Physical Features:

• Location: Northwest Oregon
• Size: Willamette and Sandy River Basins - about 12,000 square miles. Valley floor within basin - roughly 4,000 square miles
• Major Rivers: Willamette (Oregon's largest and nation's 12th largest in terms of volume), McKenzie, Santiam, Sandy, Mollala, Clackamas, Tualatin, Yamhil, Luckiamute, Long Tom.
• Highest Point: Mt. Hood (11,245 feet above sea level)
• Lowest Point: Confluence of Willamette River with Columbia River (approx. 50 feet above sea level)

• 1998: 2.3 million
• 2012: 2.7 million (projected-Oregon Dept. of Transportation)
• 2050: 4.0 million (projected-Dept. of Admin. Services, UO Institute for a Sustainable Environment)
• Growth (1998 - 2050): +1.7 million (like adding the population of three Portlands)
• State Share: The Valley now accounts for (as it likely will for the next 30 years) about 70 percent of Oregon's population.

The Willamette Valley includes:

• Significant parts of ten counties.
  
• 91 out of Oregon's 211 incorporated cities (including nine of the ten largest)
  
• Three councils of government (Lane, Mid-Willamette, Cascades West)
  
• One Metropolitan Service District (Portland's Metro, the nation's only elected regional government)
  

Largest city: Portland—c. 509,600 (1998 population)

Smallest city: Greenhorn—3 (1998 population)

• The Valley has roughly 1.3 million acres of agricultural land.
• The Valley includes six of Oregon's top ten counties in terms of agricultural production (including Marion County, which ranks number one).
• Willamette Valley counties provide 50 percent of Oregon's $1.6 billion annual agricultural sale total.

• The Willamette Basin contains the richest native fish fauna in the state, as well as the most species listed under the Endangered Species Act, including the Oregon chub, bull trout, upper Willamette River steelhead, and spring Chinook salmon.
• "...concern about the [Willamette's] health is still justified because of the presence of toxic constitutents in water and sediments, suspended sediment and nutrient loads, and the alteration of habitats. Health status scores in the river decline from 'marginal-to-good' ... in the upper regions, to 'marginal-to-poor' ... in the lower regions. The overall health status score for the river is ...marginally healthy." [Dept. of Environmental Quality, Willamette River Basin Water Quality Study, Summary, 1995]
• 97 water bodies in the basin currently fail to meet Oregon's existing water quality standards.

• There are about 44,000 miles of road in the Willamette Valley.
• Interstate 5, Oregon's only north-south freeway, runs the 200-plus mile length of the Valley and serves 60,000 vehicles per day near Portland.
• Portland and Eugene are served by air carriers. There are 30 public use airports available for general aviation in the Valley.
• Rail freight service is provided Valley-wide by ten railroad companies.