The Startup Genome released the first half of its report on the world’s top startup ecosystems – the so-called Startup Ecosystem Index. Tel Aviv headed the list, second only to Silicon Valley, as reported in TechCrunch.

The comparative analysis, produced in collaboration with affiliates from UC Berkeley, Stanford and Telefónica Digital, covers a host of topics, including how the landscape of startup ecosystems has begun to extend beyond Silicon Valley to become somewhat of a global phenomenon. The report compiled a global ranking of startup ecosystems based on a 50-variable, 8-component index, which includes Startup Output, Funding, Company Performance, Talent, Support Infrastructure, Entrepreneurial Mindset, Trendsetting Tendencies and Ecosystem Differentiation.

Here’s some of what was said in the Report about the Tel Aviv startup ecosystem: As a country, Israel may be only 60 years old and have a population of around 7 million but it has the highest density of tech startups in the world. In 2009, 63 Israeli companies were listed on the tech-orientated NASDAQ – which is more than Europe, Japan, Korea, India, and China combined. Almost every major tech company today has some kind of subsidiary in Israel, including Intel, Microsoft, Google and Cisco to name just a few. Consequently, 39% of Israeli high-tech employees work in the R&D departments of multinational companies.

In the Startup Ecosystem Index, Tel Aviv ranks second globally, because it has the second highest output index of startups with a healthy funnel of startups across the developmental lifecycle, a highly developed funding ecosystem, a strong entrepreneurial culture, a vibrant support ecosystem and a plentiful supply of talent.

Some of the leading examples of Tel Aviv startups cited in the report included: Mirabilis, Babylon, SunDisk, Jajah, Fring, Waze

Here are the top 20, in order:

  1. Silicon Valley
  2. Tel Aviv
  3. Los Angeles
  4. Seattle
  5. New York City
  6. Boston
  7. London
  8. Toronto
  9. Vancouver
  10. Chicago
  11. Paris
  12. Sydney
  13. Sao Paulo
  14. Moscow
  15. Berlin
  16. Waterloo (Canada)
  17. Singapore
  18. Melbourne
  19. Bangalore
  20. Santiago

For the full TechCrunch article click here. To download the Startup Ecosystem Index report click here.