Waves too small at Silicon Beach?

San Diego, which has in the past boasted the nickname "Silicon Beach" (among others), is the 17th-largest metropolitan area in the nation. But the county (the metro area) is only 20th as a promising location for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) workers, according to a study by WalletHub, a statistical aggregating firm that provides comparative information on cities, states, and metro areas.

WalletHub measured 100 metro areas on percentage of workers in science, technology, engineering, and math jobs; employment growth in those categories; quality of engineering universities; median wage growth of STEM workers; per-capita job openings for tech grads; projected number of STEM jobs needed in 2020; and density of tech startup companies.

To no one's surprise, Silicon Valley came in first. The other top science, technology, engineering, and math metro areas were Austin, Texas; Seattle; Denver; Minneapolis-St. Paul; and Boston. The three worst (98th through 100th) were in Florida: Miami, Daytona Beach, and Sarasota — leisure areas heavy with retirees.

San Diego came in 20th, beaten by some surprises: Des Moines, Colorado Springs, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. San Diego did top Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Los Angeles. San Diego ranked seventh in wage growth but only 26th in number of STEM jobs needed in 2020.