Area Information

Portland Area Information

As one of the chief cities in the Pacific Northwest and one of the West Coast's major centers of commerce and transportation, Portland is ideally located with accessible resources, low-cost energy, international air terminals, large marine shipping facilities, and access to all west-coast intercontinental railroads. The greater metropolitan area, with 2.2 million residents, continues on a trajectory of growth. A projected 6% population increase in the next five years will bring another 140,000 residents to the region. As greater Portland-Vancouver grows in population in the next five years, it will also be adding a projected 76,000 jobs.

Portland Area Stats

An eighth of the region’s employees work in the manufacturing sector, which includes a strong presence in high tech (chips, semiconductors, solar components) as well as in metals, machinery and transportation equipment. The region’s steel mills, foundries and plants produce a wide array of goods, including bridge and architectural elements, construction and mining machinery, and extruded aluminum parts. Transportation equipment is manufactured here for maritime, aerospace and rail industries, including the streetcars that run throughout downtown Portland. Greater Portland-Vancouver metals companies provide family wage jobs for more than 57,000 workers and contribute $4.2 billion in sales each year to the regional economy. In high-tech manufacture, Intel is the region’s largest employer, with the greater Portland site being the company’s largest worldwide.

Largest Employers Portland Metro – By # of Employees