Highly educated immigrants play an outsized role in driving technological progress in the United States, while women and minorities are significantly underrepresented among the country’s innovators, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) reported today in a first-of-its-kind study.
To paint a detailed portrait of who contributes most to technological innovation in America, ITIF conducted an in-depth survey, gathering responses from more than 900 individuals who have won prestigious awards for their creations or have applied for international patents likely to have significant economic impact. The study found that the demographics of U.S. innovation are strikingly different from the demographics of the country as a whole—and even from the demographics of college-educated Americans, or those with a Ph.D. in science or engineering.
