Three Useful Stats Revisited

In our occasional Useful Stats series in the SSTI Weekly Digest over the past few months, SSTI published online tables for three statistical measures that can be used as indicators of a state's relative position or, when collected over time, progress toward specific tech-based economic development goals involving academic performance or research. Links to the full reports from which the statistics are derived are provided on each table's web page. 



Educational Attainment Rankings by State 

Last August, the U.S. Census Bureau released the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey Data (C2SS), compiled from 700,000 test households prior to the full census. Using the 1991 and 2000 educational attainment data from the Census Bureau, SSTI has prepared a table revealing each state's relative rank for the percentage of its population over 25 years of age that had obtained at least a Bachelor's Degree in 1991and 2000. The table also presents rankings for the percentage change between the two figures for each state. The table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/2001/081701.htm 

Science & Engineering Doctorate Awards by State 

The National Science Foundation Division of Science Resource Statistics has e-published early release tables for the Science & Engineering Doctorate Awards: 2000 report. The data show trends in science and engineering (S&E) doctorate awards by S&E field and recipient characteristics, institutions awarding doctorates, and postgraduation plans of recipients. SSTI has prepared a table summarizing the 2000 data, standardizing S&E doctorates per 100,000 residents in each state, and ranking the results by state. The table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/110901t.htm 

Academic R&D Expenditures by State 

Annual R&D expenditures at America's academic institutions topped $30 billion for the first time, according to the early release tables from the National Science Foundation's Survey of Research and Development Expenditures at Universities and Colleges, Fiscal Year 2000. The final results of the latest annual survey reveals a nine percent increase over 1999 expenditures. 



Despite growing by more than $1.4 billion during 2000, the federal government's share of total support for academic R&D, at 58.19 percent, fell to its lowest percentage since 1959. State and local government share dropped to 7.33 percent, the lowest level since the survey began in 1953. Institutional funds, on the other hand, accounted for 19.71 percent of academic R&D expenditures in 2000, the highest level ever for this source of funding. 



Because of the important role academic R&D can play in encouraging state and local tech-based economic development, SSTI has prepared two tables for Digest readers standardizing the data for comparison across states. The first, available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/010402t.htm  presents figures and rankings for total and per capita academic R&D expenditures by state for 1993 and 2000. The table also shows the percentage change and rankings for the eight-year period. 



As many state and local tech-based ED programs strive to increase and strengthen university-industrial research partnerships, SSTI's second table examines only those academic R&D expenditures for 1993 and 2000 that were financed from industrial sources. The table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/010402t2.htm