Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, also know as "the city of brotherly love", is one of the five largest cities in the United States. The Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area, which encompasses parts of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the United States. As one might expect, the Philadelphia metropolitan area has a vibrant business community and rich economy. The Philadelphia metropolitan area is home to ten Fortune 1000 company headquarters.
Inc. magazine has ranked Philadelphia in the top seventy on its list of "Best Cities for Doing Business" in the United States in the large cities category for the last three years (2004-2006). The criteria used by Inc. "emphasizes the robustness of a region's growth". Large and significant cities such as Philadelphia, who have a "tangible effect on global affairs through socioeconomic, cultural, and/or political means" (Wikipedia) are ranked as "Global Cities" (sometimes referred to as world cities or world-class cities) by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network (GaWC). There are three levels of ranking - alpha (first-tier), beta (second-tier) and gamma (third-tier). Philadelphia is ranked just below these levels as a city that shows "strong evidence of world city formation".
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Philadelphia ranks fourth on the list of cities in the US who receive the most yearly funding from the NIH. Philadelphia is also ranked top for current impact in the Life Science industry by a 2005 Milken Institute report.
Philadelphia's economy is heavily dependent on the following industries:
- Financial services
- Food
- Manufacturing
- Refining
The federal government has a large presence in Philadelphia as well. Major federal government institutions in Philadelphia include:
- The East Coast operations of the United States Mint
- The Federal Reserve Bank's Philadelphia division
- The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Philadelphia also has its own stock exchange.
Individuals especially appreciate that Philadelphia has one of the lower costs of living among major US metropolitan areas. According to Select Greater Philadelphia, a non-profit organization that specializes in streamlining corporate expansions and relocations, the Philadelphia metropolitan area has the lowest median home prices of the top U.S. metropolitan areas (based on US Government data). Businesses also appreciate that Philadelphia offers the lowest Class A and second lowest Class B rental rate of major U.S. cities.
Helping to drive the Philadelphia area economy are over eighty colleges and universities. Higher education represents a major industry, as well as providing the area with a highly educated work force.
The Philadelphia metropolitan area is served by Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), which is the second fastest growing airport in the world. It is 30th busiest airport in the world in terms of passenger volume. Philadelphia International ranks sixteenth in the United States for for nonstop international air travel according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Some major companies in the Philadelphia metropolitan area include:
- Aramark
- Boeing Helicopters Division
- Campbell Soup
- Cigna
- Comcast
- Crown Holdings
- DuPont
- GlaxoSmithKline (U.S. headquarters)
- Hercules
- Lincoln National
- Pep Boys
- QVC
- Rohm & Haas
- Sunoco
- Unisys
Some of the major business organizations in the Philadelphia metropolitan area include:
- The Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey
- The Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center
- The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce
- The Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce
- The Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau
- The Select Greater Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Business Journal, and the Business Section of the Philadelphia Inquirer are excellent sources of information on business in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.