2025 Market Facts VRP - Flipbook - Page 95
ECO NO MI C PRO FI L E & MA R K ET FACT S 2025 | 87
COURTESY UNIVERSITY NORTHERN COLORADO
COURTESY CU-BOULDER
COURTESY COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
EDUCATION
Colleges, universities drive
economies
Economic activity in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado is
driven by a number of factors, but one would be hard-pressed to identify
a more-significant driver than the region’s universities and community
colleges.
Colorado State University in Fort Collins produces 17,300 direct and
indirect employment in the city, with the university system spending more
than $435 million on goods and services each year, according to data from
CSU.
Overall, the CSU system generates almost 23,000 Colorado jobs and
more than $237.74 million in state income and sales-tax revenue annually,
according to a 2021 Economic Impact Report prepared by the university.
The study — conducted by Rebecca Hill, Harvey Cutler and Martin
Shields — found that 112,500 CSU System alumni earned an estimated
$7.57 billion from their jobs in 2019. The report also found that total direct
and indirect employment impacts amount to 17,300 jobs in Fort Collins,
out of the city’s total 84,000.
“The CSU System’s economic impact is felt statewide by bringing in
money from federal agencies, out-of-state students, and by transferring
knowledge to businesses and industries across Colorado,” the authors
wrote in the report. “The CSU System’s economic impact in Fort Collins and Pueblo includes factors considered in the statewide impact, plus
money injected into the region from both state government and students
from across the state.”
Similarly, the University of Colorado Boulder represents a significant
economic driver for the state. The Economic Impact Study prepared by the
Business Research Division of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder found that four University of Colorado campuses
generated a total economic impact in Colorado of $11.6 billion in fiscal
year 2023. That figure includes CU Boulder, the University of Colorado
Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver and the University
of Colorado Anschutz Medical campus. (The numbers exclude Anschutz
campus hospitals including University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s
Hospital Colorado.)
The university system supported 101,943 jobs, mostly in the Boulder,
Denver and Colorado Springs MSAs, and generated labor income of $9
billion.
CU’s Boulder campus alone supports 24,200 jobs, with a total economic
impact of $4.3 billion. The campus enrolled 37,500 students in the fall of 2023.
The University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, which has broken
ground on a $200 million College of Osteopathic Medicine, generates
economic impact of $544.2 million in total economic impact, according to
the latest report, with operations-spending impact of $237.9 million and
research spending of $4.7 million. UNC supports 8,429 jobs in the region.
UNC alumni — with 22,878 living in Larimer or Weld counties — generate another $185.5 million in economic impact.
The region also benefits from Aims Community College, with campuses in Greeley, Fort Lupton, Loveland and Windsor, and Front Range
Community College, with campuses in Fort Collins, Longmont and
Westminster.
Collectively, the region’s higher-education institutions attract state,
federal and private-sector research funding, spin off companies through
technology-transfer programs, assist with workforce development, support
business and entrepreneurship, and represent critical components of the
region’s innovation ecosystem.
