About The Silicon Valley Index
Joint Venture's Silicon Valley Index is a nationally recognized publication that has been telling the Silicon Valley story since 1995. Released every January, the indicators measure the strength of our economy and the health of our community—highlighting challenges and providing an analytical foundation for leadership and decision making.
What is an Indicator?
Indicators are measurements that tell us how we are doing: whether we are going up or down, going forward or backward, getting better or worse, or staying the same. Good indicators:
- are bellwethers that reflect fundamentals of long-term regional health;
- reflect the interests and concerns of the community;
- are statistically measurable on a regular basis; and
- measure outcomes, rather than inputs.
How are the Indicators Chosen?
Every year a team of advisors recommends approximately 40 indicators to the Joint Venture board. More than half of these are retuning indicators that we track systematically over time; the remaining indicators are chosen for their ability to tell how our region is faring across a broad range of goal areas, that were adopted by the organization in 1998 as the Joint Venture Framework for Regional Progress.
Reach and Impact
- We're gratified that more than a thousand people - from every sector of the community - gather for the Index release every January.
- Thousands of copies are downloaded from our website and distributed worldwide.
- Other metropolitan regions around the United States have used the Joint Venture model to create indicator projects of their own.
- The information surfaced by the Index becomes the point of departure for all of the programs and initiatives that we undertake at Joint Venture.