In June 2004 San Diego was ranked the No. 1 biotech cluster in the U.S. by the Milken Institute. The honor was bestowed for the region’s climate of innovation and success in bringing products to market, establishing new companies, and creating jobs. Recently, Biosite Inc.’s Triage® Cardio ProfilER and Biogen IDEC’s Zevalin™ have joined Agouron (now Pfizer) Pharmaceuticals' Viracept®, Ligand Pharmaceuticals' Targretin®, and Biogen IDEC’s Rituxan® as successful products developed in San Diego. Corporate giants Merck, Pfizer, Dow, Novartis and others have developed key partnerships with local biotech pioneers, fostering growth while providing companies with the financial freedom to develop innovative new products.

Much of the credit for San Diego's revitalized economy goes to the University of California, San Diego, which is world-class in its academic quality and home to many Nobel Prize winners and members of the National Academy of Sciences. UCSD shares its Torrey Pines location with the world renowned Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Salk Institute, the Scripps Research Institute, and the Burnham Research Institute. See also the Center for Bio/Pharmaceutical and Biodvice Development at San Diego State University.

Together with UCSD's Medical Center, these outstanding research institutions have created a critical mass of technological innovation, providing the seedbed for start-up companies in biotech, software development, wireless communications, pharmaceutical development and medical equipment manufacturing.

San Diego's biotechnology community is the third largest in the country. San Diego's communications industry is one of the fastest growing in the country and has earned San Diego the title of wireless communications capital of the world.

San Diego is also known for developing wireless cellular technology. Qualcomm Incorporated was founded here and is headquartered here, and the company is the county's largest private-sector technology employer (excluding hospitals), with more than 6,000 employees in San Diego [3]. Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, and Texas Instruments also have research and development labs in San Diego, principally focused on cloning Qualcomm's CDMA cellular technology.

The economy of San Diego is also influenced by its port, which includes the only major shipbuilding yard on the West Coast, as well as the naval base.

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 (1,456.4/km²). There were 469,689 housing units at an average density of 1,448.1 per square mile (559.1/km²). The racial makeup of the city is as follows:

* White (46.4%)
* Hispanic (25.4%)
* other races (12.4%)
* African American (10.8%)
* Filipino (6.1%)
* Two or more races (4.8%)
* Vietnamese (2.2%)
* Chinese (1.9%)
* Other Asian (1.5%)
* Native American (1.3%)
* Japanese (0.8%)
* Korean (0.6%)
* Asian Indian (0.6%)

There were 450,691 households out of which 30.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.6% were married couples living together, 11.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.8% were non-families. 28.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.30.

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 age 65 or over.

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