Santa Clarita presently hosts a population of 177,641 people, making it the fourth largest city within Los Angeles County and the 26th largest in California. Santa Clarita was recently named the sixth safest place to live within the US (out of cities with a population over 100,000) by the FBI. In addition, Money Magazine ranked it 18 of the top 100 places to reside in the year 2006. The city was incorporated during the year 1987 and combined the communities of Canyon County, Newhall, Saugus, and Valencia. Downtown Los Angeles is about 35 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).
Situated within the western and northern parts of the city is the Enterprise Zone, which includes the industrial and commercial areas. On July 1, 2007, it was zoned specially to provide tax incentives to companies who built there. Now, 97 percent of all industrial, business and commercial zoned land is situated in the Enterprise Zone. Several large businesses have chosen Santa Clarita as their base, such as Salt Creek Grilles, Condomman.com, Trigg Laboratories, and True Position Technologies.
The economy within Santa Clarita is mostly based off of the service industry. Practically 41 percent of all businesses are in the service sector. Retail holds approximately 21 percent of the economy, and the rest is divided equally amongst the finance, insurance, real estate, and construction trades.
Amazingly, only 5% of the businesses within the city comprise more then fifty employees. Santa Clarita is a town mainly comprised of small businesses. Roughly 59 percent of businesses within the city comprise less then 5 workers. Companies that employ between 5 and 9 employees count for around 19 percent.
Because of the smaller companies with smaller rosters of workers, Santa Clarita businesses do not occupy a lot of space. About 36 percent of businesses in the city occupy less then 2,500 square feet whereas 46 percent of businesses have locations less than 10,000 square feet.