This year, the Northeast continued to cement its reputation as a tech and innovation powerhouse. Home to an impressive concentration of leading universities, research centers and up-and-coming startups, the region also enjoys the unparalleled benefits of decentralization, with metros of all sizes pulling their weight when it comes to tech.
So, from the largest metros along the seaboard to smaller academic hubs punching well above their weight, we set out to rank the Northeastern U.S.’ best cities for the technology industry. We ranked the region’s metro areas with more than 200,000 residents based on their tech establishment density, tech job prevalence and growth, median earnings for tech workers and tech patents, among others.
Trenton Climbs to #1 Best Tech Metro in the Northeast With Rising Tech Employment & Patents
Trenton, N.J. stole the show in our 2024 ranking of the best tech cities in the U.S Northeast, reaching #1 with 68.6 points after a runner-up finish in 2023. Just like last year, the metro area scored maximum points for its number of tech establishments per capita. What gave it the final push it needed to claim the first spot in the ranking was its better showing in tech employment, as 62.9 out of 1,000 jobs in the metro are in the tech sector, up from 51.1 out of 1,000 last year.
Central New Jersey — with Mercer County as a focal point — has experienced considerable tech growth in recent years. Consequently, the sector has been providing durable employment even as unemployment ticked up from 3.3% to 4.9% year-over-year here. Hosting operations from multi-billion-dollar tech companies like Cognizant and Unisys, Trenton’s innovation ecosystem is also augmented by startup accelerators like Trenton Makes StartUp, in addition to government platforms like the NJ Accelerate Program.
At #2 with 65.9 points, the Boston metro area remains one of the region’s most productive in terms of innovative output and tech employment. The metro boasts great performances in several indicators, including the best median earnings in the tech sector in the Northeast ($120,800 per year), the largest share of residents with higher education (52.2%) and the second-highest number of patent grants (16,170 from 1,673 organizations and companies). From robotics to fintech and from big data to gene editing, the tech scene in Boston is also remarkably diverse, making it a strong contender for tech employment as well as companies looking for a talent-rich area to set up shop in.
Meanwhile, the Manchester-Nashua, N.H. metro area completed the podium, offering a combination of excellent tech employment density, tech employment growth and median tech earnings. In fact, the New Hampshire metro surpassed its tech employment showing from last year, becoming the best-scoring city in that metric in the process. Moreover, while unemployment climbed from 1.4% last year to 2.9% now, it’s still the third-lowest rate in the region. With an output of talent from local research institutions like the University of New Hampshire and lower costs compared to other areas in New England, the metro’s advantages are plain to see for tech workers and entrepreneurs alike.
At #4, the New York metro area retained its spot from last year’s ranking along with the same advantages and challenges for the tech industry. NYC is — predictably — still top dog when it comes to tech patent output, as well as the number of companies and organizations that have been awarded such patents. Excellent tech earnings also contribute to the metro’s attractiveness for top talent, as tech workers here earn the third-highest median salary among Northeastern metros with more than 200,000 residents. Still, New York couldn’t crack the podium despite these great showings due to its comparatively high unemployment and low regional price parity, resulting in the lowest life quality index score in the top 20.
Overall, New York State stood out by recording the highest number of entries in the top 20. Besides New York City, five additional metros cracked the list, all from Upstate New York. The best-ranking of these was the Albany-Schenectady-Troy metro area, which landed at #9 in our ranking with great tech company density and a high quality of life index. Up next, Utica-Rome became the second-smallest metro by population on the list at 287,000 residents after climbing from 27th to 14th over the span of a year. Finally, the Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo metros made 17th, 18th and 19th on our list, respectively, cementing Upstate New York as a tech-friendly, talent-rich region.
