Insurify’s 2020 Top STEM Cities Awards

This award recognizes the top communities in the United States demonstrating exceptional dedication to STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.

This spring, the pandemic brought the importance of innovation in STEM to the forefront of the national conversation. From social distancing and safe reopening measures to personal protective equipment (PPE) and mathematical models projecting case counts over time, it’s clear that developments in science, technology, engineering, and math are foundational to public health and safety.

In fact, the United States has come a long way with respect to progress in STEM. Research at private companies, government institutions, and universities has continued to shape and improve our lives, from breakthroughs in medicine or cybersecurity to an ever-growing wealth of accessible information on the internet. There’s no doubt that STEM plays an integral role in our lives. STEM has shifted priorities in education as well, and there is an ever-increasing emphasis on the importance of an education in science and math. In colleges across the country, more and more students are gravitating towards degrees in STEM-related fields such as medicine, computer science, and engineering.

To recognize the communities across our country who demonstrate exceptional dedication to science, technology, engineering, and math, the data scientists at Insurify identified the top city in each state for STEM, based on the criteria outlined below.

Selection Process for Insurify’s 2020 Top STEM Cities Awards

The data science team at Insurify, a website to compare homeowners insurance, analyzed both proprietary and publicly-accessible data to determine the top STEM city in each state. Referring to their database of 2 million insurance applications, Insurify’s data scientists identified cities with the highest proportion of residents in STEM-based careers. Then, they compiled data from Niche on the colleges and graduate schools with the best programs in STEM, as well as the best cities for women in tech according to SmartAsset.

From this data, Insurify’s data scientists calculated a composite score for each city. The city with the highest score in each state was selected.

Winners of Insurify’s 2020 Top STEM Cities Awards

Alabama: Tuscaloosa

Arkansas: Little Rock

Arizona: Tempe

California: Long Beach

Colorado: Golden

Connecticut: New London

Delaware: Newark

Florida: Gainesville

Georgia: Athens

Hawaii: Honolulu

Iowa: Iowa City

Idaho: Boise

Illinois: Champaign

Indiana: Indianapolis

Kansas: Lawrence

Kentucky: Murray

Louisiana: Baton Rouge

Massachusetts: Framingham

Maryland: College Park

Maine: Bangor

Michigan: Kalamazoo

Minnesota: Saint Cloud

Missouri: Columbia

Mississippi: Hattiesburg

Montana: Butte

North Carolina: Durham

North Dakota: Grand Forks

Nebraska: Kearney

New Hampshire: Manchester

New Jersey: Piscataway

New Mexico: Albuquerque

Nevada: Reno

New York: Albany

Ohio: Dayton

Oklahoma: Stillwater

Oregon: Newberg

Pennsylvania: Easton

Rhode Island: Pawtucket

South Carolina: Columbia

South Dakota: Rapid City

Tennessee: Knoxville

Texas: Waco

Utah: Provo

Virginia: Charlottesville

Washington: Bothell

Wisconsin: La Crosse

West Virginia: Huntington

Wyoming: Laramie

If you have questions or comments about this article, please contact insights@insurify.com.