Just twenty state or metro markets account for 62 percent of the world’s current hyperscale data center capacity, according to a report from Synergy Research Group.

At the top of the list, unsurprisingly, is Northern Virginia. In second place, is the Greater Beijing Area. The two make up 22 percent of global hyperscale capacity.

They are followed by Dublin in Ireland, Oregon, and Iowa in the US. In fifth place is Shanghai.

Of the top 20 markets, 13 are in the US, four in the APAC region, and three in Europe.

The report attributes the prevalence of US markets in the top twenty to two factors. The first being that almost 60 percent of the world’s hyperscale operators are headquartered in the US, including the four largest.

The second factor is that the US accounts for almost half of all cloud market revenues.

The report adds that the US and China will continue to dominate numbers in coming years, although markets in India, Malaysia, and Spain will begin to gain traction.

John Dinsdale, a chief analyst at Synergy, explained that a range of factors influence a hyperscaler’s choice of location.

These include: “proximity to customers, availability and cost of real estate, availability and cost of power, networking infrastructure, ease of doing business, local financial incentives, political stability, and minimizing the impact of natural hazards.”

He added: “When you weigh up those factors it tends to mitigate against some of the world’s biggest economic hubs, like London and New York, while favoring some sparsely populated US states like Oregon, Iowa, and Nebraska. While the general location decision criteria will remain the same over the coming years, the mix of top markets will change driven mainly by high growth in emerging markets such as parts of Southeast Asia and Latin America.”

Earlier this month, another Synergy study found that hyperscalers account for 41 percent of worldwide data center capacity.