This article, including the downloadable data sheet, visuals, and analysis, was updated on July 10th, 2024, to include new data from Treasury’s SSBCI Capital Program Summaries.
This article was edited on April 4th, 2024, to correct for an error in, and add to, the original data. Refer to the note at the bottom of this article for more detail.
Information on the geographic distribution of innovation and entrepreneurship is not easy to tease out of many federal statistical data sets, leading regional policy often to be based on trends in all business starts or life span and size—ignoring the fact that some firms have greater impact on regional economic growth than others. The U.S. Census Bureau is well aware of the challenge and, earlier this week, released an experimental data set that allows for an examination of state-level long-term trends in the change in high-growth firms and establishments across the nation.
The data set, titled “The Business Dynamics Statistics of High Growth Firms,” with the acronym of BDS-HG, covers key economic data on high-growth firms with metrics such as the number of firms and establishments, job creation and destruction, employment, and growth rates. It extends the statistics published by the Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS) program with a focus on high-growth companies.
The real gross domestic product (GDP) of private industries has steadily increased nationwide from 2018-2022, with an average percentage increase of 2% each year, or 9% total, despite a drop from 2019-2020 due to the pandemic. However, the same cannot be said across all private industries; of the 14 broad industries captured by U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data,[1] eight have grown while six decreased over the five-year period from 2018-2022.
While a prior SSTI Useful Stats article went in depth about overall state-level industry GDP profiles using BEA data, this edition of Useful Stats explores all U.S. counties, identifying trends and clustering across the nation’s private industries through a more granular lens.
Total postsecondary enrollment is down 5% from fall 2019 to fall 2023 due to a 6% drop in undergraduate students. While undergraduates are down, graduate students have surpassed pre-pandemic enrollment numbers by 4%. Enrollments in undergraduate and graduate certificates are up significantly from pre-pandemic values (16% and 21%), while enrollment in associate degrees are down more than any other undergraduate credential (-14%). Continue reading for a national and state-level analysis of the recently released fall 2023 enrollment estimates from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (Clearinghouse).
Graduate student enrollment and postdoctoral appointments have shifted in fields of study over the past decades, with many fields exploding in graduate enrollment and postdoctoral appointments. Computer and information sciences graduate students jumped from just 4% of all science enrollments in 1975 to nearly a quarter of the total by 2021, while engineering postdocs in biological, biomedical, and biosystems engineering jumped 5,671%– increasing from 3% in 1975 to 19% of all engineering postdocs by 2021. This edition of Useful Stats uses the full range of NSF GSS data to explore trends in graduate students (1975-2021) and postdoctoral appointees (1979-2021; postdocs) in science and engineering.
Methodological nuances and year-by-year changes can be found on the GSS survey page.
The number of graduate students in science, engineering, and health has grown from approximately 328,000 to 760,000 from 1975 to 2021, a 132% increase, according to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering (GSS). When compared to a 60% increase (from 9.7 to 15.4 million) in total undergraduate enrollment across all fields of study over the same time period, the scale of growth can be better seen. However, while the number of graduate students in science has seen an upward trend over the 46-year period, the number of graduate students in engineering has stagnated since 2014.
The United States has one of the most diversified economies of any nation, yet also the most dynamic; over the past five years, from 2018 through 2022, the U.S.’ agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting industry has grown 53%, while other industries such as manufacturing and construction have grown at a slower pace—17% and 23% respectively—compared to a 25% increase in overall gross domestic product.
Economies differ greatly from state to state, in terms of size and composition. This edition of Useful Stats uses U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data[1] to explore a breakdown of changes in industry gross domestic product (GDP) for each state and Washington, D.C. over the 5 years from 2018 to 2022, which provides a snapshot of state’s economies prior to and after the pandemic.
Income inequality in the U.S. has increased from 2006 to 2022, according to American Community Survey (ACS) data. While it’s increased in the nation as a whole, it decreased in North Dakota, Washington, Hawaii, Nebraska, and Montana from 2018 to 2022. New York and Washington, D.C. lead the nation in income inequality. This edition of Useful Stats explores state-level Gini index data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s ACS, analyzed by the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) at the University of Minnesota.
United States venture capital activity not unexpectedly slowed down in 2023, cooling off after multiple years of record-high deals and values during 2021 and 2022, according to the PitchBook-NVCS Venture Monitor Q4 2023. Pitchbook-NVCS estimates a total deal count of 15,766 (13,608 actual + 2,158 estimated) for 2023– exceeding the values of 2020 and prior years but falling several thousand short of the last two years. Between these deals, just $170.6 billion was invested, a drop of $71.6 billion from 2022 and $177.4 billion from 2021.
It is important to note that PitchBook continuously identifies new deals and updates their datasets, often leading towards an increase in deals and values over time. Thus, older datasets are often more complete, which may cause direct comparisons between more recent and older years to not provide an accurate picture of the venture landscape.
In 2021, U.S. microbusinesses reported $8.1 billion in research and development (R&D) expenditures, of which the microbusinesses themselves performed 75% ($6.1 billion) The $6.1 billion in microbusiness-performed R&D represents an increase of 9% over the prior year and 17% since 2019. Microbusinesses are those with nine or fewer employees.
The Annual Business Survey (ABS), cosponsored by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) and the Census Bureau, collects data on U.S. microbusinesses that perform or fund R&D. ABS is a fairly new survey, with the first data year dating back to 2017, and has experienced changes to its methodology between certain data releases. Refer to the ABS methodology for more information.
The United States is home to some of the world's most prestigious universities, each performing critical research that helps advance the country’s innovation economy. However, these universities are not evenly distributed across the country; many are concentrated within large cities in states where their spillover further impacts the local economies.
This edition of Useful Stats explores Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey data from the newest fiscal year (FY) 2022 data release. Specifically, a state and institution-level look at HERD expenditures over the last decade of available data will be conducted to explore any trends.
Research and development (R&D) expenditures neared $100 billion across the U.S. in FY 2022, a 9% increase from FY 2021’s $89.8 billion and a 46% increase from FY 2013’s $67.1 billion.
Research and Development (R&D) is an essential component of innovation and economic growth, where higher education institutions play a key role. However, with these institutions being responsible for funding just a quarter of all HERD expenditures, it is important to see the influence of outside funding sources on the fields of R&D. For example, Health and Human Services (HHS) has long been the largest contributor of funding into higher education R&D, which is reflected in life sciences being the R&D field with the most significant funding levels.
This edition of Useful Stats uses higher education research and development (HERD) survey data at the R&D field level to explore where the nearly $100 billion in R&D expenditures is going.