This report examines the changing geography of talent in America over the past decade 2010-2019. The analysis covers all 350-plus U.S. metros, paying special attention to large metros with over one million people and the 166 metros spanning 20 states that make up America’s heartland region.

The contributors address a fundamental topic for future economic success in the Heartland: Will Millennials return and remain at higher rates?

Heartland States Lag Behind Coastal States in the Innovation Economy

The State of the Heartland: Factbook 2018 benchmarks the performance of the 19-state American “Heartland” on 26 socioeconomic measures and is intended to help Heartland leaders and citizens better comprehend the region’s current trajectory at a time of rapid economic and social change.

5G, the fifth generation of wireless communications, has the potential to make the opportunity cost of rural living much larger, maybe insurmountably so.

The American research university is the nation’s best defense against economic competition from the rest of the world. Research shouldn’t be confined to a library, lab, or lecture hall. When it comes to America’s research universities, across the Heartland and beyond, data show that when universities and communities collaborate, the positive impacts on the workforce, tax base, startup activity and economy opportunity grow exponentially.

For more than half a century the U.S. has maintained a competitive edge in the world economy in large measure because of its leadership in research and innovation. To assume that this will continue without change is naive.

Trade and tariffs with China cause economic hardship on America’s Heartland Economy – counties and crops across the Heartland are affected most.