Santa Clarita presently hosts a population of 177,641 people, making it the fourth biggest city in Los Angeles County and the 26th biggest in California. Santa Clarita was just named the sixth safest place to live in the US (among cities with a population over 100,000) by the FBI. Moreover, Money Magazine ranked it 18 of the top 100 places to live in 2006. The city was incorporated in the year 1987 and combined the communities of Newhall, Saugus, Valencia and canyon County. Downtown Los Angeles is about thirty five kms southeast of Santa Clarita. When seen on a map Santa Clarita forms a distinctive triangle shape due to the intersection of the Golden State (I-5) and Antelope Valley (SR-14).
Located in the western and northern parts of the city is the Enterprise Zone, that consists of the commercial and industrial areas. On July 1, 2007, it was zoned specifically to offer tax incentives to businesses who built there. Now, 97 percent of all commercial, business, and industrial zoned land is located in the Enterprise Zone. Some large companies have chosen Santa Clarita as their base, like for example Condomman.com, Salt Creek Grille, True Position technologies and Trigg Laboratories.
The service sector is the largest sector of the Santa Clara financial system, with roughly 41 percent of all companies of the city performing services. Retail holds around 21% of the financial system, and the rest is divided equally among the insurance, finance, real estate, and construction businesses.
Surprisingly, just five percent of the businesses within the city consist of over 50 staff. Santa Clarita is a town mainly comprised of small companies. Approximately 59 percent of companies within the city have fewer then 5 staff. Businesses which hire between 5 and 9 workers count for about 19%.
Due to the smaller businesses with smaller rosters of workers, Santa Clarita companies do not occupy a lot of space. Roughly 36 percent of businesses in the city occupy less then 2,500 square feet whilst 46 percent of businesses have locations less than 10,000 square feet.