The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation’s (ITIF) 2012 State New Economy Index recently ranked Utah 8th overall in technology-based economies, based on the degree to which the structure of a state’s economy matches the ideal structure of the “new economy.” Utah ranked 12th in the 2010 New Economy Index and its high ranking in several areas contributed to its upward momentum on this year’s list.
- Utah ranked #1 in online population, which ranks the percentage of households online for each state, and also ranked #1 in e-government, which measures of the utilization of digital technologies in state governments.
- The State ranked #1 in economic dynamism, which measures a state’s degree of job churning, number of fast growing firms, number and value of IPOs, number of entrepreneurs starting new businesses, and the number of inventor patents granted.
- The State also ranked #1 in manufacturing value added, which ranks states’ ability to produce technologically-complex products and organize their workforce to take better advantage of worker skills.
- Utah ranked #1 in inventor patents, which ranks the number of independent inventor patents per 1,000 working-age people.
- The State ranked #4 in fast growing firms, which measures the number of firms on the “Inc. 500” and “Technology Fast 500” lists as a share of total firms.
The State also increased its rankings significantly in several key areas. Since the 2010 report, Utah moved from the 34th to the 12th spot for Broadband Telecommunications, which is a weighted measure of the deployment of residential broadband lines and average download speeds. Utah also moved from the 27th to the 9th spot for online agriculture, which is a weighted measure of the percentage of farmers with Internet access who use computers for business.
The report also praised Utah’s ability to maintain a strong economy during the recent national recession. According to the report, despite a nationwide loss of 115,800 high-tech jobs in 2010, Utah was one of only 8 states to add jobs to their high-tech sector that year.
ITIF is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank focused on designing innovation policies and documenting how advances in technology are creating new economic opportunities to boost economic growth and improve quality of life in the United States and around the world.
Click here to read a Deseret News article on the report.