To the southwest, metro Philadelphia cracked the top 5, scoring just over 50 points. Philly earned its highest score through its excellent tech establishment growth, scoring third out of 20 in that metric. Additionally, the metro’s patent output over the last 5 years was the third-highest in the region, as was its number of establishments receiving patent grants. The local tech scene is vibrant, with local names like knowledge management platform Guru and 3D bioprinting company BioBots being just two of many Philly tech success stories. With a tradition in education, rich talent pipeline and great access to venture capital, Philly encapsulates what makes the Northeast tech scene successful.
Notably, four other Pennsylvania metro areas are among the Northeast’s 20 best tech locations: Harrisburg-Carlisle made #8, up from #11 last year, with the highest growth of tech startups in the entire top 20 and great tech employment density. Pittsburgh reached the 12th spot with good tech earnings growth, quality of life and companies receiving patent grants, while Lancaster (#15) and Allentown (#20) completed the picture of Keystone State tech clusters.
Besides New York and Pennsylvania, two more states recorded more than one entry in the top 20. Specifically, Connecticut was represented on the list by Hartford (#11) and Bridgeport (#13), both of which scored well across the board, with stand-out performances in quality of life and tech earnings. Additionally, Massachusetts provided the list’s runner-up in Boston, but also 10th-place Worcester, which climbed two spots from last year’s ranking.
New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Rhode Island all recorded one entry each in the top 20, highlighting the geographic spread of innovation centers in the Northeast compared to other more centralized regions in the U.S.
The fact that no specific area or metro in the Northeast has a monopoly on innovation is even more evident when looking at the population counts within the ranking. A majority of metros on the list — 12 out of 20 — have fewer than 1 million residents, while four of them have fewer than 500,000.
Moreover, three of the eight metros with more than one million residents have between 1 and 1.5 million residents, setting them apart from the multi-million-resident urban centers such as New York, Boston and Philadelphia. As such, the picture is clear: the innovative contribution and tech scenes of the region’s historic college towns cannot be understated, complementing the high-stakes startup ecosystems of the regions high-density locations.
Click the following tabs to see the best-performing Northeastern metros in each of the ranking’s key indicators.
Best Northeastern Metros in Each Metric - Click to Expand
Based on the latest available U.S. Census data, 58.5 out of every 1,000 companies in metro Trenton operate in the tech industry, meaning that New Jersey’s state capital still boasts the highest concentration of tech companies in the Northeast.
Up next, Boston had 37.1 out of 1,000 companies in tech, followed by Albany, N.Y.; Philadelphia; and Manchester, N.H., almost tied with just over 30 tech companies out of every 1,000. All of these entries have something in common: A large pool of local talent for startups to tap into provided by quality educational institutions, in conjunction with the agility of up-and-coming tech corridors.
It’s worth noting that over the last five years with available data, the share held by tech companies in metro Trenton slightly declined, those in Boston and Albany grew by over 4% each. However, due to the large advantage in tech establishment density that Trenton holds, it still has a considerable lead ahead of the competition.
Other metro areas with high densities of tech companies included Burlington, Vt. (25.2 per 1,000), New York (23.8 per 1,000), Worcester, Mass. (22.4 per 1,000), Bridgeport, Conn. (22.2 per 1,000) and Harrisburg, Pa. (22 per 1,000).
The Harrisburg-Carlisle, Pa., metro area has the highest increase in number of tech companies in the last five years at 16.6%. That represents an increase of over 10 percentage points from last year’s showing of 6%, meaning that the last few years brought a considerable influx of tech startups to the Susquehanna Valley metro. Admittedly, the increase in the actual number of tech firms — from 271 to 316 — is small in comparison to the three-figure increases in larger metro areas, but it still constitutes a considerable expansion of the Harrisburg innovation ecosystem.
In second place, the Providence-Warwick metro tech scene grew by 8.76%, expanding from 582 companies to 633. One of the fastest-growing tech clusters in New England, Providence enjoys proximity to Brown University as well as the infrastructure and investment opportunities of Massachusetts. In fact, the local government has designated the Providence-Warwick metro as a regional tech hub, with core research areas in ocean robotics, sensors and materials.
