SSTI believes in the importance of data and how it helps to inform decisions and policies. For nearly three decades, SSTI has provided the TBED community and beyond with Useful Stats articles in our Digest, featuring useful data and presenting them in easy-to-understand ways. This archive of articles offers readers the opportunity to view data across a variety of topics, including R&D expenditures, venture capital, federal program outcomes, and beyond.

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Useful Stats: A standardized look at state-level academic S&E article output

States invest heavily in academic research with the expectation that these efforts will advance scientific knowledge, support innovative industries, and strengthen local talent pipelines. Comparing research performance across state lines is difficult due to differences in academic landscapes: some may have large medical schools with high-cost labs, while others have research-active public universities in lower-cost fields or are more pedagogically focused. 

Which states stand to benefit the most from the new Opportunity Zone criteria?

Just 19% of the approximately 25,000 census tracts potentially eligible for Opportunity Zone (OZ) designation are “More likely to attract OZ investment, with larger impact,” per the Urban Institute’s new OZ Designation Tool.1 The majority (68%) of potentially eligible tracts were found to be “Less likely to attract OZ investment,” while the remaining 13% were determined likely to attract capital regardless of OZ designation. Breaking the data down further, this article showcases state-level aggregations of the percentage of potentially eligible tracts across each categorization to paint a picture of which states stand to benefit the most from the OZ program based on the count of tracts likely to receive investments.

Treasury updates to SSBCI FAQs and a look at state fund deployments

The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) recently issued three new FAQs for the State Small Business Credit Initiative 2.0 (SSBCI) program. These FAQs clarify and reiterate the timeline for the end of the Capital Program, and the deadlines by which participating jurisdictions must request disbursement of any remaining allocated Capital Program funds.

In summary:

  • All disbursement, technical support, and other program actions performed by Treasury will cease on March 11, 2028 (FAQ #8 in the general section).  
  • All Capital Program disbursement requests must be submitted to Treasury by December 31, 2027 (FAQ #4 under Section III.b)
  • Treasury expects to terminate disbursements to jurisdictions that have not qualified for their second tranche disbursement by their three-year anniversaries (FAQ #1 in Section III.c)

SSTI has confirmed with the SSBCI team at Treasury that no states have failed to meet their three-year deadline, although we recognize this to be an ongoing concern as some jurisdictions’ allocation agreement dates are as recent as mid-2024.

Useful Stats: Business R&D continues to consolidate in top states

With federal R&D investments unlikely to keep pace with inflation or international competition based on the administration’s budget request, cuts to existing research grants, and Congress’s inability to pass a budget, business R&D investments become more critical for sustaining the competitiveness of regional innovation economies. Trends evident in new data released by the National Science Foundation point to areas of potential concern or need for state TBED policy attention and potential adjustment: business R&D is growing even more concentrated geographically, and for many areas of the country business investments likely are not growing at a sufficient pace to maintain the regions’ innovation capacity. 

Useful Stats: Growth in real business R&D expenditures comes to a halt in 2023

From 2022 to 2023, domestic R&D expenditures increased 4%, or $29 billion, but remained nearly unchanged when adjusted for inflation. This apparent slowdown follows a streak averaging nearly 12% ($59 billion) year-over-year growth from 2018 to 2022, and 8% over the past decade from 2014 to 2023. Adjusting for inflation paints a different picture of the growth trends, with a more modest annual average of 8% from 2018 to 2022 and 6% over the past decade. In this edition of Useful Stats, SSTI uses new Business Enterprise R&D (BERD) survey data to explore business R&D expenditures since 2009. Then, we present the data by sector and industry, allowing for closer analysis of which business R&D see the most investment in the U.S. 

Refer to the Data Notes section at the end of this article for more details on the data and its limitations. 

 

Useful Stats: R&D's contributions to state economies

Like the broader metric of R&D intensity, the prominence of R&D value added in a state’s economic output has shifted within several states over the past decade. Does it matter? For sustaining a state’s innovation competitiveness, it may, and subsequently it is important to know for many state and regional TBED initiatives. Proximity to the conduct of R&D has been well documented in empirical research to support strong regional innovation economies. Subsequently many TBED policies are designed to increase and maintain R&D activity within those boundaries as well as ensure the localized spillover effects are maximized. Determining where R&D activity is thriving and the size of its value added to the state’s GDP, particularly manufacturing-related R&D, may help inform those policy decisions. SSTI explores the latest data on state R&D value added in this Useful Stats article.

