Commerce Releases Updated Space Economy Statistics for 2012-2019
On January 26, 2022, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released updated statistics on the U.S. space economy, building on the preliminary estimates published in December 2020.
The revised figures show that, in 2019, the U.S. space economy accounted for $194.4 billion of real gross output, $125.9 billion of real GDP (translating to 0.6 percent of U.S. GDP), $42.4 billion of private industry compensation, and 354,000 private sector jobs.
Average annual growth of real value added over the 2012–2019 period was 2.7 percent, higher than the 2.3 percent growth in the overall U.S. economy.
This was driven by strong growth in space-related manufacturing value added, which grew by an average of 7.8 percent annually, offsetting declines seen in the direct-to-home satellite TV market.
For all but one year (2017), manufacturing growth in the space economy was faster than the overall U.S. economy – driven by production of satellite equipment and GPS receivers.