forward thinking
Texas lands inside top 15 in new ranking of most innovative states
It's another year of slow but steady progress for the Lone Star State on an annual report on the top states for innovation.
Texas ranked No. 14 with a score of 48.43 points on personal finance site WalletHub's Most and Least Innovative States in 2024 ranking. Last year, Texas ranked No. 15. The state has steadily inched up the list — Texas was No.16 on the list in 2022 and No. 17 in 2021.
According to the report, Texas had the following ranking across the following categories:
- No. 19 – Share of STEM Professionals
- No. 16 – Projected STEM-Job Demand by 2030
- No. 25 – Eighth-Grade Math & Science Performance
- No. 19 – Share of Science & Engineering Graduates Aged 25+
- No. 13 – Share of Technology Companies
- No. 31 – R&D Spending per Capita
- No. 15 – Venture-Capital Funding per Capita
The report analyzed the 50 states and the District of Columbia and how each performed across 25 key metrics and across two key dimensions, “Human Capital” and “Innovation Environment," per the report. The data was pulled from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Science Foundation, National Center for Education Statistics, United States Patent and Trademark Office, and other records.
“The most innovative states are especially attractive to people who have majored in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, as they offer abundant career opportunities and investment dollars, both for jobs at existing companies and for startups," says Cassandra Happe, a WalletHub analyst in the report. "These states also instill young students with the skills they need to succeed in the current workforce, skills which are useful whether or not they pursue a STEM career.”
The report's top 10 included:
- No. 1 – District of Columbia with a score of 71.65
- No. 2 – Massachusetts with a score of 69.93
- No. 3 – Washington with a score of 66.36
- No. 4 – California with a score of 65.63
- No. 5 – Colorado with a score of 63.93
- No. 6 – Maryland with a score of 62.41
- No. 7 – Virginia with a score of 59.86
- No. 8 – Delaware with a score of 54.58
- No. 9 – Utah with a score of 53.66
- No. 10 – New Jersey with a score of 53.2
This report originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.
