When many people think of Las Vegas, images of neon lights, spectacular shows, buffets, dancing fountains and striking it rich come to mind. Las Vegas is much more than that, however, and it can prove it. With a growing economy, expanding workforce and strong academic community, there are many facts about Las Vegas that may surprise you. Here are five things you may not know about Las Vegas and how it’s a surprisingly professional town.
- It’s one of the most popular convention and trade show destination in the U.S. According to vegasmeansbusiness.com, Las Vegas is home to more than 11.5 million sq. ft. of convention and meeting space, including three of the 10 largest convention centers in the U.S., Las Vegas is the number one trade show destination in North America.
The city hosts more than six million meeting and conference attendees annually. Surveys show that conference attendance increases eight percent when held in Las Vegas, and meeting attendees actually spend more time on the show floor at trade shows when compared to events in other cities. - It’s one of the fastest-growing cities in America. The Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise-NV metropolitan statistical area was ranked by Forbes as one of the Top 10 fastest-growing cities in the U.S. for 2018. The area has a projected job growth rate of 3.23 percent, projected wage growth of 5.95 percent and projected home price growth rate of 5.65 percent. It is also projected to grow in population by 2.43 percent this year.
- It’s home to one of the best business schools in the U.S. as well as the most diverse university campus. The University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) Lee Business School was ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top 100 part-time M.B.A. programs in 2017. It is one of only 185 colleges and schools to hold international dual accreditation in business and accounting by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), making it among the top five percent of business schools worldwide. UNLV was also ranked as the university with the “best ethnic diversity” by U.S. News & World Report in 2017.
- It’s attracting workforce talent. A July 2018 LinkedIn Workforce Report on U.S. employment trends found that Las Vegas gained 31.7 workers per 10,000 members on LinkedIn for the previous 12 months. That puts Las Vegas among the top three U.S. cities in terms of gaining the most workers during that time period.
- It has a growing community of startup businesses. A recent survey by Biz2Credit, which examines various criteria on businesses across the U.S., Las Vegas ranked first (tied with Portland, OR) for the youngest average age of business for U.S. metro areas in 2017. This indicates an increasing number of individuals and groups are looking to Las Vegas when deciding where they want to start a new company.
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