WalletHub: 2017’s Most & Least Innovative States
Friday, March 24th, 2017
With President Donald Trump proposing the deepest budget cuts to federal research and development in history for FY 2018, the personal-finance website WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2017’s Most & Least Innovative States.
In order to give credit to the states that have contributed the most to America’s innovative success, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 18 key metrics. The data set ranges from share of STEM professionals to R&D spending per capita to average Internet speed.
Most Innovative States Least Innovative States
1 District of Columbia 42 Maine
2 Maryland 43 South Dakota
3 Massachusetts 44 Iowa
4 California 45 Tennessee
5 Colorado 46 North Dakota
6 Washington 47 Oklahoma
7 Virginia 48 Kentucky
8 Utah 49 Louisiana
9 Connecticut 50 Mississippi
10 New Hampshire 51 West Virginia
Key Stats
The District of Columbia has the highest share of STEM professionals, 9.4 percent, 2.8 times higher than in Mississippi and Nevada, which have the lowest at 3.3 percent each.
Virginia has the highest share of technology companies, 7.52 percent, 3.9 times higher than in West Virginia, which has the lowest at 1.95 percent.
New Mexico has the highest research and development intensity, 6.31 percent, 19.7 times higher than in Wyoming, which has the lowest at 0.32 percent.
The District of Columbia has the fastest average Internet speed, 22.47 Mbps, 2.1 times faster than in Idaho, which has the slowest at 10.65 Mbps.
The District of Columbia has the highest share of public high-school students who completed advanced-placement exams, 60.2 percent, 4.4 times higher than in North Dakota, which has the lowest at 13.8 percent.
