Where do inventors come from?
Adults raised in Minnesota are the most likely in the US to file a patent.
Pop quiz: You’re raised in any state in America. Which one gives you the best shot at becoming an inventor?
The answer: Minnesota. Adults who spent their childhoods there have been more likely to file a patent than people raised anywhere else in America. (All data and correlations in this article come from tax and patent records analyzed by Opportunity Insights.)
Of the 7,473 people who filled out our newsletter quiz, 26% guessed Minnesota. Congrats to the successful guessers! We recommend you celebrate your data savvy with a can of Spam — which was invented in … Minnesota.
Kids raised in Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts have the highest chance of becoming inventors
Patent filings per 1,000 people born 1980–1984 and raised in each state
Why is Minnesota such fertile ground for future inventors? In part because it’s packed with inventors already. One of the strongest predictors of becoming an inventor, Opportunity Insights found, is growing up near inventors. And Minnesota hums with innovation—especially in medical devices. Beyond Spam, Minnesota has given us the implantable pacemaker, Scotch Tape, Nerf balls, prosthetic heart valves, and microwave popcorn.
Why does proximity to inventors matter so much?
Partly, one of those inventors might be a parent, passing down their skills and know-how. A child born between 1980 to 1984 to an inventor parent was about nine times more likely to become an inventor themselves. (That sounds like a big edge, but it’s smaller than the career pull in other fields: sons of lawyers are 27 times more likely to become lawyers, and sons of doctors 17 times more likely to become doctors.)
Plus, the link between neighborhoods full of inventors and kids who later become inventors isn’t just about parents teaching their own children. The evidence suggests that inventors can also inspire and mentor other kids nearby.
Consider female inventors. Men are, on average, 4.5 times more likely to become inventors than women. But the gap narrows when girls grow up around female inventors. Girls who grow up near women inventors—beyond their own mothers—are more likely to patent later in life. (The same effect doesn’t appear if young girls live near male inventors.)
The power of role models extends far beyond invention.
For instance, neighborhoods that give children the best chance to escape poverty tend to have more college graduates, more two-parent households, and more residents who return their Census forms. In other words, when adults in a community are educated, stable, and civic-minded, their example can rub off.
Inventing skews to the affluent. Kids from the top 1% of household income are six times more likely to become inventors than kids from middle-income families.
Kids with parents in the top income percentile are six times more likely to become inventors than kids with parents of median income
Patent filings per 1,000 people born 1980–1984, by parents’ income percentile
Being born into the top 1% may boost your odds of inventing, but does inventing make you rich?
In 2012, the most recent year for this data in the Opportunity Insights analysis, the median inventor earned about $114,000. The top 1% averaged just over $2 million.
Inventors also dominate the top of the wealth ladder. The three current richest people in the world—Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos—are all patent holders.
Other famous patent-holders included Mark Twain (for a self-adhesive scrapbook), Abraham Lincoln (for a device to lift boats over shoals), and the musician Prince (for a custom-shaped electronic keyboard). Prince, by the way, grew up in Minnesota.
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