Austin is No. 5 on a list of “America’s most future-ready cities” and is is well-known for music and high tech but its ranking was driven by forecasts for its continued economic growth. In fact its gross metro product outranked San Jose Washington and San Francisco.

Those were the findings from the Dell Future Ready Economies Model based on insights and criteria developed at the 2015 Strategic Innovation Summit: Enabling Economies for the Future hosted by Harvard University and sponsored by Dell.

The summit identified three primary characteristics of Future Ready Economies: the ability to attract people who are engaged in and open to lifelong learning that drives innovation; businesses that thrive in collaborative environments; and infrastructure that provides platforms for people to engage collaborate learn and innovate

Top 25 Future Ready Economies:

  1. San Jose CA
  2. San Francisco CA
  3. Washington DC
  4. Boston MA
  5. Austin TX
  6. Raleigh NC
  7. Seattle WA
  8. Denver CO
  9. Portland OR
  10. Dallas-Fort Worth TX
  11. New York NY
  12. Minneapolis-St. Paul MN
  13. Houston TX
  14. Atlanta GA
  15. Charlotte NC
  16. San Diego CA
  17. Chicago IL
  18. Louisville KY
  19. Salt Lake City UT
  20. Des Moines IA
  21. Los Angeles CA
  22. Pittsburgh PA
  23. Kansas City MO
  24. Columbus OH
  25. Philadelphia PA

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