There are more colleges, universities and graduate schools in the San Gabriel Valley than in any other comparable region of California. As the Intellectual Capital of California the San Gabriel Valley contains over 30 colleges, universities and graduate schools, many of which are ranked above the top schools in their fields of other intellectual capitals such as Boston/ Cambridge, Manhattan and Chicago.

The San Gabriel Valley, with its population of 1.9 million, contains more institutions of higher education than the City of San Diego (population: 1.2 million), South Orange County (1.4 million), North Orange County (1.4 million), the San Fernando Valley (2 million), Santa Clara County/San Jose (1.7 million), Greater San Francisco/Stanford (1.8 million) or the East Bay/Alameda County/Berkeley (1.4 million).