Showing posts with label saturday stats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label saturday stats. Show all posts

Saturday, November 18, 2023

San Jose ranked as 2nd best city to go to for Thanksgiving 🍗

Thanksgiving is one of America's favorite holidays and US families spend an average of $325 per person (!) during Thanksgiving weekend. This also includes your Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping.

WalletHub decided to look for the best cities in the US to celebrate Thanksgiving using 18 different metrics divided across five major categories: local celebrations and traditions, affordability, safety, volunteering, and weather.

San Jose came in 2nd place in the Thanksgiving rankings right after San Francisco. San Diego gobbled the 3rd spot. Despite an abysmal affordability rank, San Jose ranked highly in celebrations (think Turkey Trot), safety, giving thanks (volunteering), and of course weather. I love those Indian summers where we have gotten to celebrate Thanksgiving outside with family.

Source: WalletHub



Saturday, November 11, 2023

San Jose ranked as the #1 most innovative metro in the US

San Jose and the San Jose metro (the true definition of Silicon Valley) have become synonymous with innovation. One of the ways we can gauge this is by the number of patents filed in each region. In this metric, San Jose completely crushes any other metro in the US with 9,798 patents filed last year. NYC came in second with 6,275 patents and San Francisco got the bronze with 4,919 patents. That is already extremely impressive. But that's not the whole story...

The San Jose metro has a population of 2 million people. NYC, the runner up, has a population of almost 20 million people (!!!). So despite having 10% of the population, San Jose still filed more patents than an area more populous than most States. Even when you look at our neighbors up North, the SF Metro includes Oakland and Alameda County and has a total population of 4.6 million. So again, despite being less than half the size we filed double the patents as the SF metro. This is a key reason why the US Patent Office decided to open a satellite location in San Jose, not San Francisco.

Make no mistake, we are still the innovation capital of the world by far.

Top 25 Most Innovative US Metros (Patents Filed)

  • San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA (9,798)
  • New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA (6,275)
  • San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA (4,919)
  • Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA (3,773)
  • Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA (2,091)
  • Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH (1,798)
  • Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, VA (1,489)
  • San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA (1,190)
  • Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI (896)
  • Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA (812)
  • Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI (770)
  • Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL (761)
  • Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX (626)
  • Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE (532)
  • Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX (499)
  • Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX (453)
  • Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC (404)
  • Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN (321)
  • Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY (315)
  • Raleigh-Cary, NC (289)
  • Bloomington, IL (282)
  • Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO (265)
  • Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA (238)
  • Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT (235)
  • Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ (185)

  • Source: Bay Area Inno

    Saturday, August 16, 2014

    Saturday Stats: San Jose is One of "America's Coolest Cities"

    Forbes recently compiled a list of America's Coolest Cities. They started with the 60 largest Metros in the US and then ranked them on six factors (equal weight):
    • Arts, culture, and entertainment amenities
    • Recreational amenities
    • Diversity
    • Foodie culture
    • Population aged 20-34
    • Population growth
    San Jose ranked #16 on their list, tied with Los Angeles (I'll take it). SF ranked #5 and New York hit #11. Washington DC took the #1 spot. To see the full list click here.

    Sources: Cardinal2007 from Skyscrapercity, Forbes


    Saturday, August 2, 2014

    Saturday Stats: San Jose is the 2nd Best Swim City

    Here is a fun stat for summer. San Jose is the 2nd best area for swimming in the US! We have the most swim members per 1,000 people and the largest multicultural make-up of any region. The SF metro was 5th on the list. The top 50 is below.

    Source: USA Swimming, Hat tip to Barclay Livker for sending this in!


