CU Boulder drives $5B boost to Colorado's economy
CU Boulder generated $5 billion across the state during the last fiscal year, up from $4.6 billion the previous year, according to a study by the Business Research Division of CU Boulder’s Leeds School of Business.
The study looked at the 2024–25 fiscal year, when CU Boulder employed 25,006 faculty, staff and students earning $1.4 billion in salaries and benefits. Excluding the number of student workers, CU Boulder employed 12,180 people.
CU Boulder’s direct economic impact, which includes employing workers, buying from local vendors, importing investment, educating the local workforce and exporting research discoveries, totaled $2.3 billion. The campus’s indirect and induced impact, which includes facilitating company growth and job creation through research, technology transfer and spinoff companies, totaled $2.7 billion.
“CU Boulder’s impact reaches well beyond campus boundaries,” said Chancellor Justin Schwartz. “These findings show how our research, education and innovation power Colorado’s economy and improve lives across the Front Range and beyond.”
CU Boulder’s research expenditures, including equipment, construction, operations and labor, were estimated at $725 million during fiscal year 2024–25, while the economic contribution of these activities totaled $1.3 billion for Colorado’s economy, according to the study.
The university recorded $882 million in nonlocal student and visitor spending in the state during the latest fiscal year, according to a survey of students. This includes spending on rent, groceries, transportation, child care, recreation and health care.
Direct campus spending during this period totaled an estimated $1.2 billion. Among the largest projects systemwide was the Hellems Arts and Sciences and Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre renovation projects at CU Boulder.
Systemwide, the University of Colorado’s four campuses and its two affiliate hospitals generated a combined $20 billion in economic impact throughout the state during the 2024–25 fiscal year. The system supported 106,000 jobs, mostly in the Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs metropolitan areas.
Total economic impact figures include employee and student worker earnings, operating expenditures, construction, research and visitor spending. The study also acknowledged additional impacts from innovation, technology transfer, skills and training, and alumni contributions.
CU Boulder enrolled 39,138 students in fall of 2024 and accounted for 57% of student enrollment across the CU system. CU Denver accounted for 18% of system enrollment, followed by UCCS (15%) and CU Anschutz (10%).
In fiscal 2023–24, the CU system awarded 18,336 degrees, including double majors, to 18,402 recipients. CU Boulder accounted for over half of those awarded degrees.