Here’s a brief explanation about the data behind the figures for Tech City.

The starting figures for one year ago came from Digital Shoreditch’s door-to-door research conducted in summer 2010 which found 220 tech and digital businesses from a broader list of 300 companies. We cross-checked this with the McKinsey cluster report figures which reported approximately 170 tech and digital businesses and the Gateway to London figures who produced a similar database at the time of just over 200 businesses.

When looking for figures that reflect the current situation, we asked the community again: Digital Shoreditch kindly provided their most recent database of almost 1000 businesses. Once again we asked how many were tech and digital and they provided a figure of approximately 550 businesses that are involved in the tech, digital, and creative industries.

Because of the many incubators and the companies they foster, there are more than 50 additional businesses that can be added to this. This means that there are around 600 tech/digital businesses in the Tech City area.

We actually think this figure is higher, and are conducting additional research to find out.

This database is not the same as the database used for the Tech City Map, although it does include many of those companies. The Map shows the connections between all the businesses within the cluster – so you can have people chatting about everything from bars to the latest tech.

So while the Tech City Map may include bars and other businesses, our figures do not and are based on tech and digital businesses.

The list of companies is both organic and community-built, so we encourage any and all start-ups to let us know that they are there so we can continue to count and include them.