    Rank Metropolitan AreaTotal Weighted IndexPopulation Age 6+ 
     1. Ann Arbor, Michigan 1,348 348,971
     2. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California 1,277 1,761,295
     3. Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina 1,235 1,476,825
     4. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Connecticut 1,185 909,970
     5. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, California 1,133 4,160,269
     6. Fort Collins-Loveland, Colorado 1,088 280,068
     7. Madison, Wisconsin 1,077 550,312
     8. Austin-Round Rock, Texas 1,016 1,521,851
     9. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, California 993 13,133,921
     10. Indianapolis-Carmel, Indiana 989 1,682,815
     11. Washington, D.C. area 956 5,377,932
     12. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, California 925 258,624
     13. Boulder, Colorado 920 284,607
     14. Trenton-Ewing, New Jersey 905 372,123
     15. Colorado Springs, Colorado 879 607,312
     16. Anchorage, Alaska  866 363,582
     17. Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota/Wisconsin 844 3,211,584
     18. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas 840 5,504,735
     19. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Georgia 816 5,186,819
     20. Santa Barbara-Santa Maria, California 811 401,253
     21. Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky 810 435,465
     22. Lincoln, Nebraska 805 286,831
     23. Richmond, Virginia 793 1,202,109
     24. Denver-Aurora, Colorado 788 2,429,088
     25. Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, North Carolina/South Carolina 751 1,598,273
     26. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington 731 3,270,270
     27. Tallahassee, Florida 726 338,800
     28. Santa Rosa-Petaluma, California 718 468,963
     29. Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, Iowa/Illinois 717 376,817
     30. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, California 711 812,013
     31. Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, Wisconsin 704 1,519,871
     32. Omaha-Council Bluffs, Nebraska/Iowa 692 828,741
     33. Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Illinois 690 9,573,949
     34. Provo-Orem, Utah 688 483,990
     35. Reno-Sparks, Nevada 685 415,540
     36. Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, Oregon/Washington 684 2,161,753
     37. New Haven-Milford, Connecticut 674 855,447
     38. Albuquerque, New Mexico 669 825,179
     39. Columbus, Ohio 657 1,742,026
     40. Baltimore-Towson, Maryland 650 2,695,688
     41. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 631 2,369,879
     42. Tucson, Arizona 630 955,724
     43. Sacramento--Arden-Arcade--Roseville, California 629 2,136,139
     44. Cincinnati-Middletown, Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana 627 2,094,746
     45. Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice, Florida 625 706,173
     46. Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, New York 624 685,207
     47. Fort Wayne, Indiana 622 409,934
     48. South Bend-Mishawaka, Indiana/Michigan 621 318,850
     49. Rochester, New York 617 1,039,940
     50. Salt Lake City, Utah 615 1,059,659


    Saturday, July 26, 2014

    Saturday Stats: San Jose is the #1 Place for STEM Graduates!

    Today we have another one of those Saturday Stats to really be proud of. According to NerdWallet--which is based in SF by the way--San Jose is the #1 place in the United States for STEM jobs (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math).

    It wasn't even close. They looked at three main criteria: the mean wage for STEM occupations (25%), the size of the STEM industry (50%), and the median gross rent (25%). Despite coming in the highest with the median gross rent (a big negative), San Jose's $111,745 mean wage and the fact that 17% of all jobs in San Jose are related to STEM gave us a towering lead in the overall score.

    The data is below, and is well worth taking a look. Only three other areas in California made the cut. San Francisco was #5, Sacramento was #15, and San Diego was #20.

    Source: NerdWallet, Thanks to Christopher Rein for sending this in.





    Saturday, July 12, 2014

    Saturday Stats: San Jose Named Best City to Work In!

    San Jose continues to get recognition for being a great city to work in. An analysis by Glassdoor ranks the San Jose metro as the #1 place in the country for employee satisfaction. Huge tech salaries and career opportunities were the key contributors to the ranking. This is also the second consecutive year where San Jose is placed at the top of the hill in this study.

    San Francisco ranked #2, Washington DC was #3, and New York was miles away at #28. Make sure to watch the short video below put together by Glassdoor.

    Sources: GlassdoorSVBJ, Business Insider, Hat tip to Arturo Perez

     

    Saturday, July 5, 2014

    Saturday Stats: San Jose is the Happiest City to Work in for 2014!

    San Jose just earned another badge for work-related accomplishments. CareerBliss has proclaimed that San Jose is rated the happiest city to work in. This rating came from hundreds of thousands of employee reviews where professionals rated how they felt about where they worked and how it impacted their overall happiness. Key factors such as relationships with bosses, co-workers, job resources, compensation, growth opportunities, company culture, company reputation, and their daily tasks were all factored into the reviews.

    San Francisco came in third while New York did not rank in the Top 10. Why do I always bring up these two cities? There are really the two in the US we are competing with the most when in comes to job opportunities. Have a look at the full Top 10 below.

    Source: CareerBliss, Hat Tip to Barclay Livker for sending this in!


