With nearly $886 billion spent on research and development in the U.S., the non-profit organization SmileHub has released new reports on the Best Charities for Research and the States That Care the Most About Research in 2024.
To highlight the states that care the most about research and those that, in contrast, do not prioritize it as much, SmileHub compared each of the 50 states based on 17 key metrics.
The data set ranged from researchers per capita to research and development spending per capita to the share of science and engineering graduates.
The most research focused states were found to be:
1. Massachusetts
2. California
3. Maryland
4. Washington
5. Colorado
6. Virginia
7. New York
8. New Jersey
9. Michigan
10. Delaware
In contrast, those states that ranked as ‘poor’ when it comes to investment in research were:
41. Maine
42. South Dakota
43. Oklahoma
44. Nebraska
45. North Dakota
46. West Virginia
47. Arkansas
48. Kentucky
49. Louisiana
50. Mississippi
Within the data set, there are some interesting variants. Massachusetts was found to possess the highest research and development spending per capita – 23.6 times higher than Louisiana, which has the lowest spending.
In terms of infrastructure, Colorado was found to have the most research facilities per capita – 25.3 times more than New Jersey, which has the fewest facilities.
Another measure is renumeration. Indiana has the highest average salary for researchers – 2.8 times higher than North Dakota, which has the lowest average salary.
Data used to create the rankings were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Zippia, Council for Community and Economic Research, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, National Science Foundation, Internal Revenue Service, National Institutes of Health, Milken Institute, U.S. News & World Report and National Center for Education Statistics.
