Executive Summary
Today, the United States is home to an estimated 823,000 married same-sex couples. Over 591,000 same-sex couples have married since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which extended marriage equality nationwide in June 2015. As these couples married, their weddings generated an economic boost for state and local economies. An estimated 22.7 million guests attended the weddings of same-sex couples over the past 10 years, including 7.6 million guests who traveled from out of state to attend the celebrations. We estimate that wedding spending by these couples and their out-of-state guests boosted state and local economies by an estimated $5.9 billion and generated an estimated $432.2 million in state and local sales tax revenue since the Obergefell decision. This spending was enough to support an estimated 41,300 jobs for one year.
The economic boost of wedding spending by same-sex couples and their guests since Obergefell has been distributed throughout the U.S. Approximately $2.3 billion of the spending occurred in the South, $1.7 billion in the West, $1 billion in the Midwest, and $900 million in the Northeast.
Findings
Background
In June 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that the Constitution guarantees all same-sex couples the right to marry, extending marriage to same-sex couples throughout the United States.
This study estimates the economic impact of same-sex couples’ weddings that have taken place in the 10 years since the Obergefell decision. The methodology used in this study is similar to what was used in previous Williams Institute studies estimating the economic impact of marriage for same-sex couples at the state level.
Number of Couples Who Have Married Since Obergefell
In June 2015, when the Supreme Court issued its decision in Obergefell, there were an estimated 380,000 same-sex married couples in the U.S. The number of married same-sex couples has more than doubled since then. There are an estimated 823,000 married same-sex couples as of June 2025, a net gain of 443,000 married couples. However, the net change in the number of married same-sex couples alone undercounts the number of new marriages from year to year. This is because the year-on-year change in the number of married couples is a result of both those who have gotten married and those whose marriage has ended. Consequently, the number of same-sex couples who have married since Obergefell is greater than the 443,000 increase in the number of married same-sex couples from June 2015 to June 2025. Accordingly, our final estimate of the number of marriages since the Obergefell decision adds an adjustment for couples whose marriages ended. (See Methodology for a discussion of our adjustment methods.)
Based on our calculation of the net increase in married couples and the number of marriages that ended since June 2015, we estimate that 591,000 same-sex couples have married in the decade since the Obergefell decision.
Same-Sex Weddings After Obergefell
In 2023 and 2024, the Williams Institute conducted an original survey of married same-sex couples nationwide. The survey asked respondents how they celebrated their marriages, how much time they spent planning their weddings, whether out-of-state guests attended the weddings, and how much they spent on celebrations.
Among survey respondents who married after Obergefell, 80% had a wedding or a similar celebration to recognize their marriage. The overwhelming majority (92%) of these respondents had a wedding ceremony. In addition, 72% had a reception, 27% had a rehearsal dinner, 27% provided a meal for their guests the day after their ceremony, and 19% hosted other activities for their guests. Respondents spent seven months on average planning their weddings, with some planning for up to two years.
Just under half (47%) of respondents who had a wedding or other celebration hosted the event in the place where they lived. About one-third (35%) had their celebration in another city in their state, 17% had their wedding in another state, and 2% had their wedding in another country.
Couples who had weddings or other celebrations had an average of 48 guests at their celebration, including 16 out-of-state guests, with some having as many as 250 guests in total and 180 out-of-state guests. Most couples (80%) invited some or all of their immediate family to their wedding. Together, these data mean that 22.7 million guests attended a same-sex couple’s wedding in the past decade, including 7.6 million guests who traveled from out of state.
Direct Wedding Spending
An estimated 591,000 same-sex couples have married in the 10 years since the Obergefell decision. Of these, 80%, or 473,000 couples, celebrated their marriage with a wedding or other similar celebration.
On average, couples who married after Obergefell spent $8,546 on their weddings or celebrations, with some couples spending as much as $65,000. Money spent on weddings came primarily from the couples themselves, with some reporting that their families also contributed to their celebrations.
Applying the average spent per wedding ($8,546) to the number of same-sex couples who have had weddings or similar celebrations since June 2015 and adjusting spending to 2025 dollars using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI inflation calculator, we estimate that direct wedding spending by same-sex couples and their families has generated an economic boost of $4.9 billion nationwide since Obergefell.
