Washington, D.C., ranks as the best city in the United States to work in tech, according to a new study by software developers marketplace Lemon.io.
The firm scored the 250 most populated U.S. cities on five measures: institutes offering computer programs, average graduation rates for tech courses, WiFi hotspots, tech jobs listed on Glassdoor, and the number of information technology companies rated three stars or higher on Glassdoor. Those factors were weighted into an index out of 100.
Washington finished first with a score of 80. It listed 17,350 tech jobs, the highest total in the study, along with 10 institutes offering computer programs, 1,237 WiFi hotspots and 2,924 highly rated tech companies. Its tech-course graduation rate was 65 percent.
St. Paul, Minnesota, placed second with a score of 78. Pittsburgh ranked third at 75.8, followed by Miami at 75.1 and Irvine, California, at 75. Irvine posted the highest graduation rate in the country at 67 percent.
Atlanta, Newark, Boston, Baltimore and Cincinnati completed the top 10. San Francisco ranked 15th with 5,890 tech job listings, while San Jose placed 27th despite 10,974 openings. Seattle ranked 16th and Austin 29th.
California had the most cities in the top 30, with seven: Irvine, Anaheim, San Francisco, Long Beach, Riverside, Oakland and San Jose. Florida placed three cities on the list: Miami, Orlando and Tampa.
Aleksandr Volodarsky, CEO of Lemon.io, said: “For many, a role in software development, programming, data engineering and more is becoming more and more valuable with the rapid advancements of AI. Having someone in your company or working with your company that can sense-check, build and understand AI and how to use it to better a company or product is more vital than ever.
“What stands out from the data is that Washington, DC, has nearly three times more tech job openings than San Francisco, a city most people would associate with the tech industry. The results suggest that the definition of a ‘tech hub’ is evolving beyond Silicon Valley.
“The cities in the ranking highlight where some of the best tech minds reside and where, if you’re curious about developing these skills then these are the places to do so. The opportunities in these cities are far more than in any other.”