# Source: Best of State Award Categories Page

**Type:** source
**Status:** Useful
**Confidence:** Medium
**Source Type:** official-page
**Publisher:** Best of State Foundation
**URL:** https://www.bestofstate.org/categories
**Raw:** raw/best-of-state-award-categories-page/2026-08-11-f358307bee4a.txt
**Retrieved:** 2026-08-12
**Updated:** 2026-08-11

## Summary

The program's own full category list, and the single most calibrating fact the award publishes about
itself: **there are 764 categories.**

That number is what a medal has to be read against. "Best of State winner" sounds like one award per
field per year; the category list shows a taxonomy fine enough to contain 215 separate dining
categories, in which a medal means best *entrant* in a narrow slot rather than best in Utah at
anything.

## Useful Claims

- **764 categories across 10 groups**, in the page's own words.
- **The per-group counts are stated and they sum exactly to 764:** Arts & Entertainment 76,
  Science & Technology 37, Community Development 63, Production & Manufacturing 60,
  Sports & Recreation 49, Hospitality Travel & Tourism 49, Merchandising & Consumer Services 88,
  Education 57, Business Services 70, Dining Establishments 215.
- **Dining Establishments alone holds 215 of the 764 categories** — more than a quarter of the entire
  taxonomy, and more than five times the Science & Technology group's 37.
- **Some categories are marked with a star**, which the [nomination page](best-of-state-nomination-page.md)
  identifies as the reduced-fee tier rather than as a distinction of any kind.

## Verbatim

> "764 categories across 10 groups. Pick a group to see every category, or search to find yours instantly."
> — Page introduction

> "Arts & Entertainment 76 Science & Technology 37 Community Development 63 Production & Manufacturing 60 Sports & Recreation 49 Hospitality, Travel & Tourism 49 Merchandising & Consumer Services 88 Education 57 Business Services 70 Dining Establishments 215"
> — Group index

## Reliability Notes

**Self-reported and current-year only.** This is the 2026 taxonomy. Category lists have plainly changed
over the program's life — earlier winner lists contain categories that do not appear here — so do not
use this page to reason about what a medal from an earlier year competed against.

**It contradicts the program's own [about page](best-of-state-about-page.md)**, which claims "41 Active
categories". The two numbers differ by a factor of nearly twenty. This page is the more credible of the
two, because it enumerates its categories and its group counts add up to its own total, while the about
page asserts a bare figure; but the contradiction is the reason neither should be cited without
attribution.

**The star marking is a fee tier, not a quality tier**, and it would be easy to misread as one. The
nomination form's legend states it: "* marks reduced-fee categories ($85)".

## Related Pages

- [Best of State Awards](best-of-state-awards.md)
- [Source: Best of State Nomination Page](best-of-state-nomination-page.md)
- [Source: Best of State About Page](best-of-state-about-page.md)