States have long competed for jobs and investment, and this dynamic is now playing out in the race to be the state with the most data scientists — the highly sought-after professionals who combine the technical knowledge needed to wrangle large data sets, the analytical expertise necessary to make sense of all that information and the social skills needed to communicate these insights to their colleagues. The appeal is obvious. Not only do data scientists command top salaries—Glassdoor reports that the national average salary for the position is $121,000—but states with high numbers of data scientists employed in local industries are also well-positioned to be more competitive in these sectors.
