Number of public companies on major exchanges: 31, including four in the Fortune 500

Local Demand Fundamentals

1-year Job Growth Rate Austin 2.3% US (U.S. 0.1%)

3-year Job Growth Rate Austin 11.7% (U.S. 2.7%)

Largest private employers include: Dell Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., H.E. Butt Grocery Co., Freescale Semiconductor Inc., IBM Corp., Home Depot, Target Corp.

Largest public employers include: State of Texas, the University of Texas at Austin, the City of Austin and the Austin Independent School District.

The list, which a consulting firm compiles each year, ranks companies based on 5-year revenue growth. Metro Austin, with a population of 1.6 million, has a higher concentration of these companies than any other metropolitan area in Texas.

The fast growing Austin technology businesses recognized are Anue Systems, Convio, Medical Present Value, NetQoS, Perficient, QuantumDigital, QuickArrow, SolarWinds, Surgient, Troux Technologies, Valence Technology, VI Technology, Zebra Imaging, and Zilliant.

Job growth: 4.5 percent in 2005, the highest since the late-1990s tech boom.

Educated work force: 40 percent of Central Texas adults have college degrees, compared with 27 percent nationwide.

Median home price: $190,000 in 3^rd quarter of 2008, up 2 percent from previous year.

Retail sales: $21.9 billion in 2005, up 6 percent from previous year.

Bank deposits: $19 billion in mid-2006, up 12 percent from previous year.