Everyday street scene (Manchester, UK). Image by Tim Sandle.
Are some locales more in tune with technology than others? Do some places have people who could be classed as better at being tech-savvy? Or does this come down to occupations or a greater concentration of technology retail outlets? Technology obsession can be defined in different ways and different surveys reveal different results according to the criteria applied.
A new survey of the UK, from CUK and sent to Digital Journal for analysis, finds that Newcastle takes the top spot as the most tech-obsessed city. Plymouth comes in a close second, with Bolton in third. This is based on Internet searches.
The research analysed the average monthly searches on Google in each UK city and town for various tech products, including smartphones, consoles, and other smart devices. The total search volume for each term in every city was tallied and then divided by the population to determine the search rate per 10,000 residents.
It through this that Newcastle came first with the most searches for tech-related products and gadgets, with 12,954 average monthly searches per 10,000 residents. The city is also a top tech hub in the UK, reflected in the overall interest in technology there.
Plymouth came out with 12,503 searches per 10,000 people. People there showed interest in laptops, smartphones and gaming consoles in particular. Bolton saw a total of 11,740 searches per 10,000 citizens. Like Plymouth, the city also showed interest in smart devices like smartwatches and smart TVs.
Fourth on the list came Wolverhampton, narrowly missing the podium with 11,470 searches per 10,000 residents. The city was one of many which saw a significant spike in interest in the newly released Apple Vision Pro headset.
Manchester came out in fifth place with a total of 11,184 searches per 10K people. People from the city showed interest in getting their hands on Apple products such as phones, tablets, and laptops.
Full list of cities and average monthly searches per 10,000 residents is:
| Rank | City | Average Monthly Searches per 10K |
| 1 | Newcastle upon Tyne | 12,954 |
| 2 | Plymouth | 12,503 |
| 3 | Bolton | 11,740 |
| 4 | Wolverhampton | 11,470 |
| 5 | Manchester | 11,184 |
| 6 | Bournemouth | 10,985 |
| 7 | Edinburgh | 10,876 |
| 8 | Leeds | 9,954 |
| 9 | Birmingham | 9,688 |
| 10 | Bristol | 9,548 |
| 11 | Liverpool | 9,183 |
| 12 | Coventry | 8,960 |
| 13 | Portsmouth | 8,740 |
| 14 | Luton | 7,913 |
| 15 | Aberdeen | 7,646 |
| 16 | Reading | 7,553 |
| 17 | Glasgow | 7,510 |
| 18 | Belfast | 7,321 |
| 19 | Brighton | 7,235 |
| 20 | Sheffield | 7,140 |
| 21 | Southampton | 7,092 |
| 22 | London | 7,070 |
| 23 | Leicester | 6,120 |
| 24 | Bradford | 6,048 |
| 25 | Northampton | 5,387 |
| 26 | Cardiff | 5,295 |
| 27 | Kingston upon Hull | 4,900 |
| 28 | Stoke-on-Trent | 4,589 |
| 29 | Nottingham | 4,481 |
| 30 | Derby | 3,479 |
To derive at the rankings, the top 30 most populated cities and towns in the UK were listed. The study looked at over six thousand keywords and phrases that were searched on Google each month related tech products, including smartphones, consoles, and other smart devices, such as “ps5”, “MacBook pro”, “iPad”, “Nintendo” and so on. The total number of searches for each city for 10,000 people were assessed and the cities were ranked from the highest to the lowest searches.
