San Jose is sometimes called the heart of Silicon Valley, and it’s home to some big-name companies, including eBay, Adobe Systems and PayPal. Surrounding towns are home to Apple, Facebook and a tremendous amount of venture capital money.
That adds up to opportunity, which attracts new residents. Indeed, the San Jose metro-area population grew by more than 10,000 people from 2015 to 2016, according to the latest census figures, for a total of 1,978,816 people.
Santa Clara County, where San Jose is located, grew by almost the same amounts. It added 9,297 residents from 2015 to 2016, for a growth rate of .49 percent and a total population of 1,919,402.
Although some of those new residents are newborns or immigrants, many of them are movers from within California and across the U.S. In fact, between 2011 and 2015, 74,257 people moved into Santa Clara County, according to another census study.
Let’s dive a little deeper into the data to see where those new Silicon Valley residents are coming from. About 40 percent moved in from other states during that five-year span, but most, 60 percent, came from elsewhere in California. That’s not too surprising, considering California is by far the most populous state.
Below are rankings for the top five out-of-state counties of origin for movers to Santa Clara County:
Movers outside of California:
1. King County, WA (Seattle)
2. Maricopa County, AZ (Phoenix)
3. Cook County, IL (Chicago)
4. Harris County, TX (Houston)
5. Middlesex County, MA (Cambridge and Lexington)
Movers from California:
1. Alameda County
2. San Mateo County
3. Los Angeles County
4. San Francisco County
5. San Diego County
Above are the top places inside California that people moved to Santa Clara County from over the five-year period 2011-2015. Numbers represent the number of movers from that place during the period.
