How big is the U.S. space economy?

Steps

1. No API. Downloaded BEA's workbook and read six sheets by line number (1 real value added, 2 value added, 4 real gross output, 5 gross output, 7 employment, 8 compensation), after checking each sheet's title, units, update date, year header (2012 to 2023) and line numbering. Checked that total = private + government in tables 2 and 5, that private = the sum of its top-level industries within rounding, and that all 18 figures in Table 1 of BEA's article (levels, 2023 growth, average annual growth of six series) equal this script's results.
2. Gross output is the value of everything the space economy sells. Value added (BEA's space-economy GDP) is gross output minus the goods and services bought from other industries. Jobs are private-sector employees only: government employees are not counted, although government output is. The space economy means space-related goods and services, public and private: those used or made in space, those that need direct input from space, and those that study space. Real series are chained (2017) dollars: they show growth net of price changes and, being chained, do not add up across lines, so this page compares real growth rates only.

12 years (2012 to 2023), 98 industry lines per output table, 14 segments ranked. Unit: Millions of current dollars (output, value added, compensation); millions of chained (2017) dollars (real series); thousands of full- and part-time employees (jobs); thousands of dollars per employee (derived). Every derived figure on this page (changes, indexes, averages, counts) is computed from the published rows, and the table under each chart says how.

Checks

• Each sheet's title, units, update date (March 31, 2025), year header and line numbering are checked before it is read; the script stops if one changes.
• Total equals private industries plus government in value added and gross output, and private equals the sum of its top-level industries, within rounding, in every year.
• All 18 figures in Table 1 of BEA's March 2025 Survey of Current Business article (the 2023 level, 2023 growth and 2012 to 2023 average growth of six series) equal this page's results: 0 differences.
• BEA's article says the space economy was $142.5 billion, 0.5% of U.S. GDP, in 2023; value added in the workbook is $142,526 million.

Caveats

• This is a satellite account built by BEA from other statistics and models, with revisions: 2023 is new and 2012 to 2022 were revised in March 2025. BEA will not update it regularly, so the page ends at 2023. Government output is measured as spending on employee pay and use of capital (BEA's convention), not what government buys from companies, which sits inside the private industries. Satellite television and radio, and educational services (courses that use space data), are inside the definition; BEA's addendum line removes them for a narrower reading. Industry lines are NAICS 2017 industries, so a segment such as computer and electronic products includes satellite and navigation equipment but is not a list of satellite makers. Employment counts employees only, not the self-employed. Chained-dollar values are an index-like measure; read the growth rates, not the levels. Small lines are suppressed or rounded to zero by BEA.

Releases and revisions

• BEA release of March 31, 2025, the latest and final one: BEA's page now states it will no longer regularly produce these statistics (page last modified 3/11/26).
• 2023 is new and 2012 to 2022 were revised in the March 2025 release. There is no later release to wait for.