fDi has compiled its first investment map to identify the leading cities, sectors and companies within each German state based on data from 2013 to 2017. 

Once the poster child of the UK's industrial decline, Sheffield's recession-defying growth in recent years has been based around the city and surrounding region using its past as a steelmaking and mining centre to embrace more modern technology, all backed up by training programmes supplying a steady stream of engineering talent.

Derby has a history of innovation dating back to the industrial revolution, a mindset that continues to serve it well into the digital age. Local authorities – keen to make the city somewhere to live as well as work – have spent the past few years improving Derby's leisure offering, all of which is enabling the city to continue to punch above its weight.

The UK's manufacturing decline of recent years seems to have bypassed Derby, which has met the challenge of low-cost competitors in the developing world by focusing upon quality.

Derby was one of the key cities in the UK during the Industrial Revolution, and that spirit has remained as it has set itself as one of the country's hubs for high-tech industries such as automotives and gaming.