chemistry, and claimed six spots in every of the opposite two fields. Beijing ranks first in all three fields.
In organic sciences, Western cities proceed to steer, with New York and Boston holding the highest two spots, and Beijing making it to 3rd place. In well being sciences, US cities account for half of the highest 10 positions, whereas Beijing ranks sixth.
In the general rankings, Hangzhou, dwelling to tech giants corresponding to Alibaba and DeepSeek, superior three spots for the reason that 2023 Nature Index complement was launched to make it to the world’s high 10 scientific analysis hubs in 2024.
It has established a long-term sup-port mechanism for primary analysis, turning into one of many first provincial capitals to arrange a regional innovation and improvement joint fund with the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Last 12 months, Hangzhou’s analysis and improvement expenditure surpassed 85 billion yuan ($12 billion), a rise of 8.3 p.c from the earlier 12 months, in line with native authorities.
Wuhan, which ranked ninth in 2023, climbed a spot to eighth place in 2024. The metropolis is now dwelling to greater than 16,600 high-tech enterprises, with the transaction worth of expertise contracts exceeding 260 billion yuan final 12 months. The common annual development price of mortgage balances for sci-tech enterprises within the metropolis has reached 20 p.c, in line with the Wuhan bureau of science and expertise innovation.
Yin Hejun, minister of science and expertise, mentioned final month that sci-tech innovation can catalyze new industries, development fashions and development drivers, serving because the core aspect in creating new high quality productive forces.
Shang, from the Tsinghua Tongheng Planning and Design Institute, mentioned: “As the competitiveness and influence of these cities grow, they are better positioned to attract top talent and resources, becoming critical nodes in the global innovation network and contributing Chinese solutions to worldwide sci-tech advancement.”
Wei Wangyu, Yang Cheng and Xinhua contributed to this story.