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WVU fuels both the state and national economy through a tightly connected academic–research–clinical ecosystem anchored by the WVU Health Sciences Center and WVU Medicine.
Overall Combined Report FindingsEconomic Impact
Jobs
Tax Revenue
Economic Impact
Return on Investment
Jobs
Tax Revenue
An Integrated Engine Driving State and National Impact.
WVU Medicine, the clinical and operational arm of the university’s health enterprise, extends this mission across a 25-hospital, multi-state network, serving as West Virginia’s largest private employer and most extensive health system. Together, WVU and WVU Medicine form a powerful economic and healthcare engine that links education, discovery, and care delivery in a unified continuum.
The WVU Health Sciences Center—comprising the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Public Health—educates future healthcare professionals while advancing research and innovation that address West Virginia’s most pressing health challenges.
This integration allows physicians, scientists, and educators at the Health Sciences Center to work seamlessly with clinicians, hospitals, and community providers within the WVU Medicine health system. Discoveries and innovations emerging from university classrooms and research laboratories are rapidly translated into clinical trials, patient care, and population health improvements across the state. Students and residents benefit from training opportunities in both academic and community-based environments—ranging from tertiary hospitals in Morgantown to critical-access facilities in rural regions—ensuring broad, hands-on learning experiences that strengthen the state’s healthcare workforce.
The partnership’s economic contributions are equally significant. The combined activities of WVU and WVU Medicine represent a substantial share of West Virginia’s total employment, GDP, and tax base. Their investments in education, research, and healthcare infrastructure generate high-skill employment, stimulate local purchasing and construction, and anchor graduate medical education (GME) and clinical rotations throughout urban and rural communities.
By integrating research, teaching, and patient care under one collaborative academic medical center, WVU and WVU Medicine not only keep rural hospital doors open and ensure patients receive high-quality care close to home but also sustain a robust economic foundation that strengthens West Virginia’s long-term prosperity.
In FY24, WVU and WVU Medicine together generated a combined national economic impact of $21.6 billion, including $4.8 billion attributed to WVU and $16.8 billion to WVU Medicine. This substantial footprint demonstrates the broad national influence of the university and its affiliated health system as drivers of education, healthcare, innovation, and economic opportunity.
Within West Virginia, the combined activities of WVU and WVU Medicine produced a total economic impact of $14.3 billion in FY24. This total includes $8.0 billion in direct spending—reflecting operational expenditures, payroll, capital investments, and student and visitor spending—and an additional $6.3 billion in indirect and induced impacts, underscoring the powerful ripple effects of re-spending within the state economy.
WVU and WVU Medicine generate economic value through a combination of direct institutional spending and multiplier effects that stimulate growth across multiple industries. Their expenditures support thousands of West Virginia businesses, sustain local employment, and contribute to the vitality of both rural and urban economies.
WVU’s spending on goods, services, payroll, and capital projects—along with spending by faculty, staff, students, and visitors—creates immediate monetary value that supports local businesses and employment. This direct spending drives demand in sectors such as construction, professional services, hospitality, retail, and healthcare.
The initial expenditures by WVU and WVU Medicine circulate through the economy as vendors, contractors, and employees re-spend their income locally. These transactions create indirect impacts (business-to-business activity) and induced impacts (household spending), which together amplify total economic output and sustain thousands of additional jobs across the state.
WVU and WVU Medicine’s employment impact underscores their importance not just as educational, research, and healthcare institutions, but as economic engines for West Virginia, driving job creation and supporting livelihoods across diverse industries throughout the state. This employment impact means that one in every nine jobs in West Virginia is either directly provided by WVU and WVU Medicine or supported because of its presence.
In FY24, WVU and WVU Medicine collectively supported 149,021 jobs nationwide, including 30,656 jobs generated by WVU and 118,365 by WVU Medicine.
Within West Virginia, the two institutions play a pivotal role as the largest combined employer, supporting a total of 84,519 jobs statewide. This impact highlights their essential role in sustaining employment and economic vitality across all regions of the state.
WVU and WVU Medicine directly employed 34,665 individuals in FY24, spanning a broad spectrum of positions—from faculty, researchers, physicians, nurses, and hospital staff to administrative and facilities personnel. These direct jobs represent a critical component of the state’s workforce and are distributed across both urban centers and rural communities.
An additional 49,854 jobs were supported through the indirect and induced effects of WVU and WVU Medicine’s operations.
Together, WVU and WVU Medicine are major economic engines for West Virginia, driving employment and supporting livelihoods statewide. Their combined activity sustains roughly one in every nine jobs across the state.
There is a common misconception that public universities and not-for-profit health systems do not contribute meaningfully to tax revenue. In reality, WVU and WVU Medicine make a substantial contribution to the state’s fiscal health. Together, their activities generated $1.0 billion in total tax revenue nationwide in FY24.
Within West Virginia, state and local tax revenues attributable to WVU and WVU Medicine totaled $890.0 million in FY24. This figure reflects the broad ripple effects of their operations—encompassing spending by faculty, staff, students, patients, and visitors—which collectively sustain and strengthen local and statewide tax bases.
To put this in perspective, the State of West Virginia collected $5.7 billion in total revenue in FY24, meaning WVU and WVU Medicine accounted for $1 of every $6.42 collected by the state. With a state investment of $340.9 million in WVU, the university and health system generated $2.61 in state and local tax revenue for every $1 invested.
This return on investment highlights WVU’s and WVU Medicine’s pivotal role as an educational, research, and healthcare leader—and as a cornerstone of West Virginia’s fiscal stability, supporting essential public services, infrastructure, and long-term economic growth.