Snapshot of the Region
Silicon Valley Population Clock
As of
Based on California Department of Finance January 2025 population data for Fremont, Newark, Union City, and Scotts Valley, and July 2025 population data for Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, and estimated using the most recent growth rates available. Estimates for births, deaths and migration are based on July data for San Mateo and Santa Clara counties only.
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 image to view charts at full size:
Note: Includes San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.
Data Sources: U.S. Census Bureau; CA Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation
*includes San Mateo and Santa Clara counties only
Data Sources: Land Area (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010); Population & Births (California Department of Finance, E-4 and E-2 Estimates, 2025); GDP (Moody’s Economy.com, 2025); Venture Capital is by total dollar amount (CB Insights, 2025); Patent Registrations (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 2025 estimate based on data through September); Initial Public Offerings (Renaissance Capital, 2025); Jobs (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages; JobsEQ, Q2 2025); Mergers & Acquisitions by total number of exits (CB Insights, 2025); Unicorns and Decacorns include private companies with valuations of $1 billion+ and $10 billion+, respectively (CB Insights, 2025); Startups by number of newly-funded startup companies (CB Insights, 2025); Hotel Development is the share of hotel rooms completed (Atlas Hospitality Group, 2022-2025; CalFresh enrollees is the average number of CalFresh Persons (California Department of Social Services, 2025); College-Educated Adults include those ages 25+ with an associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, and/or doctorate degree (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, 2024); Hours of Traffic Delays includes state highways (Caltrans PeMS, 2025); Foreign Immigrants are by the net number of foreign immigrants between July 2024 and June 2025 (California Department of Finance, preliminary data); Millionaire Households are by estimated liquid wealth (Claritas, 2025); and Software Developers (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, 2024).
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.
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