Economic impact tops $3B annually

UC Davis generated $3.06 billion in economic activity in California during the last full fiscal year, based on recently released financial information for 2004-05.

That represents a 4.4 percent, or $130 million, increase in economic activity from the $2.93 billion generated in the 2003-04 fiscal year.

UC Davis remains one of the largest employers in the seven-county capital region, with 27,816 full-time and part-time employees. The university paid out $1.147 billion in salaries and wages to those employees in the 2004-05 fiscal year, ending June 30, 2005, while collecting revenues totaling $2.25 billion — half of which are estimated to have come from outside the area.

"UC Davis is dedicated to making a tangible difference in the lives of people every day," said UC Davis Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef. "This latest financial report shows one way we are indeed doing that — through the campus's very significant economic benefit to the state and to the Sacramento region. We are pleased to make such a contribution and grateful to the state and others whose investment in UC Davis has helped spur this kind of positive impact."

UC Davis' more recent estimated economic impact is based on the university's revenue and expenditure figures for the 2004-05 fiscal year, and economic multipliers generated by the Sedway Group of San Francisco for a similar analysis in 2004.

At the time, the consultants examined all spending, employment, student, alumni, visitor and local tax impacts of the main Davis campus, its Sacramento medical center and health system for the 2001-02 fiscal year. Sedway's report estimated the direct and indirect economic effects of campus spending at the local, regional and statewide levels.

Using Sedway's original economic analysis as a guidepost for this year, UC Davis officials offered the following economic impact analysis:

  • For every two direct jobs at UC Davis, approximately another job is created in the state of California. That translates to UC Davis' 27,816 full- and part-time positions generating approximately 15,500 more jobs across the state.
  • The campus budget of $1.97 billion generated about $2.67 billion in multiplied economic activity in the state for the 2001-02 fiscal year. Using similar multiplier estimates, the 2004-05 budget of $2.25 billion would have generated about $3.06 billion in statewide economic activity last year.

In addition to the state support, UC Davis collected nearly $506 million in research funding in 2004-05, for the first time passing up UC Berkeley at nearly $491 million. The university also received $79 million in private support in 2004-05.

The discoveries that result are increasingly being transferred to the public sector, with 142 patent applications filed in 2004-05, and 47 U.S. patents issued.

For the purposes of the economic analysis, the consultants used the Impact Analysis for Planning model developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This is the same model that California State University, Sacramento, and UC Berkeley, have used for similar studies of those campuses.

For details on UC Davis' 2004-05 budget and other key financial and academic data, visit http://facts.ucdavis.edu/.

Media Resources

Mitchel Benson, (530) 752-9844, mdbenson@ucdavis.edu

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