In 2023, the United States Patent Office issued 159,880 patents for American inventors, according to US DataLabs. That number was roughly half of all U.S. patents granted. One sixth of the patents granted were filed by Japanese inventors; Chinese and Korean inventors received the next most patents.
Patents by State
Figure 1: Number of patents filed, top five states, 2023. Data from Pioneer Institute’s US DataLabs.
California (49,637), Texas (11,979), New York (11,204), Massachusetts (8,369) and Illinois (6,040) made up the top five states for most patents issued during 2023. In addition to having the largest population, California’s per capita number of patents also exceeded any other state with 127.4 per 100,000 residents. Massachusetts followed with 119.5 per 100,000 capita. New York had 57.3, Illinois was granted 48.1 and Texas was granted 39.3.
Top Patent Sectors
Figure 2: Number of patents filed by sector, 2023. Data from Pioneer Institute’s US DataLabs.
Electrical engineering – which includes power and energy systems, electronics & circuit designs and communication and signal processing technologies – made up the largest percentage of patents granted. Just over 75,000 electrical engineering patents were filed in 2023. The instrument sector made up the second largest total of patents with 26,095 patents granted, far behind the number of electrical engineering patents. The number of mechanical engineering patents falls closely behind with 20,170, and lastly there were 17,778 chemistry patents granted during 2023.
In California, the state with the most patents granted in 2023, the sector rankings were almost identical to the national average. A large majority (32,131) were electrical patents, making up 42.7 percent of the total electrical engineering patents issued to U.S. inventors. Like the national average, the instruments sector was the second largest by patents granted with 7,545, followed by chemistry (3,422) and mechanical engineering (2,420).
Massachusetts, however, has the exact same order of sectors from most to least patents granted as California but with a much more even divide. There were 2,784 electrical engineering patents granted, 2,373 instrument patents, 1,794 chemistry patents and 694 mechanical engineering patents.
Conclusion
California had the greatest number of patents filed, making up almost half of the American filed patents in 2023. While the ranking of each sector from greatest to least number of patents granted is almost identical to the national rankings, California has an extremely unequal divide of patents, while other states like Massachusetts are much more even across the board.
Oliver Dabora is a Roger Perry Government Transparency Intern with the Pioneer Institute. He is a rising senior at the Noble and Greenough School. Feel free to contact via LinkedIn or by writing a letter to Pioneer’s office.
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