North Dakota produces more than almost anywhere. Can it turn that into startup growth?

Top five in energy exports, agricultural production and workforce participation. Bottom ten in new business formation. The gap between those two facts is the state’s economic story.

By: Christopher Wink

Outlets: Technical.ly

Published: August 27, 2026

Words: 1,213

Last Updated: 1 month, 4 weeks ago

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When North and South Dakota joined the union in November 1889, President Benjamin Harrison reportedly had the two statehood proclamations shuffled and their titles covered before he signed, so no one could ever say which Dakota came first.

More than 130 years later, the order still isn’t official.

It’s a fitting origin for the northern member of that duo, a big, sparse state without a clear national identity. More Americans have seen a ghost …

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