Tucson and the State of Arizona

Tucson is a truly wonderful place to live and work! The pace is relaxed, the dress is casual, the people are friendly, driving distances are relatively small, neighborhoods are charming and housing is affordable - all making for an excellent quality of life! It is a perfect setting to start your career.

Tucson is a unique blend of the old West and a cosmopolitan city. Currently, over 840,000 people reside in the Tucson Metropolitan Area with nearly 2,000 new residents each month. It is one of the few U.S. cities its size that can boast of a symphony, ballet, opera and live theater company.

Tucson is located in the Sonoran Desert region of Southern Arizona in a high desert valley, surrounded by mountains that rise to heights over 9,000 feet. The beautiful, lush Sonoran Desert vegetation is everywhere, reaching into the city.

Tucson's rich cultural heritage centers around a unique blend of Native American, Spanish, Mexican and Anglo-American influences, 110 miles south of Phoenix and 60 miles from the Mexican border.

Tucson is renowned for its superb weather. Warm and sunny throughout most of the year, the air is remarkably dry, with a low relative humidity. It lies in the zone receiving more sunshine than any other section in the United States. The average high temperature is 81 degrees and the average low temperature is 54 degrees. With an average of 12 inches of rainfall and sunshine 86 percent of the time, Tucson receives more than 50% of its annual rainfall during the months of July, August, and September.

Tucson's dry desert air and winter sunshine make it a popular health and winter resort. Tourism is a major part of the economic base along with the increase of high technology manufacturers locating and expanding in the Tucson metropolitan Area.

Tucson and Southern Arizona's major employers include the University of Arizona, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Fort Huachuca Army Base, Raytheon Missile Systems, Pima County, and the Tucson Unified School District.

Tucson has excellent educational facilities. In addition to The University of Arizona, a two-year institution, Pima Community College, serves more than 53,000 credit and non-credit students. Seven public school districts serve the Tucson area as well as many private and parochial schools.

Housing in and around Tucson is very affordable. While many residents rent appartments and houses in the area, quite a number have purchased homes.

Outdoor activities abound in Tucson and Arizona. You can bicycle or hike on the desert floor or in the cool pines of Tucson's Mount Lemmon (an hour away). Winter snow skiing is plentiful in Arizona at Mount Lemmon, Sunrise Lodge on the White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation or the Snow Bowl in Flagstaff. The Arizona Highways magazine has long provided beautiful photography documenting the rich variety of natural wonders in Arizona.

Water skiing, house boating and fishing are plentiful on Lake Mead and Lake Powell and hundreds of smaller lakes throughout the state. A few famous Arizona sites include the Grand Canyon; Sabino Canyon in Tucson; the red rocks of Sedona; Oak Creek Canyon; Kitt Peak National Observatory, with the world's largest solar telescope; Tombstone, the western town "too tough to die," Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and the nationally acclaimed Kartchner Caverns an hour away near Benson, Arizona.

In the Tucson area, historic sites, museums and national parks abound with the world-famous Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum; the Tucson Botanical Gardens and Tohono Chul Park; San Xavier Del Bac Mission; Tubac, the oldest European Settlement in Arizona; Colossal Cave, with chambers of unique crystal formations and the Saguaro National Park, an 84,000-acre preserve for the largest cactus growing in the U.S. Don't miss the Pima Air and Space Museum, the Tucson Children's Museum, or the Biosphere-2.

As a cultural center, Tucson offers the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the Arizona Opera and Ballet, the Arizona Theatre Company, the Tucson Museum of Art and a variety of galleries, cultural festivals, pop and chamber concerts. The University also showcases award-winning performers from around the world with music, dance and theater programs throughout the academic year.