More than 591,000 couples have married since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which extended marriage equality nationwide in June 2015. A new brief by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law finds that wedding spending by these couples and their out-of-state guests has boosted state and local economies by approximately $5.9 billion.
Since the Obergefell decision, same-sex couples’ wedding spending has also generated an estimated $432.2 million in state and local sales tax revenue—enough to support approximately 41,300 jobs for one year.
The economic boost since Obergefell has been distributed across the U.S. Approximately $2.3 billion of the wedding spending occurred in the South, $1.7 billion in the West, $1 billion in the Midwest, and $900 million in the Northeast.
“Marriage equality has had a significant impact on the lives and well-being of same-sex couples in the U.S.,” said lead author Christy Mallory, Interim Executive Director and Legal Director at the Williams Institute. “Additionally, it has offered a substantial financial benefit to businesses as well as state and local governments.”
Additional Findings
- There are an estimated 823,000 same-sex couples in the U.S.
- Of the 591,000 same-sex couples who have married since Obergefell, 80%—or 473,000 couples—celebrated with a wedding or other events, spending a total of $4.9 billion.
- An estimated 22.2 million guests have attended same-sex couples’ weddings since the Obergefell
- 6 million wedding guests traveled from out-of-state, generating a total economic boost of nearly $1 billion over the last 10 years.