Last updated 4 months ago by Michael Darmanin
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Utrecht stands at the 12th spot taking into consideration all brain business sector jobs per 1,000 working age population.
In the Netherlands, the number of employees of the most knowledge-intensive firms has grown from 761,600 in 2012 to 891,200 in 2019. Out of the 129,700 new Brain Business Jobs, 40 percent have been created in ICT, 31 percent in advanced services, 18 percent in the tech sector and 11 percent in creative professions. The Netherlands has a higher concentration of Brain Business Jobs than all the major European economies, including the United Kingdom and Germany.
Compared to the rest of Europe, the Netherlands has a number of strengths. The main strengths lie in R&D as well as head offices & management. In these two areas, the concentration of Brain Business Jobs is two times the European average. No country has as high concentration of employment in research and development as the Netherlands. Closely following Belgium, the Netherlands has the second highest concentration of head office and management employment in Europe. On the other hand, the Netherlands lags behind the rest of Europe when it comes to areas such as pharmaceuticals, high-tech manufacturing, telecom and IT services.
Amsterdam has 211,000 individuals employed in Brain Business Jobs, corresponding to 12.4 percent of the working age population. The highest concentration is however found in Utrecht, where the 101 700 Brain Business Jobs amount to fully 13.3 percent of the workforce. Utrecht has a higher concentration of Brain Business Jobs than most European regions, including Oslo, Berlin, Helsinki, Brussels and Vienna.
The Noord-Brabant region, with 116,600 Brain Business Jobs (7.9 percent of the working age population) and Zuid-Holland with 167,000 Brain Business Jobs (7.7 percent) are other strong regions. The lowest share is found in Zeeland, with 7,500 Brain Business Jobs corresponding to 3.5 percent of the workforce. The challenge for the Netherlands is to expand knowledge-intensive occupation in regions that are currently under-performing. If Brain Business Jobs instead continue to concentrate, significant regional inequality might arise.
The table below presents a list of European cities which rank highest on the Brain Business index
| Rank | Region | All brain business sectors, jobs per 1,000 working age population |
| 1 | Bratislava | 189.6 |
| 2 | Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire | 178.6 |
| 3 | Stockholm | 178.0 |
| 4 | Prague | 177.7 |
| 5 | London | 173.1 |
| 6 | Paris | 166.6 |
| 7 | Budapest | 164.7 |
| 8 | Copenhagen | 149.4 |
| 9 | Hamburg | 146.8 |
| 10 | Oberbayern | 142.5 |
| 11 | Prov. Brabant Wallon | 136.0 |
| 12 | Utrecht | 132.8 |
| 13 | Oslo | 128.0 |
| 14 | Amsterdam | 124.2 |
| 15 | Bucharest | 122.9 |
| 16 | Darmstadt | 121.6 |
| 17 | Köln | 112.9 |
| 18 | North Eastern Scotland | 112.6 |
| 19 | Berlin | 111.6 |
| 20 | Helsinki | 107.6 |
| 21 | Brussels | 107.6 |
| 22 | Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire | 107.5 |
| 23 | Madrid | 107.0 |
| 24 | Surrey, East and West Sussex | 106.3 |
| 25 | Vienna | 105.4 |
| 26 | Stuttgart | 103.0 |
| 27 | Sofia | 101.4 |
| 28 | Cheshire | 101.3 |
| 29 | Hampshire and Isle of Wight | 99.0 |
| 30 | Mittelfranken | 92.3 |
| 31 | Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bristol/Bath area | 91.3 |
| 32 | Ljubljana | 91.2 |
| 33 | Karlsruhe | 91.1 |
| 34 | Prov. Vlaams-Brabant | 88.6 |
| 35 | Lisbon | 86.4 |
| 36 | Luxembourg | 85.2 |
| 37 | Västsverige | 84.2 |
| 38 | Iceland | 80.4 |
| 39 | Tübingen | 80.2 |
| 40 | Noord-Brabant | 78.9 |
| 41 | Warsaw | 78.9 |
| 42 | Prov. Antwerpen | 78.5 |
| 43 | Düsseldorf | 77.6 |
| 44 | Sydsverige | 77.6 |
| 45 | Greater Manchester | 77.2 |
| 46 | Zuid-Holland | 76.9 |
| 47 | Bremen | 75.7 |
| 48 | Comunidad Foral de Navarra | 73.5 |
| 49 | Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire | 72.8 |
| 50 | North Yorkshire | 70.5 |