    Saturday, June 28, 2014

    Saturday Stats: San Jose is the #3 Most "Upward Mobile" City

    Where are the best places to realize the American dream? Check out the list below. San Jose comes in as the 3rd most upwardly mobile region in the US. Absolute Upward Mobility tells us how children are able to stack up compared to their parents. Relative Mobility measures an employee's odds of moving up or down the income ladder. Note that while San Jose had the 3rd best Absolute Upward Mobility score, we were #1 in Relative Mobility.

    San Francisco came in 5th place and New York rounded out the top 10.

    Source: The Atlantic, Hat tip to Dan De La O.



    Saturday, June 21, 2014

    Saturday Stats: San Jose is the #6 Healthiest City in the US

    The ACSM American Fitness Index is a scientific snapshot of health and fitness at a metropolitan level. On a national level, San Jose ranked at the #6 healthiest city. San Francisco came in a hair better at #5.

    The areas San Jose excelled at include a high vegetable consumption, low percentage of people smoking, low obesity rates, high percentage of people in excellent or very good health, and a high number of playgrounds and parks per capita. Areas improvement include a higher percentage of mental health issues (all the stress from tech jobs?) and a higher rate of asthma than other metros.

    You can download the full report as well as historic reports at the link below.

    Source: ACSM American Fitness Index, Hat tip to Barclay Livker


    Saturday, June 14, 2014

    Saturday Stats: San Jose is the Most Expensive Metro

    In the first quarter of 2014, median single-family home sales hit $808,000 in the San Jose metro. This is enough to rank it as the most expensive metro in the US by the National Association of Realtors.

    The San Francisco metro (which also includes Oakland) ranked as the second most expensive metro with a median home price of $679,800. To put these medium home sale prices in context, the median for the 170 largest metros combined was only $191,600.

    Source: SocketSite


    Saturday, June 7, 2014

    Saturday Stats: San Jose is the #1 Best City in the US for Small Biz

    Here is one of the best Saturday Stats we could ask for. The San Jose metro has been identified as the best city in the nation for small businesses. This is based on a weighted average that includes annual revenue, credit scores, cash flow, and several other metrics. There is also a great quote from the article: "San Jose remains the center of innovation and new business job creation in the U.S."

    Well there you have it. San Francisco came in 5th place with New York taking 7th. Detroit did surprisingly well thanks to the rebound of the auto industry and low costs of doing business.

    This isn't the first time San Jose has been highly ranked in this area. Last year Nerd Wallet ranked San Jose as the #6 best city in the US for small business.

    The Top 25 Cities for Small Business in 2014
    1. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
    2. Detroit-Dearborn, MI
    3. Denver, CO
    4. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
    5. San Francisco-Oakland, CA
    6. Las Vegas, NV
    7. New York metro area
    8. Atlanta, GA
    9. Washington, DC metro area
    10. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL
    11. Riverside-San Bernardino, CA
    12. Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL
    13. Sacramento, CA
    14. Indianapolis, IN
    15. Houston, TX
    16. Chicago, IL
    17. Portland, OR
    18. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
    19. Phoenix-Scottsdale, AZ
    20. Charlotte, NC
    21. San Antonio, TX
    22. Seattle-Tacoma, WA
    23. Jacksonville, FL
    24. Philadelphia, PA
    25. Orlando-Kissimmee, FL
    Source: Biz2Credit




    Saturday, May 31, 2014

    Saturday Stats: San Jose is the 2nd Safest U.S. Driving City

    Here is a Saturday stat I was not expecting. Despite being the 7th most congested city in the US, San Jose is the 2nd safest city in the country when it comes to driving. Only New York had a lower vehicle fatality rate among the ten largest cities in the country. I also was not aware that San Jose has actually held this 2nd place distinction since 2003. I would expect when self-driving cars hit the market, the fatality rates will go even lower.

    Fatality Rate Per 100,000 People
    1. New York City  - 3.21
    2. San Jose - 4.27
    3. San Diego - 5.23
    4. Chicago - 5.34
    5. Los Angeles - 6.27
    6. Philadelphia - 6.91
    7. Houston - 9.01
    8. San Antonio - 9.54
    9. Phoenix - 10.14
    10. Dallas - 10.96

    Source: NBC Bay Area, hat tip to Jordan Toy

    Saturday, May 24, 2014

    Saturday Stats: San Jose Metro Unemployment Rate Drops

    Silicon Valley's unemployment rate dropped again last month to a stellar 5.4% (5.3% if you eliminate San Benito County, not sure why it is included in these figures). This is down from 6.3% in March. This confirms what many of us already know, the local job market is on fire--in a good way.