Spending by Out-of-State Guests
Same-sex couples who celebrated their marriage with a wedding or similar celebration since Obergefell have had an average of 16 out-of-state guests at their celebrations. In previous Williams Institute reports estimating the economic impact of marriage, we calculated average out-of-state guest spending using the per diem rates for food and lodging set by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) or guest spending estimates published by state tourism bureaus, depending on the type of data available in the state. In these studies, we assumed that each out-of-state wedding guest would purchase food and lodging for one day and one night and share a hotel room with another guest.
To estimate the amount of money spent per out-of-state guest traveling to and attending same-sex marriage events for this report, we again rely on per diem rates for food and lodging from the GSA over the past 10 years. The GSA’s relevant standard per diem rates for the continental United States (CONUS) have ranged from $129 in 2015 ($83 for lodging and $46 for meals and incidental expenses) to $178 in 2025 ($110 lodging and $68 for meals and incidental expenses).
To estimate the amount that out-of-state guests spent on lodging while traveling for same-sex couples’ wedding celebrations, we calculated the number of out-of-state guests traveling per year, divided that number in half (assuming guests would share a room with one other person), and multiplied that number by the GSA’s annual CONUS per diem rates for lodging. To estimate the amount that out-of-state guests spent on meals and incidentals while traveling for same-sex couples’ weddings, we multiplied the number of guests traveling each year by the GSA’s annual CONUS per diem rates for meals and incidental expenses. This method likely results in conservative estimates of the economic boost associated with out-of-state travel, given that many jurisdictions in the U.S. have per diem rates higher than the standard CONUS rates, according to the GSA. For example, in fiscal year 2025, 296 areas had higher per diem rates than the CONUS rate. Finally, we adjusted all spending to 2025 dollars, using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI inflation calculator.
Based on these calculations, we estimate that 7.6 million out-of-state guests have attended weddings of same-sex couples since the Obergefell decision, generating a total economic boost of nearly $1 billion ($947.5 million).
National and Regional Spending
We combine our estimates for spending by same-sex couples and their guests to estimate the total economic activity generated by weddings of same-sex couples since Obergefell to be $5.9 billion.
We created estimates for U.S. Census Bureau regions and divisions by distributing the national spending estimate in proportion to the national increase in the number of married same-sex couples in the region and division between 2014 and 2023. These years are a period of time during which we could directly rely on state-level estimates for the increase in married same-sex couples from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS).
Sales Tax Revenue
States and localities that impose sales taxes directly benefit from wedding spending. The national average state and local sales tax rate from June 2015 through June 2025 increased from 6.39% to 7.18%. To estimate sales tax revenue related to wedding spending since Obergefell, we calculated a national annual average combined state and local tax rate for each year between 2015 and 2025, weighted by the proportion of the national increase in the number of married same-sex couples that occurred in each state between 2014 to 2023. For these years, we could directly rely on the ACS’ state-level estimates for the increase in married same-sex couples. We then applied this annual national weighted tax rate to the combined spending by same-sex couples and their guests for each year. The annual sales tax revenue amounts were adjusted to 2025 dollars and added together to estimate sales tax revenue related to wedding spending over the 10 years.
Based on these calculations, we estimate that weddings of same-sex couples have generated $432.2 million in state and local sales tax revenue in the 10 years since the Obergefell decision.
Job Creation
In previous state-level studies, we used data from state tourism bureaus to estimate the number of direct jobs that could be supported by same-sex couples’ wedding spending. To calculate the impact on job creation of wedding spending since Obergefell, we considered the findings from several studies that estimated the number of direct jobs created by every $1 million in tourism spending. These range from seven to 8.7 jobs per $1 million in spending by the U.S. Travel Association to between seven and 13 jobs per $1 million by states that have commissioned specific studies for their state. The average number of direct jobs created per $1 million in tourism spending across these studies is between seven and eight. For our calculation, we used seven direct jobs created per $1 million in visitor spending to produce a more conservative estimate. Applying this figure to our estimate of total wedding-related spending in the 10 years since Obergefell indicates that approximately 41,300 direct jobs were supported for a full year by same-sex couples’ weddings during this period.
Conclusion
In this study, we have drawn on information from various sources to estimate the economic impact of the marriages of same-sex couples that have taken place since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. Our calculations indicate that wedding spending by these couples and their out-of-state guests has boosted state and local economies by an estimated $5.9 billion and has generated an estimated $432.2 million in state and local sales tax revenue. This spending supported an estimated 41,300 jobs for one year.
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