About Columbia..

The Local Economy

Columbia is a great place to start or buy a business. Our central location in the state and nation makes it easily accessible by road, air, rail, and water. Columbia has a low tax structure and a comfortable quality of life to offer employees. Columbia's well-educated workforce is attracted from nine surrounding counties with a labor force totaling more than 186,000.

Columbia is constantly growing with a strong economy based on the education, health, and insurance industries. Columbia works to attract new business to our area and diversify its economy in order to assure a prosperous future for our community. Columbia has also been called a recession-resistant community due to our diversity and stability.

Columbia has grown over 20% since the 1990 census. Nearly 90,000 citizens live in the city and 140,000 in the county. In addition to the census, students not living in Columbia year-round are not counted in the population. These additional students total over 17,000. The Columbia trade area is a 50 mile radius.

Columbia is home to the corporate headquarters of Shelter Insurance Companies, as well as the regional offices of State Farm Insurance Companies. Several Fortune 500 company branches are located in Columbia including Dana Corporation, 3M, and Quaker Oats.

The business community benefits from services available through a wide variety of financial institutions. State-of-the-art operating systems offer a variety of financial services such as, discount brokerage, cash management, and electronic funds transfer. Together these institutions provide an extensive range of savings, investments, and borrowing programs.