McLean, Virginia (March 24, 2022) – The Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC),the trade association representing the region’s technology community, today released a research report, “The Impact of Data Centers on the State and Local Economies of Virginia ,” produced by Mangum Economics.The report highlights the data industry’s crucial role in strengthening and diversifying the Commonwealth of Virginia’s economy as well as propelling innovation in the state.
Data centers continue to be a major driver of investment in Virginia. According to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), in 2021, 62 percent ($6.8 billion) of all the new investment was generated from new and expanding data centers. In 2021, the data center industry supported over 45,000 jobs, producing $3.6 billion in labor income and created $15.3 billion in total economic output across the Commonwealth.
Northern Virginia in particular has the largest data center market in the world with the region’s total data center capacity more than doubling from 2018 to 2021. As of last year, the data center inventory in Northern Virginia exceeded that of the next five largest markets in total (Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Silicon Valley, New York/Tri-State Area and Phoenix), with an annual compound rate of growth of 25 percent from 2014-2021.
“As businesses and consumers generate exponentially more data, demand for data storage, protection and analytics continues to grow. We are so proud that Virginia has emerged as the world’s largest data center market, and a substantial driver of Virginia’s statewide economy,” said Jennifer Taylor, NVTC president and CEO. “Data centers are increasingly recognized as the backbone of the modern technology economy; this industry continues to generate incremental tax revenue for the state. Virginia’s data center tax incentive program sends a clear signal to investors worldwide that it is a welcoming home for technology and innovation.”
Highlights of the research’s findings include:
- In 2021, the data center industry in Virginia provided approximately 5,550 operational jobs and almost 10,000 construction and manufacturing jobs.
- For every job inside a Virginia data center, an additional 4.1 additional jobs that are supported in the rest of the Virginia economy, with 45,460 supported jobs in 2021.
- Data centers generate significant tax revenue for local governments. Data centers were directly and indirectly responsible for generating $174 million in state revenue and $1 billion local tax revenue in Virginia.
- Without data centers and the way in which Virginia subsidizes local education budgets, the Commonwealth would have had to reallocate $90.5 million in state education funding away from other Virginia localities to provide $73 million in additional funding to Loudoun County, and $17.5 million to Prince William County.
- Virginia’s data center tax incentive programs continue to attract investors and demonstrate that its business climate is welcoming to the high-tech industry.
“Data centers are the engines of growth of digitalization across businesses and major drivers of investment in Virginia. We look forward to seeing the continued growth of the digital infrastructure industry in the years ahead,” said Vinay Nagpal, chairman of NVTC’s data center and cloud committee, and president of InterGlobix. “It is through the hard work and collaboration of our members, tech leaders, and innovators, along with Northern Virginia’s technology-rich culture, that places the National Capital region on the map, giving it global recognition as the leading data center market in the world.”
NVTC was honored to work with lead sponsors of this report: CloudHQ, Digital Realty, Dominion Energy, Fairfax Economic Development Authority, Iron Mountain, Loudoun County Virginia Economic Development, Microsoft, Prince William Economic Development and VISA. Supporting sponsors include: Fredericksburg Regional Alliance and Vantage Data Centers.
NVTC will host a complimentary virtual event to review the report’s key findings on March 31, 2022 from 11:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m. ET. All members of the data center, connectivity and cloud community, Virginia’s EDAs, policymakers, administration officials, industry and community partners, and the media are invited to attend. Fletcher Mangum. Ph.D., founder and CEO of Mangum Economics, the company that prepared the report, will be one of the featured guest speakers.
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Contact
Tarin Horan
Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC)
thoran@nvtc.org
703.946.0319
Elizabeth Rhee
Merritt Group
rhee@merrittgrp.com
(703) 475-2099
About the Northern Virginia Technology Council
NVTC is the trade association representing the Northern Virginia technology community. As one of the nation’s largest technology councils, we serve companies from all sectors of the industry, from small businesses and startups to Fortune 100 technology companies, government contractors, as well as service providers, academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations. More than 400 members look to the organization as a resource for networking and educational opportunities, peer-to-peer communities, policy advocacy, industry promotion, fostering of strategic relationships, and branding of the region as a major global technology center. Learn more at http://www.nvtc.org.