5 big numbers from Select Greater Philadelphia’s Regional Report

Select Greater Philadelphia president Tom Morr is expanding his stump speech.

In his presentation of the organization’s regional report yesterday, tucked between the usual facts about local higher education attainment and the diverse makeup of the region’s industries was a whole slide about the city’s “entrepreneurial ecosystem,” namely highlighting the region’s more than 20 coworking spaces and incubators.

It seems that the region’s burgeoning coworking scene is now a selling point for Select Greater Philadelphia, the economic development arm of the Chamber of Commerce. Old City coworking pioneer Indy Hall even gets a few photos in the physical copy of the Regional Report.

Select Greater Philadelphia has helped about 90 firms and 4,000 jobs relocate to the region since it was founded in 2003, Morr said.

Last month, it invited about seven international journalists to tour the region’s tech entrepreneurship scene in an effort to get global coverage.

“So far, the coverage has been uniformly positive,” said Morr, noting that two international media outlets had already written about the trip.

Here are five big numbers from the report, which is meant to be a guide to why businesses should relocate here:

• $390.3 billion: Greater Philadelphia’s Regional Gross Product
• 151,400: Number of workers employed in STEM, amounting to 5.4 percent of the region’s total employment. That number (151,400) is 10 percent more than the national average. 
• 24,408: Master’s degrees awarded in 2012. The region’s colleges and universities award almost five percent more Master’s Degrees per total degrees awarded than the national average.
• $10.2+ billion: The amount the region spends on research & development. The private sector make up $8.9 billion, while universities spent more than $1.3 billion on research and development.
• $194,048: The median sales price of a Philadelphia region house in 2012 (Q2).