Maryland ranks number 3 in innovation in Fast Company’s United States of Innovation

Maryland ranks third in Fast Company magazine’s list of innovative states.

In its May issue, the magazine outlines the “United States of Innovation,” ranking states for overall innovation and a variety of sub-categories, including revenue per startup and percent growth in entrepreneurial activity.
Maryland was also ranked number four in the number of startups per million residents. The state’s 2012 population estimate was 5,884,563, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The top five states for innovation, from Fast Company:

1. Florida
   
2. Texas
3. Maryland
4. Arizona
5. Alaska

Read the full list at Fast Company.
Maryland’s high ranking is consistent with other, similar rankings. As Technically Baltimore reported in January, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ranked the state number one for innovation and entrepreneurship in 2012.
Perhaps more interesting, as Fast Company itself points out, is that the 10 states it lists as the tops for innovation are a mix of states with low and high tax rates.
As Technically Baltimore has reported, Baltimore — certainly what many tech entrepreneurs located here would identify as the hub of this state’s startup culture — has the 10th highest tax burden of U.S. cities, in part thanks to this city’s property taxes, which are the highest in the state.
According to Fast Company, the rankings were assembled based on the following pieces of information:

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics‘ launch rate of all private-sector businesses
  
• The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity‘s percentage of people who are starting new businesses and how that percentage changed over time
• A tally of the percentage of jobs contributed by those less than three years old and how that percentage changed over the past five years
• The growth rate of Startup America members and a tally of AngelList and Fundable members.