San Diego County combines an innovative spirit with exemplary cultural amenities and a perfect climate into the ideal locale for education about business. The county covers 4,621 square miles (about the size of Connecticut) -– in the southwestern-most county of the continental United States with Mexico to the south and a beautiful coastline to the west.

San Diego County encompasses 18 incorporated cities and is home to 3 million people. It is the third most populous county in California.

The San Diego region has a diverse and vibrant economy. The local unemployment figure in May 2005 was 3.8 percent, lower than both the state of California’s 5.0 percent and the national rate of 4.9 percent. The region’s 2005 gross regional product is forecast to reach $151.1 billion, up 6.5 percent over 2004.

San Diego has emerged as a national leader in the new, knowledge-based economy. It has the most diversified high-tech economy in the nation, with hundreds of biotech, communications, software, Internet and information technology companies. Leading collaborative efforts to bring innovation to market are world-class institutions like the University of California, San Diego; The Scripps Research Institute; the Salk Institute for Biological Studies; and the Burnham Institute.

In June 2004, the San Diego region was rated the nation's No. 1 biotech cluster in a study by the Milken Institute.

In June 2003, San Diego was ranked fifth on the Milken’s list of America’s Best Performing Cities, an index that measures “where jobs are being created, economies are growing and businesses are thriving.”

In January 2004, Fast Company magazine noted that “the telecom and wireless industries have been woven in the life of (San Diego) for decades. As a result,” Fast Company wrote, “San Diego has the highest concentration of wireless employment in the country. Add 75,000 miles of underground fiber-optic cable -– more than any other region in the country -– and you have a picture of a very connected city.”

The San Diego region’s strong entrepreneurial spirit and high concentration of intellectual capital have fueled the growth of several technology industry clusters. The region boasts 171,868 high-tech jobs -– equating to more than 13% of all private sector jobs.

Source: San Diego Regional EDC