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: Share of Annual U.S. Venture Capital Investment by State, 2005-2010

Since 2005, the distribution of U.S. venture capital (VC) investment has remained fairly steady, with California companies receiving about half of all venture dollars. California's share of total dollars reached its highest point in 2009, when the state's firms received 50.6 percent of all U.S. investment. While California's share decreased a bit in 2010, VC activity remains highly concentrated in a handful of states. Over the past five years, the top ten states for venture investment have represented about 85 percent of all U.S. venture activity. Since PricewaterhouseCoopers began tracking VC activity by state in 2005, the overall trend has been toward greater concentration in a few hotspots, particularly the Silicon Valley region.

The number of venture capital deals also is highly concentrated in California, though there has been a slight trend over the past five years toward greater geographic diversity. In 2005, California received 41.3 percent of all VC deals and the top ten states together received 80.4 percent of all deals. Five years later in 2010, California received 39.3 percent of VC deals and the top ten states received 78.9 percent of deals.

Useful Stats: Venture Capital Dollars Per Capita and Deals Per Million Residents by State, 2005-2010

U.S. venture capital investment per capita grew almost 19 percent in 2010 over the previous year, reaching $11.16. That increase, however, only represented a partial rebound from the plunging investment levels of 2008 and 2009. Last year's U.S. per capita figure was 28.7 percent lower than 2007 and 7.2 percent lower than 2005. The largest increases in per capita investment over the past five years occurred in the District of Columbia, Illinois, Delaware, Kansas and Iowa. Kansas, New York, Connecticut, Delaware and Pennsylvania had the largest increase in venture deals per million residents over the same period. For 2010, Massachusetts led the nation in both per capita dollars and deals per million residents.

View the table of venture dollars invested per capita by state at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/042711t.htm. View the table of venture deals per million residents at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/042711ta.htm

Useful Stats: U.S. Venture Capital Dollars and Deals by State, 1995-2010

Though U.S. venture capital (VC) investment grew in 2010 after a disastrous 2009, overall venture activity remains well below 2006-2008 levels. Last year, U.S. venture firms invested $21.8 billion in American companies, 27 percent less than in 2007 (the last peak year before the current economic downturn). Most U.S. states experienced a similar pattern over the past five years, peaking in 2007, hitting a decade low in 2009, and recovering a bit last year.

California continues to have the highest level of venture capital activity by far, followed by Massachusetts, New York, Texas and Washington. Both Illinois and North Carolina had a strong 2010 and both joined the top ten states for total VC dollars invested for the first time since 2003. Though Georgia ranked 13th in VC investment dollars, the state ranked in the top 10 for total number of deals.

Useful Stats: State Personal Income and Per Capita Income 2005-2010

After declining last year for the first time since 1949, U.S. personal income rose three percent in 2010 to more than $12.5 trillion, according to a release from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). U.S. per capital personal income, which had also dipped in 2009, rose 14.6 percent to $40,584 last year. Both U.S. total and per capita personal income, however, remained below their peak levels in 2008. The largest percentage increases in personal income came in the Southwest region (Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas) and the Mideast region (Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Only ten states posted income levels in 2010 that exceeded the pre-recession level in 2008. That group includes Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia. Alaska also surpassed its 2008 level, though the BEA report notes that Alaska experienced only a marginal decline in 2009, unlike most of the rest of the country. New Mexico's personal income grew by 4.2 percent over the previous year, the largest percentage increase in the country.

Useful Stats: State Total and Per Capita Real GDP and Personal Income 2004-2009

U.S. real gross domestic domestic product (GDP) and per capita personal income fell in 2009 as the economic crisis spread across the country, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Most states experienced the same declines, particularly in the Great Lakes region. In 2009, real GDP fell in every state, except Alaska, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia. West Virginia was the only state to increase its per capita income (current dollars, unadjusted) in 2009. The 2008 and 2009 crisis ended the period of steady growth in most states since 2001.