San Diego (pronounced /?sæn di??e??o?/), named after Saint Didacus (Spanish: Diego de Alcalá), is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California, after Los Angeles, with a population of 1,376,173 (Jan 2010) within its administrative limits on a land area of 372.1 square miles (963.7 km2). The urban area of San Diego extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 2,880,000. Also, this is part of a megalopolis (the San Diego and Los Angeles metropolitan areas) with a population of about 22 million. It is located on the Pacific Ocean at the southernmost end of the west coast of the continental United States.
The city is also the county seat of San Diego County as well as the economic center of the San Diego–Carlsbad–San Marcos Metropolitan Area considered congruent with the county. The city was rated the fifth-best place to live in the United States in 2006 byMoney magazine.[3] According to Forbes magazine, San Diego is the fifth-wealthiest city in the United States and the 9th safest city in the top 10 list of safest cities in the U.S. San Diego’s top four industries are manufacturing, defense, tourism, and agriculture. San Diego’s economy is largely composed of agriculture, biotechnology/biosciences, computer sciences, electronics manufacturing, defense-related manufacturing, financial and business services, ship repair, ship construction, software development, telecommunications, wireless research, and tourism. The presence of the University of California, San Diego, (UCSD) with the affiliated UCSD Medical Center promotes research in biotechnology. San Diego is also designated as an iHub Innovation Center by Gov. Schwarzenegger’s Office of Economic Development.
