If Yorkshire were a country....
1. China: 31 Gold, 19 Silver, 14 Bronze = 64 medals
2. USA: 29 Gold, 15 Silver, 19 Bronze = 63 Medals
3. Great Britain (minus Yorkshire): 14 Gold, 10 Silver, 11 Bronze = 35 medals
4. South Korea: 11 Gold, 5 silver, 6 bronze = 22 medals
5. France: 8 Gold, 9 Silver, 9 Bronze = 26 medals
6. Russia: 7 Gold, 17 Silver, 18 Bronze = 42 medals
7. Italy: 7 Gold, 6 Silver, 4 Bronze = 17 medals
8. Kazakhstan: 6 Gold, 0 Silver, 1 Bronze = 7 medals
9. Germany: 5 Gold, 10 Silver, 7 Bronze = 22 medals
10. Yorkshire 5 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze = 8 medals
Meanwhile sporting powerhouses Australia, South Africa and Japan languish behind....
16. South Africa: 3 Gold, 1, Silver, 0 Bronze = 4 medals
18. Japan: 2 Gold, 12 Silver, 14 Bronze = 28 medals
19. Australia: 2 Gold, 12 Silver, 8 Bronze = 22 medals
Now that is all well and good but you can't eat gold medals. It is innovation that brings in the brass. So how do we do in that league? Not very well, I'm afraid.
According to the Intellectual Property Office's Facts and Figures: 2010 and 2011 Calendar Years Yorkshire lies fifth from bottom in the number of patents granted in 2011:
Region Number
South East England 591
East of England 409
London 401
South West England 363
North West England 246
West Midlands 216
Scotland 207
Yorkshire 175
East Midlands 155
Wales 82
North East England 70
Northern Ireland 16
(page 1).
We do even worse in trade mark registrations:
London 7,089
South East England 3,992
North West England 2,628
South West England 2,047
East of England 2,029
North East England 1,962
West Midlands 1,727
East Midlands 1,282
Scotland 1,237
Wales 621
Northern Ireland 201
Yorkshire 186
(page 16)
And we are bottom of the list in design registrations too:
London 649
South East England 563
West Midlands 416
North West England 399
South West England 346
North East England 330
Scotland 229
East of England 213
East Midlands 171
Wales 116
Northern Ireland 29
Yorkshire 25
(page 26).
Bearing in mind that we have great universities like Bradford - one of the first with a business school and arguably the first to offer a degree in computer science - the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Rotherham, Digital Region in Sheffield, the Northern Technology Institute in Leeds, the Leeds College of Art and PatLib libraries in Leeds and Sheffield we really ought to do better. We can't afford to be complacent.
