February 23, 2024
The Economic Innovation Group has spent the last thirty years analyzing states’ economies and their evolution. Dynamism represents an economy’s intrinsic vitality: including how quickly it changes, how efficiently it reallocates resources for maximum productivity, and how effectively it transforms experimentation into opportunities.
In 2021, Utah claimed the top spot in the Overall Index of State Dynamism (ISD) with a score of 56, surpassing Idaho at 49.9 and Delaware at 49.5. The average ISD score for the U.S. is 33.1. Utah’s progress over the past five years has been remarkable, rising from third place to first.
Here are some comparisons between Utah and the rest of the states:
| Core Startup Rate | Utah: 11.8% Average: 7.7% Rank: #1 |
| Share of Workers at Firms Less than 5 Years Old | Utah: 13.2% Average: 10.1% Rank #5 |
| Growth in Total Firms | Utah: 5.81% Average: 0.73% Rank: #1 |
| Inventors per 1,000 Residents | Utah: 0.76% Average: 0.59% Rank: #10 |
| Housing Permits per 1,000 Residents | Utah: 11.7% Average: 5.14% Rank: #1 |
| Worker Churn | Utah: 25.4% Average: 21.8% Rank: #5 |
| Labor Force Participation Rate | Utah: 67.9% Average: 62.3% Rank: #6 |
| Migration Rate | Utah: 0.97% Average: 0.32% Rank: #9 |
Relative to average, Utah performs best on housing permits, while it performs worst on migration. If you want to read the full report, you can go to www.eig.org/state-dynamism/