researchers moving between locations, Paris, Shanghai, and Shenzhen have been attracting the most research expertise as demonstrated through the highest ‘‘inflow’’ of researchers. Of the 20 cities analyzed, all demonstrate increased international collaboration over the past five years, except for Moscow. Hong Kong, Stockholm, and Singapore have the highest share of internationally collaborative publications at 64%, 62.4%, and 61.1% respectively, well above the world average of 19.6%.All Chinese cities in the study were among the top 10 cities in terms of researcher population growth, likely reflecting China’s increasing efforts to cultivate, support and boost its pool of researchers. Shenzhen was found however to have the fastest growth rate in researcher population. Human capital, as measured by the researcher population, grew in 18 of the cities analyzed with the largest growth in Beijing, London, and Boston.Human capital, international collaboration and mobility *Exceptions to this are the periods for researcher mobility, which covers 1996–2020. The analysis of patenting activities, which was conducted by the Center, was not updated. To reflect the latest patterns and trends, Elsevier updated all the bibliometric analysis using data from 2016–2020* and used an updated methodology for the definition of cities.

This report is based on an earlier local report launched by the Center, which focused on the 2014–2018 period.

Global city rankings 2018