Utah ranks fifth in Milken’s State Technology and Science Index
Santa Monica, California-based thinktank Milken Institute has released its 10th State Technology and Science Index (STSI) and Utah has risen to fifth place in the ranking. The ranking is a slight improvement over the previous every-other-year index when Utah finished sixth.
The top four states in this year’s index, just above Utah, are 1. Massachusetts, 2. California, 3. Colorado and 4. Maryland.
Milken Institute’s State Technology and Science Index is a benchmark for evaluating the knowledge economies of all 50 U.S. states. According to the Milken website, the index compares each state’s capacity for achieving prosperity through scientific discovery and technological innovation, using the latest available data from U.S. government and private-sector sources to perform a cross-sectional analysis of their rankings on key indicators.
The index is a composite of five sub-indexes, which rank states on a set of indicators. The five sub-indexes cover a diverse range of topics, including research and development inputs, risk capital and entrepreneurial infrastructure, human capital investment, technology and science workforce and technology concentration and dynamism. By comparing how states rank in these areas, the index assesses their capacities for generating new scientific ideas, as well as for commercializing technologies that contribute to firm expansion, high-skill job creation, and broad-based economic growth.
Milken said its report is done with non-sponsored research, i.e. not sponsored or paid for by any third parties or state agencies, compiled from federal and private databases and sources by the staff of the Milken Institute Center for Regional Economics (CRE). Data sources include National Science Foundation, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Center for Education Statistics and several private-sector databases, such as Pitchbook.
The full report is available at https://milkeninstitute.org/report/state-technology-and-science-index-2022.