The Williams Institute

Extending marriage to same-sex couples in North Carolina would generate an estimated $64.4 million in spending to the state economy. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the most recent data available, 18,309 same-sex couples live in North Carolina. Of those couples, the Institute estimates that fifty percent (9,155 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 about $41.2 million in revenue to the state of North Carolina that year.