Connecticut continues to punch above its weight in Bloomberg’s ranking of the most innovative U.S. states, placing fourth for the second year in a row.
The 2020 U.S. State Innovation Index, released this week, assesses research and development spending as a percentage of gross state product, density of publicly traded tech-intensive companies, gross state product per employee, concentration of science and engineering degree holders, and patent activity.
Bloomberg assigned Connecticut an overall score of 82.18 out of 100 in the new index, up from 79.7 in the 2019 ranking and 78 in the 2016 ranking.
Bloomberg has tweaked its methodology a bit over those years, but generally analyzes a mix of federal figures and its own proprietary data.
In the new ranking, Connecticut received its strongest score in patent activity, posting the second-highest number of patents awarded per 1,000 science/engineering jobs of any other state. Connecticut scored seventh in that category last year.
The state again placed eighth in R&D intensity and productivity. Its tech company density rank fell from eighth to 11th.
California, Massachusetts and Washington held the top three spots in the index, respectively. The bottom four states were also the same from last year: Louisiana, Arkansas, West Virginia, and 50th place Mississippi.
