Now in its tenth year, the Inner City 100 is a national competition to find and rank fast-growing companies in inner cities across America. The program represents a unique partnership between the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, a national non-profit focused on creating healthy urban economies, and Inc. magazine, the leading publication for growing companies and entrepreneurs with a circulation of over 1 million. The Inner City 100 celebrates and supports these growing companies and spotlights the importance of a robust business sector in creating healthy urban communities.

Thousands of Thriving Urban Businesses

In 1999, ICIC and Inc. magazine set out to create the Inner City 100, a ranking of fast-growing, competitive companies located in America’s inner cities. What we found was astonishing: thousands of thriving urban businesses serving regional, national, and international markets; generating valuable new jobs; and making an incalculable difference in their communities.

National Movement

Since the inaugural year, the Inner City 100 has become a national movement with the support of over 100 mayors, more than a thousand community, civic, and business leaders, and thousands of inner-city businesses and organizations. Every year, close to a thousand civic, community, business, and academic leaders from across the country gather at the Inner City 100 Awards Dinner to celebrate these companies.

Advantages of Inner Cities

Led by some of today’s most creative entrepreneurs, the Inner City 100 has shown the nation how the advantages of inner cities, such as diverse workforces and strategic locations, can combine to create explosive growth. Their success has led to innovative investment programs, they’ve helped blaze a path for others, and they’re providing enormous stimulus for change in their communities.

No small accomplishment, the 2007 Inner City 100 companies:

• Achieved an average growth rate of 535 percent
• Created 11,839 new jobs
• Employed more than 19,000 people, of which one-third reside in the inner city 
• Had average revenues of $39 million in 2005

With each year, the Inner City 100 has become stronger and more dynamic. In fact, the Inner City 100 is growing almost as fast as the companies represented; in the inaugural year the Inner City 100 received 219 nominations; in 2007, the pool of new nominations was estimated at 4,500.

For more information about the Inner City 100 Program, please contact innercity100@icic.org