An Equity Profile of the Nine-County San Francisco Bay Area
PolicyLink, USC Program for Environmental & Regional Equity
First published August 2017
The nine-county San Francisco Bay Area region is already a majority people-of-color region, and communities of color will continue to drive growth and change into the foreseeable future. The region’s diversity is a tremendous economic asset – if people of color are fully included as workers, entrepreneurs, and innovators. But while the Bay Area economy is booming, rising inequality, stagnant wages, and persistent racial inequities place its long-term economic future at risk. Equitable growth is the path to sustained economic prosperity.
In fact, closing racial gaps in income would boost the regional economy by more than $200 billion. To build a Bay Area economy that works for all, regional leaders must commit to putting all residents on the path to economic security through strategies to grow good jobs, build capabilities, remove barriers, and expand opportunities for the people and places being left behind.