For the third straight year, Praxis Strategy Group and Joel Kotkin have partnered with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to produce a data-rich report on the top-performing states for job growth, innovation and entrepreneurship, taxes and regulation, infrastructure, and a host of other metrics. The report, “Enterprising State: Policies that Produce,” and accompanying interactive graphic summarize the strengths and weaknesses of every state, blending quantitative and qualitative information to give a good picture of what’s happening at the state level.
EMSI data was used throughout the report to measure STEM job growth (see above chart), the share of high-tech business establishments, detailed industry growth, and several other metrics.
A select group of states — North Dakota, Wyoming, Virginia, Florida, Maryland — appear at or near the top of at least a few of the rankings. But there is a fair bit of diversity in the rankings, too — the top of the innovation & entrepreneurship category looks little like the job growth category, for instance. Meanwhile, Texas, Ohio, and Utah are the only states in the top 10 in both the taxes & regulation and infrastructure rankings.
For a handy reference, we’ve created the table below of the top 10 states in each major category (of course, we recommend sifting through the report for context and details).
| SUMMARY OF 'ENTERPRISING STATES' RANKINGS | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Growth, Productivity, & Livability | Exports | Entrepreneurship & Innovation | |||
| Rank | State | Rank | State | Rank | State |
| 1 | North Dakota | 1 | Louisiana | 1 | Maryland |
| 2 | Wyoming | 2 | Utah | 2 | Colorado |
| 3 | Virginia | 3 | South Carolina | 3 | Utah |
| 4 | Alaska | 4 | Texas | 4 | Texas |
| 5 | Maryland | 5 | Mississippi | 5 | Arizona |
| 6 | Texas | 6 | Delaware | 6 | Alaska |
| 7 | South Dakota | 7 | Georgia | 7 | New Mexico |
| 8 | Washington | 8 | Nevada | 8 | Virginia |
| 9 | Iowa | 9 | Tennessee | 9 | North Carolina |
| 10 | New York | 10 | Iowa | 10 | Georgia |
| Taxes & Regulation | Talent Pipeline | Infrastructure | |||
| Rank | State | Rank | State | Rank | State |
| 1 | South Dakota | 1 | Florida | 1 | Florida |
| 2 | Wyoming | 2 | Massachusetts | 2 | Nevada |
| 3 | Ohio | 3 | New York | 3 | Utah |
| 4 | Kentucky | 4 | Utah | 4 | Illinois |
| 5 | Oklahoma | 5 | South Dakota | 5 | Arizona |
| 6 | Nebraska | 6 | Virginia | 6 | Delaware |
| 7 | Texas | 7 | Maryland | 7 | Minnesota |
| 8 | Alabama | 8 | Colorado | 8 | Texas |
| 9 | Utah | 9 | North Dakota | 9 | Georgia |
| 10 | Louisiana | 10 | Connecticut | 10 | Ohio |
And here are the top 10 future boom states, with some awfully familiar names at the top. For this category, the authors looked at different types of job growth, the education level of each state’s young workforce (25-44 years old), the median income for a household of four adjusted for cost of living, as well as a few secondary data elements.
| 'ENTERPRISING STATES' RANKINGS | |
|---|---|
| Next Boom States | |
| Rank | State |
| 1 | North Dakota |
| 2 | Utah |
| 3 | Texas |
| 4 | Virginia |
| 5 | Wyoming |
| 6 | Washington |
| 7 | Maryland |
| 8 | Colorado |
| 9 | South Dakota |
| 10 | Massachusetts |
Find out more about EMSI data here. You can reach us via Twitter @DesktopEcon or by emailing Rob Sentz (rob@economicmodeling.com).
