The Most Innovative States in America

Successful startups are often the result of a relationship with local governments. In California, government spending and a strong network of higher education institutions have contributed to the state’s booming technology economy. As a result, Silicon Valley has been the technology epicenter of the United States for many years.

New York has also experienced a surge in technology companies. The New York City government is wisely embracing the trend and has hired the city’s first chief digital officer, Rachel Haot.

Other states are benefiting from public–private partnerships. For example, Missouri and Kansas have created alliances with Google Fiber.

While a few states tend to hog the spotlight, there is innovation happening in every state. The team at Fast Company has attempted to rank states based on innovation. Here is a look at the approach they took and the data they used:

We crunched the numbers, beginning by assessing the Bureau of Labor Statistics' launch rate of all private-sector businesses, as well as the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity's percentage of people who are starting new businesses and how that percentage changed over time. Then, to see the health of young firms in particular, we tallied the percentage of jobs contributed by those less than three years old and how that percentage changed over the past five years. To analyze the self-described startup community, we incorporated the health and growth rate of Startup America members and a tally of AngelList and Fundable members.

Fast Company also used the data to rank entrepreneurial activity, startups per million residents and revenue per startup. See more of the data here, and check out the list of the most innovative states, below.