With the U.S. projected to spend $581 billion on research and development in 2019, the personal finance website WalletHub released its report on 2019’s Most & Least Innovative States. Maryland is ranked fourth on the list.

In order to determine the most and least innovative states, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across two key dimensions, Human Capital and Innovation Environment. It evaluated those dimensions using 24 relevant metrics; each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for innovation. Its data set ranges from share of STEM professionals to R&D spending per capita to tech-company density.

It then determined each state’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its State Innovation Index and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample. Massachusetts ranked first, Washington state was second, the District of Columbia was third and Colorado fifth, to round out the top five; California, Virginia, Utah, Delaware and Oregon ranked 6-10, respectively.

The information on Maryland follows.

Innovation in Maryland (1 = Most Innovative, 25 = Average):

2nd: Share of STEM professionals

4th: Projected STEM-job demand by 2020

30th: Eighth-grade math and science performance

3rd: Share of science and engineering graduates, aged 25-plus

3rd: Share of technology companies

3rd: R&D spending per capita

9th: Venture capital funding per capita

For the full report, visit https://wallethub.com/edu/most-innovative-states/31890.