Growth in the US life sciences sector is spreading beyond those cities typically regarded as "flagship markets," according to a new report from CBRE.

Nashville is leading the US in terms of percentage growth of life sciences jobs while Houston offers a high percentage of PhDs and an affordable quality of life, the analysis notes. CBRE data shows that job growth in life sciences professions ticked up by 79% since 2001 to hit 500,000 nationally. By way of comparison, the overall US job growth rate was just 8% during that same timeframe.  

The top ten markets were Boston/Cambridge; Washington D.C./Baltimore; San Francisco Bay Area; New York/New Jersey; San Diego; Raleigh-Durham; Los Angeles/Orange County; Philadelphia; Seattle; and Chicago. But the data also tells a more nuanced story outside the confines of the usual life sciences suspects:  the markets with the greatest percentage gains in life sciences research jobs from 2015 to 2020 were emerging hubs like Nashville, Dallas-Fort Worth, Salt Lake City, Atlanta and Miami.