    How does that 5.4% compare? California's average unemployment rate is 7.3% and the nation's unemployment rate is 5.9%. This means we are outperforming both the state and country in terms of the jobs market.

    Source: SVBJ


    Saturday, May 17, 2014

    Saturday Stats: Silicon Valley has More Billionaires than SF

    There are a whopping 56 billionaires that are living in the Bay Area. What surprised me is that there are more living in Silicon Valley as opposed to San Francisco. Most of the 34 billionaires in Silicon Valley live in Woodside, Palo Alto, and Atherton.

    Other interesting tidbits. Seven new billionaires were minted last year in the Bay Area (two from Facebook), Larry Ellison is the richest person in Silicon Valley and fifth in the world with a new worth of $48 billion, and just about all of the Bay Area's billionaires made their money in tech.

    Combined, Silicon Valley's billionaires are worth $301 billion, which makes up 62% of the net worth of all the billionaires in California. Another way to say that is of all the extreme wealth in the state, 62% of it is in Silicon Valley. Now let's hope some of these billionaires share their wealth in the local area and help improve our communities!

    Source: SVBJ


    Saturday, May 10, 2014

    5 Year Anniversary of TSJB, San Jose Population Hits 1 Million!!!

    Today marks this blog's fifth anniversary, which is quite a long time in the local blogosphere! I was feeling a bit nostalgic, so I decided to pull up the very first post from May 10th, 2009:

    Born and raised in San Jose, I've had the opportunity to witness this city's amazing transformation from a midsized suburban town into the 10th largest city in the US, the capital of Silicon Valley, and a incubator for innovation and entrepreneurship. The goal of this blog is to highlight new developments in San Jose as well as to visually show a side of the city that many people haven't seen before.  Major changes are underway, and there hasn't been a better time to be a San Josean. Cheers to the future!

    I still stand by this statement today, but I have to admit that this really doesn't tell the full story on the blog's origins. Five years ago it was estimated that San Jose broke one million residents. I thought this was a cause for celebration, but I noticed in a couple of online forums when the news broke out instead of congratulating San Jose, the city was getting berated. Posters complained about San Jose's lack of culture, development, and downtown area. In essence, the theme was that San Jose did not deserve to be a city of a million people. Of course, the guys from Skyscraper City and I quickly rose to the challenge and vehemently defended our city. However, I didn't think that was enough. I wanted to prove to the world that San Jose is already a great place and it is developing and innovating at a rapid pace. That was the real impetus for the blog.

    When the official census numbers came out a year later in 2010, San Jose did not hit the million mark in population. The figure came out to only 945,952 residents, definitely a disappointment.

    Fast forward to 2014. San Jose is again estimated to have hit the million mark, except this time it is an official government statistic and will almost certainly stick by the time the 2020 census comes around. The exact figure released by the California Department of Finance is 1,006,892 residents.

    This time the reaction is quite a bit different. There is very little negativity or mockery coming from the news, and even a few San Franciscans have offered congratulations on online forums. It you look at the San Jose of today, it is very different than five years ago. Downtown is booming. The restaurant scene has exploded, multiple cranes are up for major projects, the San Pedro Square Market is bringing people from across the Bay into the area, the convention center is expanded, and I have never seen so many people on the streets over the weekends. As far as infrastructure goes, San Jose is getting BART in a few short years, it will be the core of a new and extensive Bus Rapid Transit system, and Light Rail is going to get several improvements and a new line. In terms of pro sports (a big draw), over the last five years two major stadiums were approved in the area and are well under construction: the Earthquakes stadium at the edge of Downtown and the $1.3 billion Levi's Stadium less than a mile away from San Jose's border. Both will have a big impact on tourism and the area's brand. Lastly, over the last half decade millions of square feet in office have been added with several million more to come. San Jose has become a clear choice for large tech companies that need a large amount of space as well as startups looking for a more urban atmosphere and public transit.

