Beijing, Shanghai top the world for attracting high-level scientists

Beijing and Shanghai rank as the top two with the most number of high-level scientists among 20 major cities known for their scientific and technological innovation worldwide, according to a report released at the ongoing 15th Pujiang Innovation Forum over the weekend.

The 2022 "Ideal City" Global High-level Scientist Analysis Report by the Shanghai Institute for Science of Science and Springer Nature shows that the top five cities in terms of attracting high-level scientists are Beijing, Shanghai, New York, London and Boston, in that order.

In the past decade, Beijing, Shanghai, London, New York and Shenzhen saw the highest increase in the number of high-level scientists.

The number of high-level scientists in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Shenzhen last year was nearly 3.5 times that of 2012. By 2021, Shanghai had 8,000 more high-level scientists than the figure in 2012.

Cities with the most achievements in science and research are Beijing, New York, Boston, San Francisco and Shanghai.

Among the top 10 cities with most achievements, four are in East Asia, four in the United States and two in Western Europe, indicating that global professionals in scientific and technological innovation tend to gather in these three regions.

Chinese cities have advantage in fields like chemistry, engineering technology, physics and interdisciplinary subjects, while European and American cities have advantages in bioscience and medicine, the report said.