Annual CTA Innovation Scorecard Reveals 12 States as Innovation Champions

Twelve states – including one first-time winner – are now the best places in the country to create jobs and launch businesses involving emerging technologies, according to the Consumer Technology Association’s (CTA) 2018 U.S. Innovation Scorecard. Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Utah, Virginia and Washington repeat as Innovation Champions – the Scorecard’s top ranking – and Pennsylvania debuts among the top tier.

“In our fourth year of the Scorecard, the trends are clear: state governments that embrace disruptive technologies early are the best at delivering the policies that enable our nation’s innovators to flourish,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CTA. “When we started this report, ridesharing platforms including Lyft and Uber were still finding their way with state governments. But now, most states have legal frameworks for these services. And more states are adopting policies that allow emerging technologies such as self-driving vehicles and drones to develop and flourish.”

After eight states signed ridesharing bills into law last year, every state in the country now has passed laws allowing ridesharing services to operate. Alaska, New Jersey and New York all improved their year-over-year rankings in this category.

Maine, New Mexico, Ohio and South Carolina each improved their overall ranking on this year’s Scorecard for having either a greater percentage of households with fast broadband or increasing the number of new jobs for small firms per capita.

Alabama, Illinois, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming dropped in the rankings from a combination of attracting fewer investment funds, creating fewer jobs and lacking quality broadband services.

“As the race to 5G kicks off, it’s important for our country to not only be a global leader in greater connectivity, but get the fundamentals right at home,” said Shapiro. “If we want to see rural innovations continue, we need further investment in broadband infrastructure. We’re hopeful that recent broadband bills in Congress can help close the gap.”

Among the Scorecard's other findings:

• Delaware and New Jersey tied for first in the Fast Internet category for having 83 percent of households meet fixed broadband speeds of 25 mbps. 
• Thirty states saw significant growth in job creation in all industries. 
• The U.S. tech workforce grew by almost 3 percent in 2017 with Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Virginia having the largest tech workforces per capita in the country. 
• Of the 24 states that have taken action on self-driving vehicles, 23 enacted laws that allow testing of this technology or directed agencies to study its effects in local transportation systems. 
• In 2017, seven states passed preemption laws over local drone rules, which help avoid a confusing and conflicting patchwork. In total, 13 U.S. states have preemption laws, which help hobbyists and businesses operate under a safer and more uniform set of guidelines.

CTA’s annual Scorecard evaluates all 50 U.S. states on quantitative and qualitative data – including average internet speeds, undergraduates earning advanced degrees and laws governing emerging technologies – to determine where tech innovation and entrepreneurs are supported by their state governments. To explore the full report and read state-by-state profiles, visit www.CTA.tech/scorecard.