Myth-busting Facts

Each year, between 13 million tons and 15 million tons of cargo enter and leave the Cleveland Port Authority.

Northeast Ohio’s First Energy, headquartered in Akron, serves 4.5 million customers within 36,100 square miles of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey; and its generation subsidiaries control more than 14,000 megawatts of capacity.

Northeast Ohio’s NASA Glenn Research Center is the only NASA center located in the northern United States and one of the few centers directly involved in the nation’s space exploration. In fact, when space shuttle Atlantis made a trip to the International Space Station in 2009, it carried experiments and hardware designed, fabricated and tested at the research center.

Northeast Ohio food and agriculture industries contribute $93 billion to Ohio’s economy with thousands of farms producing more than 200 diverse crops and more than 1,000 agricultural processing plants located here.

Cleveland Plus is home to more than 40 consumer product brands, including well-known names like Moen, MTD and Dirt Devil.

Cleveland Plus boasts more than 400 bioscience companies and $420 million in investments over the past 3 years - it’s easy to see why it is such a vital driving force in the medical, health care and bio industries.

Education is big in Northeast Ohio, with 180,000 students currently enrolled in higher education institutions that employ 27,000 faculty, administrators, and staff.

The Shannon Rodgers and Jerry Silverman School of Fashion Design and Merchandising at Kent State University is in the top tier of fashion education in the nation by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, with programs in Florence, Hong Kong, and New York City, and affiliations in Paris and London. It was named a top-ten fashion school in the United States by Runway Magazine

One-third of Fortune magazine's top 1,000 companies in the rubber and plastic products category are in Northeast Ohio. (Source: http://www.portageworkforce.org/northeastohio.htm)

Northeast Ohio has seen a steady increase in the biomedical industry in recent years, with a 31 percent increase in workers hired in these companies. (Source: http://www.portageworkforce.org/northeastohio.htm)

Ohio is the nation's eighth largest exporter and Northeast Ohio contributes almost a third of that total - more than $8 billion. (Source: http://www.portageworkforce.org/northeastohio.htm)

Northeast Ohio ranks fifth in the nation in number of major cultural resources per one million residents. (Source: http://www.portageworkforce.org/northeastohio.htm)

Northeast Ohio was recently named one of the top 10 most fascinating regions to visit in the United States by Travel Smart magazine. (www.clevelandplus.com)

Cleveland's Playhouse Square Center is the largest performing arts center in the country outside New York City. (www.clevelandplus.com)

Northeast Ohio boasts more lakeshore than any metropolitan area in the world. (www.clevelandplus.com)

In 2009, Northeast Ohio’s economic development organizations successfully completed 115 projects, creating 5,893 jobs (3,284 that were completely new to the region), as well as $1.3 billion in capital investment. (Team NEO blog)

In April 2010, Cleveland ranked 16 (tied with Dallas) on Real Simple’s 21 Top Time-Saving Cities in America List. (Real Simple magazine)

Lakewood, Parma and Strongsville have been noted among the best cities in the United States to raise kids. (http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/nov2009/pi20091117_155796.htm)

A 2009 list by Travel+Leisure found Cleveland as the nation's best affordable getaway. (http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=123035&catid=3)

Lake County boasts Ohio's sixth largest retail district - Mentor, with Great Lakes Mall, and shopping /dining /antiquing in Willoughby, Madison, Painesville, Eastlake, Wickliffe, Mentor and Perry. (http://www.lakevisit.com/glance.html)

Holden Arboretum, one of the country’s largest arboretums at 3,400 acres, is located in Northeast Ohio’s Lake County. (http://www.lakevisit.com/glance.html)

Oberlin College was the first interracial and coeducational college in the United States when it was founded in 1833. (http://www.50states.com/facts/ohio.htm)

Northeast Ohio’s Stark State is the largest technical college in Ohio. Approximately 90% of its graduates live and work in the community, contributing to the economic development of Stark County and surrounding counties. (http://www.starkstate.edu/about/facts.htm)

With 21 public golf courses, Stark County has been called Ohio’s Golf Capital (http://www.visitcantonstark.com/Media/Canton-Stark-County-Facts.php)

Northeast Ohio’s Medina County offers businesses access to 55% of the U.S. manufacturing facilities in over 40 major cities within a 500 mile radius. (http://www.medinacounty.org/)

The cost of living in Ohio averages 5.5% lower than the rest of the country, while the cost of housing is on average 15% lower than the rest of the United States.

If Ohio were a country instead of a state, it would rank 26th in the world for the largest economy. That would place it ahead of Switzerland.

The Cleveland Plus region has the 7th largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. – there are 11 Fortune 500 companies in the Cleveland Plus region.

In the last 15 years, Northeast Ohio Scientific Research and Development growth has more than doubled that of the U.S. Northeast Ohio Scientific Research and Development has grown 169%.

The private sector unionization rate in the Cleveland Plus region is declining faster than the U.S. rate. Approximately 9% of the region’s private sector workforce is unionized, similar to the U.S. at 8%.

Northeast Ohio biomedical sector growth has outpaced the U.S. average. This sector has grown an average 7.4% annually over the past five years, faster than the U.S., which has grown at 6.8% annually.

When adjusted for scale, the Cleveland Plus region has the 4th largest concentration of headquarters employment, ahead of Boston, Atlanta and Chicago.

Ohio has the lowest taxes in the Midwest.

Computer and math jobs have grown by more than 18% in the last 15 years.

1 in 5 recent new jobs have been in the Professional Scientific and Technical Services industry in the Cleveland Plus region. 20% of all new jobs created in The Plus are in the Professional Scientific and Technical Services industry, an industry that has grown 79% over the last 15 years.

Northeast Ohio was granted $395M in venture capital and NIH funding in 2008.

The Plus is home to the nation’s 2nd largest theatre district and the nation’s third most visited national park (Cuyahoga Valley National Park).

Northeast Ohio’s cost of living is more than 10% lower than the national average.