Durham is named America's #1 Creative Class Metro

If you are a regular reader my blog (thank you!), you probably know that I am not a big fan of rankings of various sorts because so few of them use metrics that shed light on anything other than the publishers motivation to increase click-through rate on their websites. Every now and then, however, there is a ranking that is both methodologically  rigorous and eye-opening.

The latest ranking compiled by the Martin Prosperity Institute and featured on the Atlantic Cities Blog (required daily reading), is of this rarer variety, using the data from the Bureau of Labor Statics to take a look at metro areas with the largest concentrations of the "creative class," defined as professionals in the fields of science and technology, design and architecture, arts, entertainment and media, and healthcare, law, management and education.

 Durham came out on top with 48.4% of its workforce employed as the creative class. This bodes well for our future, as the creative class has been the only meaningful long-term driver of stable middle-class jobs in the U.S. economy in the past decade, and there is little evidence of this trend changing anytime soon. For a much more thorough and in-depth treatment of the creative class and what role it will play in our economic well being, I direct you to the excellent book by Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class.

The full article from the Atlantic is reprinted after the break.