Chapter 8: State Indicators

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Chapter 8:


Overview

Secondary Education

Higher Education

Workforce

Financial Research and Development Inputs

R&D; Outputs

Science and Technology in the Economy



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State Indicators

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Research and Development Outputs

Select Indicator:

Quartiles | Findings | Description

Patents awarded per 1,000 individuals in S&E occupations: 1999

Quartiles

Quartile groups for patents awarded per 1,000 individuals in S&E occupations: 1999*

1st Quartile	2nd Quartile	3rd Quartile	4th Quartile
(81.5 - 30.5)	(30.1 - 20.9)	(20.5 - 14.0)	(13.4 - 1.2)

California	Arizona	Colorado	Alabama
Connecticut	Delaware	Georgia	Alaska
Idaho	Florida	Kansas	Arkansas
Indiana	Illinois	Kentucky	District of Columbia
Iowa	Massachusetts	Louisiana	Hawaii
Michigan	North Carolina	Maryland	Maine
Minnesota	Ohio	Mississippi	Nebraska
Nevada	Pennsylvania	Missouri	New Mexico
New Hampshire	Rhode Island	Montana	South Dakota
New Jersey	Tennessee	North Dakota	Virginia
New York	Texas	Oklahoma	West Virginia
Oregon	Utah	South Carolina	Wyoming
Wisconsin	Vermont	Washington

States in alphabetical order, not data order. SOURCES: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Information Products Division/Technology Assessment and Forecast Branch, Patent Counts by Country/State and Year, All Patents, All Types, January 1, 1977–December 31, 2001*; and National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT). See table 8-21.

Findings

The number of patents issued rose sharply between 1995 and 1999, from 64,500 to 94,000.
In 1999, the state average for this indicator was 26.7 patents per 1,000 individuals in an S&E occupation, compared with 20.3 in 1995.
The District of Columbia and Idaho were outliers, at 1.2 and 81.5, respectively, the latter reflecting the presence of a high-patenting Department of Energy National Laboratory in this sparsely populated state.
The remaining states' values ranged widely on this indicator, from 8.3 to 38.3 patents per 1,000 individuals.

Description

This indicator shows state patent activity normalized to the size of its science and engineering workforce, specifically employees in S&E occupations. People in S&E occupations include computer, mathematical, life, physical, and social scientists; engineers; and post-secondary teachers in any of these fields. Managers, elementary and secondary school teachers, and medical personnel are excluded.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office classifies patents based on the residence of the first-named inventor. Only U.S.-origin patents are included.

Because of the different methods of assigning geographic location to the two indicator measures, this indicator is of limited applicability for sparsely populated states or for locations where a large percentage of the population lives in one state or region and works in another.