Invest: Philadelphia 7th Edition to examine region’s economic future
Key points:
- • Research is underway for Invest: Philadelphia 7th Edition.
- • Investment is accelerating across life sciences, innovation, and advanced manufacturing.
- • Workforce, infrastructure, and economic mobility will shape the region’s next phase.
September 2026 — Research is underway for Invest: Philadelphia 7th Edition, as caa begins a new round of conversations with the executives and public officials shaping one of the country’s most diverse regional economies.
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The research starts at a moment of expansion and uneven momentum. The Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metro reached an estimated 6.33 million residents in 2025, adding nearly 16,000 people over the year. In the Pennsylvania portion of the market, total nonfarm employment stood at 1.02 million in July 2026, up 0.6% year over year. Education and health services remained the largest major sector, with 331,900 jobs, while leisure and hospitality posted the fastest annual increase, at 4.5%.
“Insight only works when it reflects all sides of the investment community,” said Abby Lindenberg, founder and CEO of caa. “The seventh edition will put that principle into practice by bringing together perspectives from across the public and private sectors and showing how individual investments connect to the region’s wider economic trends.”
Capital is also moving into several of the region’s defining industries. The Philadelphia region recorded $2.17 billion across 150 venture capital deals in 1Q26, among its strongest quarters on record. Its life sciences cluster continues to draw strength from globally recognized research institutions and deep cell and gene therapy expertise. At the Navy Yard, a $24 million financing and grant package is supporting a new submarine-parts facility, workforce training, and small maritime suppliers — evidence that advanced manufacturing is reemerging alongside the region’s eds and meds economy.
Those strengths also sharpen the questions facing Greater Philadelphia: how to translate investment into broader economic mobility, supply specialized talent at scale, modernize infrastructure, and keep growth competitive amid elevated costs and uncertainty. Invest: Philadelphia 7th Edition will examine how leaders are responding across finance, real estate, healthcare, education, manufacturing, transportation, government, and the region’s innovation economy.
The new research builds on the conversations at the Invest: Philadelphia 6th Edition Leadership Summit earlier this year, where leaders explored the relationship among education, research, workforce wellbeing, and the infrastructure capacity required for long-term growth. The event reinforced how much Philadelphia depends on coordination across institutions as much as the performance of any single sector.
Through executive interviews and in-house sector analysis, Invest: Philadelphia will identify the decisions, challenges, and emerging opportunities that matter most to local, national, and international investors. Leaders interested in contributing to the research can learn more through caa’s Philadelphia market page.
About caa and Invest: Philadelphia
caa is an integrated media company that connects the dots in the markets it covers, providing business intelligence to executives, investors, entrepreneurs, and public-sector leaders through digital and print platforms, top-level interviews, and leadership summits.
Invest: Philadelphia 7th Edition is an in-depth economic review of the issues shaping Greater Philadelphia. It is produced with two goals: 1) to provide comprehensive market intelligence for local, national, and international investors, and 2) to promote the region as a place to invest and do business.
The report examines the region’s leading economic sectors, including real estate and construction, infrastructure, banking and finance, legal services, healthcare, education, manufacturing, transportation, tourism, and technology. It combines executive insight with data-driven analysis to assess market challenges and uncover emerging opportunities for investors, entrepreneurs, and innovators.
The caa team is now connecting with contributors across Greater Philadelphia. The seventh edition gives the region’s business and civic community an opportunity to tell the world, in its own words, where Philadelphia is gaining ground, where work remains, and what comes next.
For more information, contact:
Clara Arrighi
Executive Director
Stephanie Gura
Content Manager
Want more? Read the Invest: Philadelphia report.
