The Salt Lake metropolitan area is fast emerging from the shadows of the nation's midsize economic centers. That was reflected last week in a study released by the Progressive Policy Institute and Case Western Reserve University, which ranked the area ninth nationally in terms of its ability to thrive in a high-tech economy.
That surprised even the study's co-author, Robert D. Atkinson, who said "Salt Lake City is doing much better than many people may think." But it shouldn't surprise too many people who live here.
This has been the breeding ground for such computer giants as Novell, WordPerfect and Iomega, among others. As early as 1992, studies identified as many as 850 high-tech companies in Utah and touted the state as second only to Redmond, Wash., home of Microsoft, in terms of software production. The number of computer-related companies in the state has grown several-fold since then, forming a critical mass that, at least according to the latest study, made the Salt Lake area the seventh best in the nation in terms of creating new companies at a rate faster than old ones go out of business.
Adding to the good business climate are several universities, both public and private, that take computer science and its related businesses seriously. Salt Lake ranked fifth in the amount of available academic research and development funding, another surprise to many people outside the state.
So why don't more people outside Utah know about this? The answer may have as much to do with the Wasatch Front's remote location as anything. It also may be reflected in the unique distribution of the area's population along a narrow corridor about 100 miles long.
The 2001 Census breaks this corridor down into two separate metropolitan areas. The largest, Salt Lake-Ogden, has a population of 1.3 million, ranking it 36th, between New Orleans and Greensboro-Winston Salem, N.C. People who live here, however, understand that the state's second metro area, Provo-Orem, is connected economically, culturally and in every other way with the first, and they ought to be counted together. Do that and the population becomes about 1.7 million, which would rank it 27th, between Kansas City and Milwaukee.
The significance is that the area's true size could become lost to marketers, executives and venture capitalists who study it. The survey's one glaring negative is that the Salt Lake area ranked low (29th) in terms of available venture capital.
This, of course, makes the success of new high-tech businesses here all the more remarkable. With an adequate infusion of start-up money and ongoing investment, however, the Wasatch Front would undoubtedly grow at an even faster rate.
Some investors already have noticed the need. Two months ago, California's largest law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which acts as business consultants and venture capitalists to high-tech firms, announced it would be setting up an office here. Studies such as the one from the Progressive Policy Institute and Case Western Reserve can only serve to help as they bring attention to the area.
Utahns are tech-savvy. They rank fifth in the nation in terms of connections per capita to the Internet and they appear ready and eager to adapt to the "new economy," wherever it may lead in today's uncertain market.
That may signal the state is on the verge of emerging to a new prominence. At the least, it ought to be good news for the future of the local economy, and a tribute to a community that has put a proper emphasis on education, ambition and a solid work ethic.