 

Useful Stats: Examining county-level employment and establishments by sector

Understanding the composition of local economies requires looking beyond broad statewide or national trends. County-level data reveals the unique mix, or lack thereof, of industries and businesses in each area. Policy makers, by identifying which sectors drive employment and business activity within a locality, can influence the impact and design of regional innovation strategies to reflect local realities and potential.  

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) allows examination of county-level employment and establishment counts across all private sectors at the 2-digit NAICS level. In this article, SSTI uses annualized private sector data for all provided 2-digit NAICS sectors at the county level for 2015 and 2024.  

Useful Stats: Where is US manufacturing? A county-level look at subsector-specific data

Despite a decades-long decline in its share of American jobs, manufacturing remains a foundational part of the U.S. economy as the third largest contributor to its gross domestic product (GDP). Despite the sector’s share of overall U.S. employment declining over time, manufacturing continues to anchor many local economies. In this edition of Useful Stats, SSTI unveils trends shaping the manufacturing landscape, from areas of sustained growth to places undergoing structural change, by examining employment and establishment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) at the county level.

Federal obligations for higher-ed S&E near an inflation-adjusted all-time high in 2023

In fiscal year (FY) 2023, federal obligations for science and engineering (S&E) to universities and colleges totaled $49 billion—$29 billion more than FY 2000, and a 10% increase from the prior year. The growth is less rapid when adjusted for inflation (2017 USD), with just over $40 billion in real obligations in FY 2023, a 5% increase over the year prior and $12.6 billion (or 46%) increase over the FY 2000 value. Each year, approximately 90% of these federal obligations for higher education S&E are allotted to R&D activities, directly supporting key innovation activities nationwide.

This article uses data from The Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions—the sole source of comprehensive, institutional-level data on federal science and engineering funding to academia and nonprofits—to provide breakdowns of federal obligations for S&E to universities and colleges at the national and state levels.

 

Useful Stats: An international comparison of R&D expenditures

Most countries have dramatically increased their investments in R&D over the past two decades, with OECD nation spending reaching a record high nearly $1,600 of gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) per person in 2023 (PPP[1] converted), approximately triple the value recorded in 2000. Although the U.S. has an extremely strong R&D output, relatively smaller economies, like Israel and South Korea, lead when expenditures are standardized for better comparison across nations.

This edition of Useful Stats uses internationally comparable figures from the OECD’s Main Science and Technology Indicator (MSTI) database to benchmark R&D performance across OECD nations in both per person PPP-adjusted dollars and as a share of gross domestic product (GDP). Examining the data in this manner provides potential context for understanding the priority countries set for becoming more research-intensive and, perhaps, more innovation-centered in future economic growth.

New SSBCI report reveals jurisdiction fund deployments

The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) recently released a report on the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) program with data through December 31, 2024. As of the end of 2024, Treasury has disbursed nearly $4 billion of the $10 billion set aside for the program in the 2021 American Rescue Plan of Act. 

In terms of the three-tranche, formula-based allocation structure of the SSBCI program, the report documents the first disbursement to 130 jurisdictions, the second for 20, and the third, or final, tranche for six.

Within this article, SSTI provides two data visualizations to graphically compare states and their progress with accessing SSBCI funds. 

The graphics below include data for only the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and not Tribal governments.

Useful Stats: Industry contributions to county-level GDP

Exploring gross domestic product (GDP) at the county level offers a more detailed look at where industries are located and how they shape local economies, especially in smaller or more rural counties often overlooked at higher geographic levels. SSTI has provided similar analyses at the state and metropolitan levels, yet county-level data can reveal micro-level trends, showing local patterns that broader numbers might hide. Such refined looks can help TBED and innovation policy approaches to be more surgical in their application.

To help guide that refinement, this edition of Useful Stats uses Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data to map and illustrate differences in county-level GDP broken down by private industries.