Useful Stats

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has conducted a Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development for fiscal years 2010-12. In total, federal R&D obligations were $144.7 billion in FY10. The top state recipients, in absolute terms, are California ($28.3 billion, representing 19.6% of the national total), Maryland ($17.0 billion, 11.8%), Virginia ($9.3 billion, 6.4%), Massachusetts ($8.9 billion, 6.1%), and Texas ($7.3 billion, 5.0%). The states and territories receiving the least are Delaware, North Dakota, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, and finally Wyoming.

SSTI has prepared a table of federal R&D obligations by state for FY10, as well as federal R&D obligations as a percentage of states' gross state product.

As in FY09, California's R&D obligations are largely attributable to the Department of Defense, which spent $16.7 billion in total development, with more than $1 billion in research.

Between FY03-11, the U.S. Department of Treasury's Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFI) Fund supported $26.4 billion in private investment through the New Market Tax Credits (NMTC) program, according to data released by the fund. The CDFI Fund helps economically distressed communities leverage private investment capital by offering investors a federal tax credit. During its first nine years, participating Community Development Entities (CDE) leveraged their NMTC allocations to invest in 3,499 projects related to real estate, business development, microenterprise finance and other purposes in mostly low-income communities.

In order to participate in the NMTC program, a qualified investor must be certified as a CDE by the CDFI Fund. The fund then awards an allocation of tax credit authority for that CDE, which can be used to support Qualified Equity investments (QEI) in distressed communities. The CDE must then report information about its investments to the fund within six months after the end of the fiscal year. As of this year, the CDFI Fund has awarded allocations to 749 CDEs, totaling $36.5 billion in tax credit authority.

In 2010, almost one-quarter of every dollar spent on R&D by U.S. businesses was spent in the state of California, according to data from the National Science Foundation. Together, the top seven states for business R&D spending (California, New Jersey, Texas, Massachusetts, Washington, Illinois and Michigan) were host to almost 53 percent of private research investment. While California leads in total business R&D, the state of Washington has the greatest concentration of private research spending in the state economy, with $3.92 spent on business R&D for every $100 in state gross domestic product (GDP).

SSTI has prepared a table of funds spent by businesses on R&D by state in 2010. The table also includes the percent of total U.S. business R&D spending represented by each state. In order to gauge the volume of business R&D spending with respect to total economic activity, the table provides 2010 state GDP levels and a ratio of business R&D spending to state GDP. View the table...

After dipping just under 50 percent in 2011, California reclaimed its spot as the site of a majority of U.S. venture capital investment last year, according to the National Venture Capital Association/PricewaterhouseCoopers Moneytree Survey. About 53 percent of all U.S. venture capital dollars were invested in California companies in 2012, the largest share captured by the state since the annual survey began in 1995. The total share of all venture dollars invested in the top five states also reached an all-time high last year, with California, Massachusetts, New York, Texas and Washington capturing 78.5 percent of all U.S. investment.

Compiling SBIR Phase I awards and proposal statistics by state for FY11, SSTI finds the 10 states with the most awards in FY11 were California (674), Massachusetts (416), Virginia (215), New York (146), Texas (143), Maryland (142), Colorado (130), Ohio (130), Pennsylvania (124), and Florida (92). New York moved into fourth place, up one spot from last year while Texas moved into fifth place, up from seventh place. Colorado fell three spots from last year to seventh place, tying with Ohio, which moved up one spot, dropping Pennsylvania to ninth place. Florida moved into the top 10, climbing from 12th place last year and dropping Michigan out of the top 10.

Notably, the total number of SBIR Phase I awards and proposals are down quite a bit from 2010 across nearly all of the participating agencies. In FY11, agencies granted a total 3,268 awards, down from 4,388 in FY10, a 25 percent decrease. Overall, agencies that reported proposal statistics received 11 percent less proposals in 2011 than 2010.

About 60 percent of U.S. academic R&D spending support research in the life sciences, according to data released by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Engineering R&D, the second largest target of spending, accounted for 15.7 percent of total academic research expenditures. While California leads the country in total spending in every science and engineering field, the District of Columbia leads in per capita spending in life sciences, physical sciences, psychology and social sciences. Other leaders in per capita spending include Maryland (math and computer sciences, and engineering) and Alaska (environmental sciences).

SSTI has prepared a table showing total and per capita academic R&D expenditures by state and by field of study. The Excel version includes tabs for each field, which include state rank, per capita spending and rank of per capita spending. (See the June 20, 2011 issue for total 2004-09 expenditures and spending by funding source.)

The number of annual U.S. patents of all types increased from 82,586 in 2005 to 121,179 in 2010, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). After falling in 2007 and 2008, and making only minor gains in 2009, patents jumped by 27.5 percent last year. Overall, the number of patents grew 46.7 percent between 2005 and 2010, while patents per capita increased by 40.6 percent. California continues to have the highest number of annual patents in the country, generating about one quarter of all U.S. patents in 2010. Vermont, however, led in patents per capita last year, followed by Washington state. Over the past five years, Hawaii has exhibited the highest rate of growth, increasing its number of patents by 148.3 percent and its patents per capita by 131.1 percent.

Compiling SBIR Phase I awards and proposal statistics by state for FY10, SSTI finds the 10 states with the most awards in FY10 were California (851), Massachusetts (517), Virginia (250), Colorado (218), New York (212), Maryland (196), Texas (185), Pennsylvania (184), Ohio (179), and Michigan (125). Colorado moved up two positions to fourth place, dropping New York to fifth place while Maryland fell to sixth place from fifth last year. Pennsylvania edged out Ohio to move up one spot into eighth position, pushing Ohio down one spot from last year to ninth place. Michigan moved into the top 10, climbing from 15th place last year, dropping Florida out of the top 10.

U.S. average venture capital deal size rose by 6.7 percent in 2010, after having fallen to its lowest point in a decade in 2009. While California leads in average deal size, Iowa has run a close second over the past five years. Iowa, Minnesota and Nevada are all among the middle ranks of states in terms of overall venture activity, but rank near the top in average deal size. These states depend on larger deals to sustain their competitiveness in capital access. Illinois, Colorado and Pennsylvania all ranked in the top 10 for venture activity in 2010, but have lower than average deal sizes. This indicates that activity in these states is driven by a high volume of smaller deals. SSTI has prepared a table of average venture capital deal size by state, 2005-2010. View the table...

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.

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

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.