About San Diego

San Diego is a coastal Southern California city located in the southwestern corner of the continental United States. In 2006, the city's population was estimated to be 1,256,951. It is the second largest city in California and the eighth largest city in the United States, by population. It is the county seat of San Diego County and is the economic center of the San Diego砲arlsbad亡an Marcos metropolitan area, the 17th-largest in the United States with a population of 2.9 million as of 2006, and the 21st-largest metropolitan area in the America when including Tijuana.

San Diego County lies just north of the Mexican border, sharing a border with Tijuana and lies south of Orange County. It is home to miles of beaches, a mild Mediterranean climate and 16 military facilities hosting the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard and the United States Marine Corps. The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the affiliated UCSD Medical Center combined with nearby research institutes in the Torrey Pines area of La Jolla make the area influential in biotechnology research. San Diego's economy is largely composed of agriculture, biotechnology/biosciences, computer sciences, electronics manufacturing, defense-related manufacturing, financial and business services, ship-repair and construction, software development, telecommunications, and tourism.

San Diego has become a major center of the emerging biotechnology industry. It is also home to telecommunications giant Qualcomm. Downtown San Diego has been undergoing an urban renewal since the early 1980s, beginning with the opening of Horton Plaza, the revival of the Gaslamp Quarter, and the construction of the San Diego Convention Center. The Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC), San Diego's downtown redevelopment agency, has transformed downtown into a glittering showcase of waterfront skyscrapers, expensive live-work loft developments, five-star hotels, and many cafes, restaurants, and boutiques. The latest accomplishment of CCDC has been the recent inauguration of PETCO Park. The once-industrial East Village adjacent to the new ballpark is now the new frontier in San Diego's downtown urban renewal.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,223,400 people, 450,691 households, and 271,315 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,771.9 people per square mile. Population by race/ethnicity (Census 2000 def.)

• White alone (49.36%)
• Hispanic/Latino (25.4%) - includes White Hispanic (11%)
• Non-Hispanic Black (7.5%)
• Non-Hispanic Other Race alone (0.2%)
• Non-Hispanic Asian, Hawaiian and Pacific Islander alone (13.9%)
• Non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native alone (0.4%)
• Non-Hispanic Multiracial (3.3%)
  

In the city the population was spread out with 24.0% under the age of 18, 12.4% from 18 to 24, 34.0% from 25 to 44, 19.1% from 45 to 64, and 10.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 101.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.4 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $45,733, and the median income for a family was $53,060. Males had a median income of $36,984 versus $31,076 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,609. About 10.6% of families and 14.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.0% of those under age 18 and 7.6% of those ages 65 or over.

Crime
In 2004, San Diego had the sixth lowest crime rate of any U.S. city with over half a million residents. In 2005, San Diego had 4.2 murders per 100,000 (national average of 5.9) and was the lowest U.S. city over one million residents. From 2002 to 2006, violent crime decreased 12.4% while overall crime decreased 0.8%.

In the year 2004, all violent crimes, which includes murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults, were lower than the national average. Total property crimes were lower than the national average. However, while burglaries and larceny/thefts were lower than the national average, vehicle thefts were twice as high as the national average.

Economy
The three largest sectors of San Diego's economy are defense, manufacturing, and tourism respectively. Several areas of San Diego (in particular La Jolla and surrounding Sorrento Valley areas) are home to offices and research facilities for numerous biotechnology companies. Major biotechnology companies like Neurocrine Biosciences and Nventa Biopharmaceuticals are headquartered in San Diego, while many biotech and pharmaceutical companies, such as BD Biosciences, Biogen Idec, Integrated DNA Technologies, Merck, Pfizer, ﾉlan, Genzyme, Cytovance, Celgene and Vertex, have offices or research facilities in San Diego.

There are also several non-profit biotech institutes, such as the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the Scripps Research Institute and the Burnham Institute. The presence of University of California, San Diego and other research institutions helped fuel biotechnology growth. In June 2004, San Diego was ranked the top biotech cluster in the U.S. by the Milken Institute.

San Diego is home to companies that develop wireless cellular technology. Qualcomm Incorporated was founded and is headquartered in San Diego; Qualcomm is the largest private-sector technology employer (excluding hospitals) in San Diego County. The largest software company in San Diego (according to the San Diego Business Journal) is security software company Websense Inc.

The economy of San Diego is influenced by its port, which includes the only major submarine and shipbuilding yards on the West Coast, as well as the largest naval fleet in the world. The cruise ship industry, which is the second largest in California, generates an estimated $2 million annually from the purchase of food, fuel, supplies, and maintenance services. Due to San Diego's military influence, major national defense contractors, such as General Atomics and Science Applications International Corporation are headquartered in San Diego.

Tourism is also a major industry associated to the city's wonderful climate. Major tourist destinations include Balboa Park, the San Diego Zoo, Seaworld, nearby Wild Animal Park and Legoland, the city's beaches and golf tournaments like the Buick Invitational.

Real Estate
Prior to 2006, San Diego experienced a dramatic growth of real estate prices, to the extent that the situation was sometimes described as a "housing affordability crisis". Median house prices more than tripled between 1998 and 2007. According to the California Association of Realtors, in May 2007, a median house in San Diego cost $612,370. From 2005 to 2007, San Diego experienced a greater than 15% decline in real estate prices, which continued to accelerate into 2008. The two-year drop already experienced is worse than the four-year period between June, 1992, and November, 1996, when the region experienced an 11.8% decline in housing prices. In the first quarter of 2008, the number of foreclosures repossessed by banks exceeded the number of home sales.

San Diego Links for More Information:

City of San Diego Official Website - http://www.sandiego.gov

San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau - http://www.sandiego.org

PETCO PARK - http://www.petcoparkevents.com/

Downtown San Diego - http://www.sandiegodowntown.org/

San Diego Beaches - http://www.sandiego.gov/lifeguards/beaches/