The fleet, the program offices and the engineers are in one city, and every line in this document is cheaper, bigger or closer than the Bay Area. Published figures only.
for R&D space than Silicon Valley. $1.75 a foot a month against $3.01.
a year to run a 500-person company. $63.2M here, $86.7M there. CBRE model, 2024 office inputs.
to pay engineers than San Francisco. 25–31% less than San Jose.
defense contract flow than the Bay Area. $11.67B against $3.02B.
Silicon Valley is 1.7× the rate. Same firm, same quarter, same triple-net basis, no conversion between them. The Peninsula bar is a different firm, and that inventory is weighted to South San Francisco lab space.
City business tax for a hundred-person company, a year in San Diego, flat whatever the revenue. San Francisco taxes gross receipts above $5M at 0.250–1.512% (manufacturing) or 1.000–1.680% (scientific and technical services), plus a homelessness tax above $25M and a $20,000 registration fee.
16% under SF · 26% under San Jose
19% under SF · 31% under San Jose
22% under SF · 25% under San Jose
Defense contract obligations on work performed in San Diego County, FY2025.
Navy ships homeported in the region, and one of every six sailors in the Navy.
Active-duty service members, plus 27,000 Department of Defense civilians.
Scientists and engineers at NIWC Pacific, which writes and awards its own contracts.
Of San Diego's gross regional product is military-related: $61.3B, on $39.3B of direct spending.
NAVWAR buys networks, C2, cyber and information warfare from Point Loma. Third Fleet runs West Coast experimentation from the same base. Coronado holds carrier aviation, Naval Special Warfare and the San Clemente Island range. Miramar and Pendleton put 3rd MAW and I MEF an hour up the road. Saronic, Firestorm Labs and Seasats have all opened or expanded here since 2025.
Four Bay Area counties combined do not reach a third of San Diego's defense contract flow. Source: federal award data, obligations by place of performance.
The airport sits three miles from downtown, so the whole defense corridor is a short drive from the terminal. Free-flow times on the open road network.
337 a week, about 48 a day. Alaska and Southwest fly all three; United and Frontier serve SFO. Investors and program offices stay a morning away.
Veterans in San Diego County, 6.9% of the adult population, more than the whole SF–Oakland–Fremont metro at 108,380, and four times San Jose.
Engineering degrees from UC San Diego in 2024–25, out of 10,240 enrolled. 4th nationally in federally financed R&D, ahead of Stanford.
Mean one-way commute, against 32.7 in San Francisco. About 55 hours a year back per employee, at 250 in-office days.