Delaware just landed another innovation Top 10. Will anyone notice?

Scrolling through an inbox full of out-of-market press releases, story pitches and newsletters, it’s not uncommon to see a message informing me that Delaware has ranked somewhere or other on the latest list of this or that. Could be fluff like a candy map, or it could be a study that suggests that Delaware is actually a competitive state when it comes to things like tech and innovation.

The latest, coming in on the heels of Gallup’s latest Wellbeing index that put Delaware at number eight, also teases a top 10 ranking:

According to WalletHub, Delaware is the ninth most innovative state in the U.S. The 50 states plus the District of Colombia were evaluated in two areas, “Human Capital” and “Innovation Environment,” with a total of 24 metrics, including “Projected STEM-Job Demand by 2020,” “Invention Patents per Capita” and “Entrepreneurial Activity.”

Delaware’s strongest areas include:

• Share of STEM Professionals (#7)
• Projected STEM-Job Demand by 2020 (#16)
• Share of Science & Engineering Graduates Aged 25+ (#17)
• Share of Technology Companies (#4)
• R&D Spending per Capita (#5)
• Venture-Capital Funding per Capita (#11)

We’ve seen Delaware rank high in innovation before, yet the state seems far from shaking its “nowheresville” reputation (just recently at our stakeholder’s meeting, Tapp Network’s Nikki Stout shared that folks in New Jersey, where she lives, have asked why she took a job in Delaware where there are “no opportunities”). It’s doubtful that a WalletHub index is going to change that, but hey. The rest of the country will catch up with the idea that Delaware is a real state eventually.

Here’s the top 10:

(Image via WalletHub)

Check out the full report here.