WARRINGTON has been ranked as one of the top 30 towns and cities in the UK for innovation with entrepreneurial spirit also ranking high.
The town ranks 24th place on the index with an innovation score of 57.1 out of 100. The town scored well in the areas of innovation studied – ranking higher than cities such as Coventry, York and Cardiff.
There are over 56 new business start-ups per 10,000 people in Warrington.
The town also has a strong local economy and a diverse profile of industries helping build its business hub. It is also attractive to businesses due to its talented workforce. 41% of workers are qualified with an NVQ4 or above
and 21% of jobs are private knowledge intensive roles.
High-tech and innovative industries dominate the area and include fields such as nuclear, chemicals, manufacturing, automotive and aerospace.
Entrepreneurial spirit is also high in Warrington with over 880 monthly searches for ‘how to start a business’ by residents each month and £3,693 pledged on average per Kickstarter.
Not surprisingly London comes out top scoring 86.4 out of 100 on the Innovative index. With 107 startups registered per 10,000 people, compared to 89 business closures in the same year, the professional landscape of London is only growing.
London also has the highest number of kickstarter ideas out of the whole of the UK with 16,835. The average pledge currently invested in London-based Kickstarters is £9,127.90, showing the vast amount of new business growth across the capital.
For London, innovation isn’t a new trait, it lies deep in the city’s history too. London has been home to many inventions, from the world’s first underground railway to the humble vacuum cleaner. So it is no shock the UK capital is top of this list.
The brand new study was carried out by Uk card payments provider Paymentsense, creating a nationwide ‘innovation index’ analysing over 60 UK towns and cities.
The study scored each location on the following factors that influence innovation:
📈 Business startups – Number of patent applications and new business registrations
💼 Qualified workforce – Percentage of the working age population with NVQ4 and above education
🧠 Profession knowledge – Percentage of private knowledge intensive business services jobs
🖥 Entrepreneurialism – Google search volumes and trends for ‘how to start a business’
*Methodology
To discover which UK cities are the most innovative, Paymentsense looked at Google Search volumes for related searched terms over the past 12 months, the number of new kickstarter ideas, the average amounts pledged, education levels of
the working population, business startups per 10,000 people and the percentage of private knowledge intensive business services jobs.
These metrics were each scored, with higher scores indicating ‘good’ figures.
The scores were then added up and weighted to give a total ‘Innovative index score’ out of 100. All figures taken from the year 2019 to 2021.
