Economic Impact

CSU-Pueblo

In 2004, Colorado State University – Pueblo issued results from an economic impact study. A more current study has not been completed.

Major conclusions:

  • The total impact of CSU-Pueblo on Pueblo County’s economy is $112 million annually, including all direct and indirect impacts as a result of the presence of the University and its students. Total local employment attributed to the presence of the University is nearly 1,800 jobs.
  • The 17 percent of CSU-Pueblo students surveyed who commute from outside Pueblo County reported spending an average of just over $1,000 annually in Pueblo, for a total of more than $700,000.
  • Of the 83 percent of students who live locally, 80 percent of those said they would move out of the area to attend a university elsewhere if they could not attend CSU-Pueblo. These “movers” estimated that they spend an average of nearly $12,000 annually, a total of nearly $32 million.

In terms of the total economic impact of a single employer, CSU-Pueblo ranks among the largest in the region, based on comparisons to the results of other local economic impact studies (see chart below). The CSU-Pueblo impact on the Pueblo economy is estimated to be similar to the impact of Colorado College on the Colorado Springs economy.

Organization

Year

Impact

Pueblo Nonprofits+

2001

$125 million

CSU – Pueblo+

2004

$112 million

Colorado College**

2004

$110 million

Rocky Mountain Steel Mills*

2000

$100 million

Colorado State Fair+

2004

$27 million

*Conducted by the Adams Group, Inc.
**Completed by Taylor and McKenzie-Young
+Authored by Duncan/Goodman

Duncan and Goodman reported that the size of the impact results in part from the fact that much of the University’s funding comes from state and federal government. Another reason is that a majority of local students attending the University would leave to get an education elsewhere if CSU-Pueblo did not exist. As a result, the impact of student spending at over $55.8 million is nearly identical to that of University spending, at just under $56.9 million.