Snapshot of the Region

Snapshot of the Region

What is Silicon Valley?

“Silicon Valley” is a concept – an ecosystem in and around the Santa Clara Valley, a region in southern portion of California’s San Francisco Bay Area. It’s boundaries are nebulous. For the purposes of examining data and trends, however, the geographical boundaries of Silicon Valley must be defined.

In the Silicon Valley Index publication and on SiliconValleyIndicators.org, Silicon Valley has been defined as: Santa Clara County (all), San Mateo County (all), and the cities of Fremont, Newark, and Union City (in Alameda County), and Scotts Valley (in Santa Cruz County). Because San Francisco is a vibrant contributor to the tech economy, data for the City/County of San Francisco are included in various charts throughout the Index. Some charts may include subsets of the region due to limited data availability, as noted.

Click on a row of charts to view them in full size:

*Represents a Bay Area estimate. County-level gender data were not readily available.

Note: Area, Population, Jobs, Average Annual Earnings, and Population Density figures are based on the city-defined Silicon Valley region; Population Change, Population by Age, Race & Ethnicity, Place of Birth, Educational Attainment, and Homeownership figures are based on Santa Clara and San Mateo County data only. Gender data are for the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley Metro Area. Oceania includes American Samoa, Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis, and Futuna. Multiple & Other includes American Indian and Alaska Native alone, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone, Some Other Race alone, and Two or More Races. White, Black or African-American, and Multiple & Other are not Hispanic or Latino; Asian subgroups are not mutually exclusive.

*Silicon Valley share of California GDP includes San Mateo and Santa Clara counties only.

Note: The individual share of California M&A deals involving at least one Silicon Valley company and the share involving at least one San Francisco company are not additive – they do not add up to the share of California deals involving either a Silicon Valley or San Francisco company.

Data Sources: Land Area (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010); Population (California Department of Finance, E-4 Estimates, 2022); GDP (Moody’s Economy.com, 2022); Venture Capital is by total dollar amount (CB Insights, 2022); Patent Registrations (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 2022 estimate based on data through November); Initial Public Offerings (Renaissance Capital, 2022); Jobs (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages; JobsEQ, Q2 2022); Angel Investment is by total dollar amount (CB Insights, 2022); Mergers & Acquisitions by total number of deals (Factset Research Systems, 2022); Unicorns and Decacorns include private companies with valuations of $1 billion+ and $10 billion+, respectively (CB Insights, 2022); Startups by number of newly-funded startup companies (CB Insights, 2022); Office Development is the share of completions, by square footage across California’s nine major markets (JLL Research, 2022); Hotel Development is the share of hotel rooms completed (Atlas Hospitality Group, 2021).

Note: Data and projections include Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties; TK-12 includes all students from ages four (Transitional Kindergarten) through twelfth grade.

Data Source: California Department of Finance

Analysis: Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies

Institute Video Series (2017) on Silicon Valley Trends

The Institute piloted an Indicators video series in mid-2017, engaging the local community with weekly texts to their mobile devices. The videos included a variety of facts about Silicon Valley’s economic and community health trends, and featured local experts from Joint Venture’s network of regional leaders.

Learn more and watch videos