Since the Indiana Vision 2025: 2021 Report Card was released late last month, Indiana Chamber president and CEO Kevin Brinegar and I have been presenting its results virtually to regions around Indiana.
For this week’s Tech Talk, I highlight a few of the relevant metrics and add some additional information that you might not find in the Report Card itself.
Broadband
This year’s Report Card tells a positive story about broadband in Indiana. Largely due to the state’s internet service providers making record investments in Indiana over the past decade, nearly 93% of Hoosiers have access to high-speed broadband and mobile connectivity, which ranks Indiana 22nd nationally (improving from 86.9% and 35th, respectively, in 2019).
Still, only 83% of Hoosiers have adopted high-speed broadband, ranking Indiana 39th nationally. This might help explain the stories we heard about students engaging in e-learning from a McDonald’s parking lot during the pandemic.
Whether this is an affordability or need issue is unknown. Regardless, more Hoosiers have access to high-speed broadband today than ever before. A key focus going forward will be to help more Hoosiers get connected while simultaneously continuing to deploy broadband networks.
Adult Credentials
More than 48% of Hoosiers have at least an associate’s degree or industry recognized credential, which is nearly a 50% increase from a decade ago and, impressively, a 10% increase from just two years ago. According to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education’s Indiana Certificates Report 2020, Indiana institutions have increased by 500% the number of certificates awarded in the past decade, predominately in high-paying fields like business administration, health care and technology.
STEM Degrees Conferred vs. STEM Hoosiers
Indiana ranks 13th nationally in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) degrees conferred; 37.9% of all associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees are STEM. However, only 12.2% of Hoosiers possess a STEM bachelor’s degree and 3.8% have a STEM-related occupation, ranking Indiana 42nd and 35th, respectively. There is no better evidence that Indiana must do more to retain the talent produced from our colleges and universities and, more importantly, ensure high-paying STEM jobs are available for our graduates.
Net Domestic Migration
Speaking of talent, Indiana was one of 23 states that experienced a positive in-migration of more people moving into Indiana than moving out. Tennessee was the only other Midwest area state to see its population increase as all of Indiana’s neighboring states and others in the region lost residents.
For example, in the past two years, Illinois lost nearly 100,000 residents while Indiana’s population has increased by more than 72,000. Just in the past year, Indiana’s population increased by more than 40,000 while the combined population in Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan decreased by more than 79,000.
These statistics are staggering and emphasize the need for Indiana to continue investing in quality of place initiatives that will do more to attract and retain much-needed workers and families to our state.
In upcoming Tech Talks I will discuss additional metrics contained in the Report Card as well as steps our state is taking to continue making progress toward the 37 goals contained in Indiana Vision 2025. In the meantime, I encourage you to explore the Report Card and respond to this email with what stands out to you.
