Innovation and well-being

Are innovative places good places to live?

I’ve been thinking about that question, and what follows is a quick bit of exploration — not anything definitive.

I wanted to see if the states with more innovative economies are also the states with better quality of life. To do that, I compared the Social Progress Index, a measure of well-being, to the tech think tank ITIF’s “New Economy” index which purports to rank states’ economies by their emphasis on innovation. As with all broad rankings like this, your mileage may vary.

• Here’s detail on the ITIF ranking
• Social Progress Index for states info here and here

Without further ado…

(There are a million questions and caveats that I won’t get into but one to note: the Social Progress score is 2018; ITIF is 2020.)