The State Technology and Science Index (STSI) provides a benchmark for evaluating the knowledge economies of all 50 US states. The index compares each state's capacity for achieving prosperity through scientific discovery and technological innovation, using the latest available data from US federal government and private-sector sources to perform a cross-sectional analysis of their rankings on key indicators.

The index is a composite of five sub-indexes, which rank states on a set of indicators. These sub-indexes cover a diverse range of topics: research and development (R&D) inputs, risk capital and entrepreneurial infrastructure, human capital investment, technology and science workforce, and technology concentration and dynamism. By comparing how states rank in these areas, the index assesses their capacities for generating new scientific ideas, as well as for commercializing technologies that contribute to firm expansion, high-skill job creation, and broad-based economic growth.

This index provides a useful guide to understanding how and why states face different challenges. It presents a snapshot of how state-level science and technology economies compare to one another at a specific time, rather than a long-term study of how individual states have changed over time. And because the index scores are based on rankings, differences in state scores reflect the overall differences among states' knowledge economies, rather than their performance in a particular area.