Not to be outdone, Philadelphia recorded the third-highest tech startup growth at 8.15% over the last five years. Notably, metro Philly had the largest increase in number of tech companies in the last five years, increasing by 351 to reach 4,659. The only comparable growth figure was in Boston, which added 220 tech establishments, which translated into the fifth-highest percentage increase on the list at 4.66%.
Pittsburgh scored between Philly and Boston in tech company growth, as their numbers were boosted by 5%, according to U.S. census data. This figure draws attention to the success of the metro’s ongoing switch from a production-based economy to modern industries, leading it to be dubbed “the Robotics Capital of the World.”
Another former Rust Belt town benefiting from urban renewal, Buffalo also recorded recent tech establishment growth, though at a more subdued level of 1.27%.
Overall, eight of the 20 best Northeastern metros for the tech industry saw their respective number of tech establishments increase over the last 5 years, while the remaining 12 saw contractions.
The three entries scoring the best in the overall ranking also enjoyed the highest density of tech workers out of their total workforces, signaling the importance of the tech industry in their respective economies.
Last year, the Manchester, N.H. metro area reported 54.9 tech jobs out of every 1,000, representing the second-highest density on that respective list. According to 2023 U.S. Census data, however, that figure has since ballooned to 67.6 out of 1,000, making it the most tech employment-dense metro among all Northeastern metros with more than 200,000 residents. Biotech is an especially strong suit for the Manchester metro, with one of its tech clusters — the ReGen Valley Tech Hub — being among the 31 rising tech hubs designated by the U.S. Economic Development Administration.
Up next, Trenton’s tech employment density also saw considerable growth year-over-year, rising from 51.1 per 1,000 employees in last year’s ranking to 62.9 this year. Admittedly, every increase in tech job concentration may be driven by the loss of non-tech jobs as well as by actual employment in the tech sector, and unemployment in Trenton did rise from 3.3% to 4.9% since our last ranking. Still, an increase in the share held by tech jobs still indicates sector resilience, especially as layoffs continue to pummel the sector at large.
Boston also predictably concentrates a large number of tech jobs, with 55.4 out of 1,000 employees in the metro working in the tech sector. From restaurant management software startup Toast Inc. to 3D printing provider Formlabs and cybersecurity company Cybereason, Boston’s innovative spirit is best illustrated by its rich startup scene that’s always on the lookout for fresh talent. At the same time, industry giants like Google, Microsoft, Amazon and IBM all operate in the city, offering forward-looking tech jobs in fields like robotics, AI research and quantum computing.
Several other high-ranking metro areas also recorded large shares of tech workers. Harrisburg, Pa. has 46.4 tech workers out of every 1,000 employees in the metro, boosted by organizations like Startup Harrisburg and makerspaces such as The Foundry. And, Staying in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia had the fifth-highest tech job density on the list, at 45.8 per 1,000.
When looking at the percentage growth of the number of tech workers in each metro between 2019 and 2023, several entries stand out with increases in the high double-digits. Foremost of these is the Utica-Rome, N.Y. metro area which saw its tech employment rise by almost 70% over the span of the last five years, benefiting from the development of the domestic chip industry along the I-90 corridor.
But, while Utica-Rome recorded the largest percentage growth, in terms of sheer employee gain, metro Manchester, N.H. once again reigned supreme. The local tech scene grew from just over 10,000 workers in 2019 to 16,650 by last year, even as the tech sector slashes positions in many areas of the country. That growth also translates into the second-fastest percentage growth at 65%.
Other metros with high percentage growth for tech employment included Portland, Maine (59%), Syracuse, N.Y. (48%) and Trenton, N.J. (43%), all of them university centers with growing research and innovation ecosystems.
Besides these entries, nine other metros in the top 20 witnessed double-digit tech employment growth since 2019.