    The last five years have had their ups and downs, but I think we are hitting this marker on a very high note. The next five years are going to be much more exciting and I can't wait to see where we'll be in 2019.

    Hope you all have a great weekend, Cheers!

    Photo by LastLightBender

    Saturday, May 3, 2014

    Saturday Stats: San Jose Metro is the #1 Best Big City for Jobs!

    San Jose just nailed the top stop in a study listing the best big cities for jobs in Forbes. Our metro area had 982,000 jobs in 2013, job growth was 4.3% last year, and job growth over the last 5 years was 8.1%.

    All 398 metropolitan statistical areas were put through their paces in the survey, and the largest 66 metros were all competing with San Jose. Our neighbor San Francisco came in second (their 2013 job growth was 3.6%) and New York City came in 7th (2013 job growth was 2.2%).

    This is a huge statistical win for San Jose. Sometimes you have to separate out the real numbers from all of the media hype going around for other regions.

    Source: Forbes, Hat tip to Dan De La O


    Saturday, April 26, 2014

    Saturday Stats: San Jose is the #11 Top City for Millennials to Live, Work, and Play

    Niche Data has ranked the top 25 cities for millennials to reside based on a variety of factors such as crime rates, college graduate surveys, rent costs, and median income. As expected, both New York City and San Francisco ranked well with the #1 and #5 spots respectively. However, San Jose which is often perceived as a place to "graduate to" after you have a family also fared well in 11th place.

    A big myth is also expelled, which is the percentage of young people in each of these regions (the assumption is that San Jose has fewer). Both San Jose and San Francisco have 15% of their population between ages 25-35, while New York is slightly less at 14%. Also while San Jose and New York have "low" crime rates, San Francisco is ranked as "average." Check out the source link for the full list of cities!

    Source: Huff Post Collect, Hat tip to our friend Dan De La O


    Saturday, April 19, 2014

    Saturday Stats: San Jose has the #3 Lowest Obesity Rate in US (For Large Cities)

    We all know that obesity is a growing problem in the US, but the good news is that it is much less of a problem here than it is in other places. In a recent Gallup Well-Being survey, the San Jose area ranked as having the 3rd lowest obesity rate for any metro with a population of more than one million people. If you look at the largest 189 US Metros, we still fared quite well in 8th pace.

    The most obese community in the US was Huntington-Ashland, where every two out of five people is considered obese. San Jose has half that rate with one one out of every five people being statistically obese.

    Source: Gallup, Hatip to Filipe Medeiros


    Saturday, April 12, 2014

    Saturday Stats: San Jose is the #8 Most Compact/Connected Large Metro in the US

    San Jose gets a lot of flack for being sprawled out; however, based on two large scale studies of urban sprawl in the US it turns out we are not doing too shabby. In the Smart Growth America study, we were the 8th most compact and connect metro in the US with a population greater than 1 million people. In fact, we got higher index scores than Oakland and Chicago metros.

    In another study entitled Urban Sprawl in the United States: 1970-2010, San Jose had a "sprawl score" of 21.04 in 1970, 16.5 in 1980, 16.33 in 1990, 15.25 in 2000, and 14.13 in 2010. Without really going into how the numbers were calculated, the conclusion is that sprawl decreased by a third over the past 40 years in San Jose. So the reality is that like LA, we are a lot more dense than the general perception.

    Source: Smart Growth America, Hat tip to Russ Lopez fro sending this in!


    Saturday, March 29, 2014

    Saturday Stats: San Jose Ranked #5 Best City for Overall Well-Being

    Gallup has ranked the best and worst cities for "well-being" and San Jose did quite well. The data is based on more than 500,000 interviews where people were asked about their emotional and physical health, their job satisfactions, community safety, and access to food, shelter, and health care. In overall well-being, San Jose came in 5th while SF landed the 9th spot on the list.

    The top 10 cities for overall well-being:

    1. Provo-Orem, Utah
    2. Boulder, Colo.
    3. Fort Collins-Loveland, Colo.
    4. Honolulu
    5. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.
    6. Ann Arbor, Mich.
    7. Naples-Marco Island, Fla.
    8. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, Calif.
    9. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif.
    10. Lincoln, Neb.

    Source: USA Today, Hat-tip to Barclay Livker for sending this in!