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North Dakota

Innovation Scorecard

Total Patents

2,050

National Rank

#48

Top Category

Mechanical & Manufacturing

YoY Growth

5.5%

Population

772,061

Patents / $B GDP

26

Patents / 100K Pop

266

Innovation DNA

Patent activity distribution across technology categories

Innovation Ecosystem

Economic and research indicators that shape North Dakota's innovation landscape.

State GDP

$80B

Median Income

$76,525

Unemployment

2.6%

Bachelor's+

33.6%

Per Capita Income

$70,966

Fed. Spending

$34.0B

NIH Grants

75

NSF Awards

23

SBIR/STTR

156

~$35M awarded

Biz Formation

237/mo

STEM Workers

6.4%

26,253 employed

Sources: FRED, Census ACS, USAspending.gov, NIH RePORTER, NSF, SBIR.gov

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Patent Activity by Year

156
2016
182
2017
188
2018
226
2019
202
2020
213
2021
181
2022
237
2023
250
2024
215
2025

Top Patent Holders

RankOrganizationPatents
1Deere & Company 293
2CLARK EQUIPMENT COMPANY 90
3GOODRICH CORPORATION 80
4NDSU RESEARCH FOUNDATION 66
5International Business Machines Corporation 65
6CNH Industrial America LLC 62
7PIONEER HI-BRED INTERNATIONAL, INC. 61
8MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC 39
9Energy and Environmental Research Center Foundation 38
10University of North Dakota 36

Technology Categories

CategoryPatents
biotech & life sciences 470
mechanical & manufacturing 439
software & computing 324
construction 208
electronics & semiconductors 195
chemistry & materials 149
mechanical engineering 134

Universities in North Dakota

University Of North Dakota

Grand Forks 38 patents