2023 Silicon Valley Index

The Joint Venture Silicon Valley Index has been providing insights on our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for over 25 years. It provides an honest and holistic view of life in Silicon Valley.

You can download the 2023 Silicon Valley Index over here.

Below are some of the key findings:

• The region continued battling surges, but the COVID death rate per capita declined in 2022.
• COVID-19 dropped to Silicon Valley’s sixth leading cause of death in 2022, down from third in 2021.
• The region recovered from pandemic job losses by April 2022. Unemployment hit an historic low. Tech is becoming more highly concentrated.
• Silicon Valley added 88,000 jobs between mid-2021 and mid-2022, a growth rate of 5.4%. An estimated 22,000 jobs were added in the second half of the year. The 30 largest firms account for 42 % of tech employment (19 % are at Google, Apple, and Meta alone).
• The rise and fall of the stock market drove large shifts in venture funding and IPOs.
• Pandemic-period stock market gains of nearly $9 trillion proved transitory as the market tumbled in 2022. Half of all venture capital flowing to Silicon Valley or San Francisco companies was in the form of megadeals ($24.7 billion spread across 116 megadeals).
• Demand for commercial space is tempered by remote work, but specialized R&D space is hot.
• Though remote work is shifting the dynamic, leasing activity remained strong throughout 2022. While there was a 45% increase in the number of lease agreements, the average amount of space per lease has sharply declined.
• Remote work is increasing, creating extra capacity on roadways and decimating public transit.
• The share of remote workers grew to 35% in 2022, up from 28% in 2021. Private commuter shuttles are being put out of service. Caltrain ridership fell to 4,100 daily riders, down from 67,000 (-92%). BART recovered 35% of its pre-pandemic riders.
• Silicon Valley’s population is declining; the share of young people is also falling.
• Silicon Valley’s population declined by 38,900 residents between mid-2020 and mid-2021, the highest figure ever recorded. The decline was due to a 74% rise in domestic outmigration, a reversal of the net flow of foreign immigrants (-103 %), declining birth rates, and rising death rates.
• The pandemic and patterns of outmigration haven’t affected soaring home prices
• Silicon Valley’s high home prices rose 7% in 2022, reaching a record-breaking median price of $1.53 million. The share of first-time homebuyers who can afford a median priced home fell to 27% and is as low as 14% for the region’s Black or African Americans and Hispanic or Latino residents.
• Inflation outpaced income gains; assistance programs scale upwards
• Increases in the regional Consumer Price Index since 2019 outpaced household income gains, resulting in a $550 decline in median household income in 2021. Childcare costs rose twice as quickly as the regional inflation rate since 2010 (+85%). Average wages vary significantly across racial and ethnic groups, with the largest disparity between Hispanic or Latino and White, not Hispanic or Latino residents.
• Silicon Valley has the nation’s largest gaps, and they are increasing.
• For the first time ever, ultra-high net worth households are included in regional wealth data. Through this lens, inequality is even more stark, with the top 0.001% of Silicon Valley’s households holding more wealth than the nearly 500,000 households in the bottom 50%.
• In 2022 the top 10 % of Silicon Valley households hold 66% of the wealth; eight Silicon Valley households residents hold more wealth than that of the bottom 50% combined (nearly half a million households).
• While income inequality was lessening in the state and nation (down 1 and 3%) it rose in Silicon Valley by 5% in 2021.
• 28% of Silicon Valley households are below income-adequacy; those households include 42% of the region’s children. 42% of children in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties live in households that are not self-sufficient; the most influential factor for these households is the cost of childcare.
• Income adequacy varies significantly by race and ethnicity. Among those most likely to live below Self-Sufficiency Standards are Hispanic or Latino non-citizens and those with limited English.