This indicator represents the role of R&D in a state’s business activity. The business sector is the largest performer of U.S. R&D. The overwhelming majority of business R&D performance is self-funded. A high value for this indicator indicates that the businesses within a state are making a large investment in their R&D activities in that state. Values for this indicator vary greatly across the nation, and business-performed R&D is often concentrated in a handful of states. The methodology for data collection, assignment to individual states, and developing estimates of R&D funding and performance has changed during transitions between the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics surveys of business R&D. For information on data comparability, please see the survey description at https://ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/business-enterprise-research-development. Estimates for states with smaller economies are generally less precise than those for states with larger economies.

Private-industry output is the portion of state gross domestic product contributed by state businesses. Data for private-industry output come from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Data sources: National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Survey of Industrial Research and Development, Business R&D and Innovation Survey, Business Research and Development Survey, and Business Enterprise Research and Development Survey; Bureau of Economic Analysis, gross domestic product data.