High salary prospects are, of course, one of the foremost incentives in building a tech scene and drawing professionals.
In that regard, Boston features the best salary prospects for tech workers with a median salary of just over $120,000 per year, ahead of Trenton’s $119,200 and New York’s $116,000. Manchester landed fourth for tech earnings with a median industry salary of $110,000. However, it’s worth noting that Trenton’s and Manchester’s regional price parity is considerably below that of Boston and New York, meaning that tech workers could get more mileage out of their salaries in the smaller metro areas.
Two more metro areas had six-figure tech worker salaries over the last 12 months: Bridgeport, Conn. ($107,600) and Worcester, Mass. ($105,400). The figure in Bridgeport represents a 6% yearly salary increase, while the growth in Worcester stood at 9.6%.
Philadelphia ($97,400), Hartford, Conn. ($96,500), Providence, R.I. ($90,000) and Pittsburgh, Pa. ($89,300) recorded the next-highest median tech earnings in the Northeast, showing that professionals in innovative occupations can equally rely on large cities and smaller college towns for well-paid jobs.
Looking at the growth of tech salaries over the last five years, a surprising entry stole the show: Lancaster, Pa. saw tech earnings increase by more than 34% between 2019 and 2023, ahead of high-profile entries like Boston and New York. Of course, the lower baseline for salaries here made it easier for this impressive growth to be recorded, but the metro’s regional price parity that’s 96.6% of the national average compensates for that. Given the area’s history of agriculture, agritech and organic fertilizers are among Lancaster’s top high-performance industries, alongside other areas like telemedicine and e-commerce.
Up next, Boston and New York recorded the fastest five-year tech earnings growth at 26% and 25.5%, respectively. Quality specialists are always in high demand in the East Coast’s largest metro areas, and pay increases naturally follow suit.
Pittsburgh also saw considerable salary growth at 22.1% between 2019 and 2023, followed by Portland, Maine (19.3%), Manchester, N.H. (19%), Hartford, Conn (18.4%) and Utica, N.Y. (17.8%).
The largest metro in the country, New York is also the Northeast’s most productive in terms of tech patent output, with no fewer than 36,460 patent grants in the last five years. Still, while 2024 patent numbers are likely an underestimation as more awards are yet to be processed, 2022 and 2023 show a downward trend for New York patents.
Boston’s patent output is also impressive, crossing over 16,000 patents between 2020 and 2024, without the significant slowdown witnessed in New York. Boston saw 3,610 patents granted in 2020 and 3,720 in 2021, followed by an all-time high of 3,830 in 2022 and a slight drop the following year.
At the same time, it’s worth noting that New York’s tech patents were awarded to 2,021 different companies and organizations for an average of 22.9 patents per entity. Meanwhile, 1,673 companies were behind Boston’s patent total, translating into a ratio of 11.8 patents per organization.
The next metros receiving high scores for their patent output and organizations receiving patent awards included Philadelphia (4,090 patents, 777 companies), Albany, N.Y. (1,700 patents, 66 companies) and Bridgeport (1,460 patents, 186 companies).
For the second year running, the suburban metro of Burlington, Vt. won out in the composite quality of life metric which took into account the percentage of a metro’s adults with higher education, the metro-wide unemployment rate and the regional price parity.
In particular, Burlington — the smallest metro area in the top 20 at just 227,700 residents — stood above the competition with an educational attainment rate of 48.6% (fourth-best on the list) and the lowest unemployment rate on the list at 1.9%.
And, to the southeast, another quiet New England metro in Portland, Maine received the second-highest quality of life score, with unemployment and educational attainment performances close to that of Burlington but more affordable prices.
Save for the 1.1-million-resident Hartford, Conn., all of the six next-highest quality of life scores were earned by metro areas in New England with fewer than 1 million residents. So, for young professionals looking for peace and quiet in conjunction with high-demand tech jobs, the region may provide the perfect balance.
