The 11 most high-tech cities in the US

Most high tech cities in america

Cities are the way of the future.

In less than 35 years, the World Health Organization estimates that two-thirds of the world population will be living in urban areas. That's an additional 2.5 billion people. The cities that will flourish rely on cutting-edge technologies and create opportunities for people to develop new innovations.

To get a sense of which cities do that the best, Business Insider consulted 2thinknow, a research firm that analyzes innovative cities, to rank the most high-tech cities in the US.

The firm chose 10 factors related to technological advancement — including the number of patents filed per capita, startups, tech venture capitalists, level of smartphone use, and ranking in other innovation datasets — weighted them, and ranked a list of 85 cities accordingly.

If you want to know what the future will look like, these are the cities to keep an eye on.

11. Miami, Florida

Known more for its beaches and party scene than its tech, Miami has a high level of tech sophistication baked into its urban landscape. In 2thinknow's analysis, Miami scored extremely high in measures of smartphone and city innovation.

There's also a nascent startup culture involving companies that focus on international ventures, given the city's proximity to South America. Larger companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook have set up shop in recent years.

10. Phoenix, Arizona

What used to be a city devoted to hardware manufacturing is moving on to software, particularly as a number of Silicon Valley startups have started relocating to the Southwest.

A report from 2015 found the city's software sector is expected to grow 14% by 2019, surpassing Denver and Austin in the total number of information and communication technology workers.

9. Houston, Texas

One of two Texas cities on 2thinknow's ranking, Houston is well-connected from a smartphone and smart cities perspective. City government makes use of big data to run more efficiently in both its internal operations as well as the housing sector.

Most recently, Mayor Sylvester Turner has announced he'll look to modernize Houston's healthcare sector and ramp up cybersecurity by partnering with leading Israeli companies.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider