The Williams Institute

Extending marriage to same-sex couples in Alaska would generate an estimated $8 million in spending to the state economy. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the most recent data available, 1,228 same-sex couples live in Alaska. Of those couples, the Institute estimates that fifty percent (614 couples) would choose to marry in the first three years, a pattern that has been observed in Massachusetts and elsewhere. The marriages that would occur in the first year alone would bring over $5.1 million in revenue to the state of Alaska that year.