Tempe Regional Market
Tempe, an East Valley suburb bordering Phoenix's core, ranks 35th among the 400 North American Regional Markets with a composite score of 9.0. Arizona State University's main campus anchors the local economy and drives a denser, more urbanized character than the typical suburban Regional Market in the index.
Overview
According to Wikipedia (accessed 2026-07-10), Tempe recorded a population of 180,587 at the 2020 census across a land area of 39.94 square miles. It sits approximately 2 miles northwest of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, bordered by Mesa to the east and Phoenix to the west.
Correction (2026-08-02): this reverses the real relationship — the airport sits 2 miles northwest of Tempe, meaning Tempe is southeast of the airport, not northwest of it. The distance is correct; the direction is reversed. Flagged, not resolved. Arizona State University is the leading employer with 8,010 employees, followed by State Farm Insurance (6,550) and Freedom Financial Network (2,300). The city also hosts corporate headquarters including DriveTime, GoDaddy, and Carvana. Downtown redevelopment around Tempe Town Lake has reshaped the urban core, and the population has grown increasingly diverse — non-Hispanic white residents comprised 54 percent in 2020, alongside growing Asian (9.5 percent) and Hispanic (22 percent) populations.
Notable commercial development includes the Arizona Mills shopping mall, the Tempe Marketplace open-air retail development, and the first Arizona IKEA location. The Mill Avenue pedestrian shopping district anchors downtown.
Regional Market Standing
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Rank | 35 of 400 (North America) |
| Composite score | 9.0 |
| Tier 1 clusters | 1 |
| Tier 2 clusters | 0 |
| Tier 3 clusters | 2 |
| Suburb of | Phoenix |
Cluster-level detail — the specific retail and civic anchors composing each of Tempe's co-location clusters — is pending the underlying GIS dataset and is not included in this stub. See Top 400 Regional Markets — North America for the full ranked list and Co-location Methodology for how the composite score is derived.
See Also
- Top 400 Regional Markets — North America
- Regional Markets Intelligence System
- Co-location Methodology
References
- Tempe, Arizona — Wikipedia, accessed 2026-07-10
Wikipedia content reproduced under CC BY-SA 4.0.