Final report: CU system powers $19.4 billion in economic impact across state

Quickly following a preliminary report presented last month to the Regents Finance Committee, newly released final figures detail how the University of Colorado system generated an economic impact of $19.4 billion across the state last year.

The impact of delivering exceptional teaching, research, community engagement and health care at CU’s four campuses alone represents $11.6 billion. The figure grows to the even more impressive $19.4 billion when also factoring in CU’s two affiliate hospitals – UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital Colorado – at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.

The figures come from a new study of the 2023-24 fiscal year completed by the Business Research Division of CU Boulder’s Leeds School of Business. The Regents Finance Committee last month received preliminary data from the report, the final version of which was published Wednesday.

Among the geographic areas spotlighted in the report are CU’s economic impact in each of the state’s eight congressional districts, led by District 1 with $5.3 billion. Impact in District 2 is $3.5 billion; District 3, $0.1 billion; District 4, $0.2 billion; District 5, $0.6 billion; District 6, $0.8 billion; District 7, $0.4 billion; District 8, $0.8 billion.

This is the third consecutive year the Leeds study has reported a year-over-year increase in CU’s economic impact. The base CU total of $11.6 billion is up 7% over the previous year.

CU operated on $7.1 billion in revenue and $5.6 billion in operating expenditures in 2023-24. A significant portion was tied to sponsored programs and other restricted fund activity.

Economic impact figures include employee and student worker earnings, operating expenditures, construction, research, and spending by students and visitors. The study did not include the impact of alumni, retirees, technology transfer, and visits associated with football, conferences and concerts.

A Top 5 employer in Colorado, CU employed 51,185 faculty, staff and student workers at some point during the fiscal year; a snapshot during fall 2023 indicated total employment of more than 27,000 faculty and staff. Total salaries, wages and benefits of $4.1 billion represented 72% of the university’s total spending.

Besides employing thousands, CU helps drive Colorado’s economy by buying from local vendors, attracting investment, educating the local workforce and delivering research discoveries.

A powerhouse for discovery, CU collaborates in a research triangle that includes universities, businesses and federal laboratories. CU’s research expenditure activities alone represented $3.6 billion of the total impact of $11.6 billion.

CU’s campus-by-campus economic impact is led by the CU Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, with $5.3 billion, followed by CU Boulder, $4.6 billion; CU Denver, $771 million; UCCS, $690 million; and the Denver-based CU system administration, $246 million.

At $7.1 billion, CU’s greatest economic impact regionally is on the Denver Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), consisting of the City and County of Denver, Arapahoe County, Jefferson County, Adams County, Douglas County, the City and County of Broomfield, Elbert County, Park County, Clear Creek County and Gilpin County. It’s followed by the Boulder MSA, where CU’s economic impact is $3.5 billion; the Colorado Springs MSA, $0.6 billion; and all other MSAs in Colorado, $0.4 billion.

Click here for a summary of the final report. See the full report here.