WashU’s direct and indirect impact to the St. Louis economy in 2024 totaled $9.3 billion, an increase of $500 million from 2023. During fiscal year 2024, which concluded June 30, WashU spent $3.9 billion on salaries, construction and purchasing. That money rippled across the region, generating another $5.4 billion in economic activity.
Chancellor Andrew D. Martin said WashU’s growing economic impact represents both its success as a global leader in education, research and innovation and its commitment to the region as an employer, health care provider and community resource.
“We believe that by combining our intellectual resources, innovative spirit and our role as a vital economic driver regionally and across Missouri, we can create meaningful change,” Martin said. “Our work is about more than institutional achievements; it’s about partnering with local organizations, supporting emerging talent and addressing critical challenges facing our region.”
Washington University is the second-largest employer in the region, with 22,181 employees, an increase of nearly 6,000 jobs in five years. In 2024, salaries totaled $2.4 billion.
In addition, the university spent $301 million in construction, including funds to complete the Jeffrey T. Fort Neuroscience Research Building, where 120 teams are working to discover new drugs, diagnostic tools and therapies for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. This year, Siteman Cancer Center — based at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital — also opened the nine-story Gary C. Werths Building, where WashU Medicine physicians diagnose and treat patients with the most advanced, lifesaving therapies available.
WashU also purchased $285.1 million in services and goods from local companies. In addition, WashU students spent $210.1 million at local restaurants, shops and other businesses.
For the first time, annual research funding to WashU surpassed $1 billion in fiscal 2024. WashU Medicine, No. 2 among all U.S. medical schools in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, received $857 million in funding. That money supports research ranging from endometrial and pancreatic cancer to advances in Alzheimer’s treatments for people with Down syndrome, to studies of fatal pediatric neurodegenerative diseases.
A growing number of grants are funding studies and projects that address regional issues such as asthma rates among St. Louis children; colon cancer in rural Missouri; workforce development for the region’s underemployed; and flooding risks in Cahokia Heights, Ill. The new School of Public Health, officially launched in January, will draw even more external dollars for region-specific research, said Mark Lowe, MD, PhD, vice chancellor for research and the Harvey R. Colten Professor of Pediatric Science at WashU Medicine.
“A lot of our public health work directly interacts with communities to help prevent disease and not just manage it,” said Lowe, a pancreatitis researcher. “Prevention is an important part of what we do, and those efforts will increase in the upcoming years.”
Research funding not only makes St. Louis more sustainable, equitable and healthful, it helps drive growth. Economic data shows that every $1 million in research funding creates 11 local jobs. Since 2016, WashU Medicine has added some 750 faculty members including physicians, researchers and research technicians.
WashU also is expanding educational access to students in Missouri and southern Illinois through its WashU Pledge, which provides admitted low-income students a free WashU education — tuition, housing, food and fees included. Since the program launched in 2020, the university has dedicated more than $96 million to WashU Pledge scholars. In 2024 alone, WashU awarded $28 million to 337 Pledge Scholars. In total, WashU made a $507.9 million investment in financial aid.
WashU also is investing in community-engaged research and partnerships. One recent example is the new Veterans Law Clinic, one of 14 free clinics operated by the WashU School of Law. Every year, the school delivers 100,000 hours of free legal assistance, most of it in the community.
“For more than half a century, our faculty and students have provided free legal services to members of our community in need,” said Stefanie Lindquist, the Nickerson Dean and a professor of law at WashU Law. “Our 14 clinics, from the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic to the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic to the Entrepreneurship Clinic, play an important role in the university’s broader mission to make St. Louis stronger, healthier and more equitable for all.”
Lisa Weingarth, senior advisor to the chancellor and executive director of the In St. Louis, For St. Louis initiative, said WashU will continue to find new ways, big and small, to show up in the region. This year, her office sponsored the Great Forest Park Balloon Race, the Greater St. Louis Marathon and other events and opened the WashU Community Engagement Office in the Delmar Divine, home to local health and human service organizations as well as WashU’s Center for Community Health Partnerships and Research and the St. Louis Confluence Collaborative for Community-Engaged Research, Teaching and Practice.
“St. Louis is not just our address — it’s our home,” Weingarth said. “Everyone here has a stake in building the health and prosperity of this community.”
Read the complete 2024 Washington University Community and Economic Benefit Report.
