Research contributed nearly $10 billion in economic value to Oregon in 2024, according to new federal data, which ranks Oregon No. 8 among states for the role research plays in economic output.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis has developed a new methodology for measuring research and development in the U.S. economy and estimating its contribution in each state.
The latest federal analysis concludes that R&D accounts for 2.5% of the national gross domestic product, a measure of total economic output in the U.S. In Oregon, R&D represents 3.0% of the state’s economic output.
Research plays a key economic role for a few reasons. One is that researchers tend to be highly educated and highly paid. Their ideas also attract capital, which means new businesses and new industries.
That’s important at the national level and for regional economies, which often develop local specialties — like auto manufacturing in Michigan, or pharmaceuticals in New Jersey.
R&D is especially important on the West Coast. Washington and California rank No. 1 and No. 2 nationally in the value of research to their state economies. Both those states have big technology sectors.
In Oregon, electronics manufacturing is responsible for nearly half of R&D’s contribution to the state’s economy.
The federal data show electronics manufacturing contributed $4.3 billion to the state’s economy in 2024, the latest year for which it has data. That’s 43% of all the value research added to Oregon’s economy in 2024.
Most of that activity comes from Intel, which has its most advanced semiconductor research in Hillsboro. The company has historically employed more than 2,000 scientists with Ph.D.s in Oregon, developing cutting-edge technology for manufacturing computer chips.
However, over the past two years Intel has substantially cut research spending across the company and eliminated several thousand Oregon jobs. That has reduced the semiconductor industry’s economic contribution to the state but it’s not clear yet by how much.
The economic contribution of research in Oregon’s other industries doesn’t stand out compared to other states.
Professional and technical services, for example, accounts for a third of the contribution research makes to the national economy. In Oregon it’s just 17%.
And Oregon ranks No. 45 nationally in the share of its R&D activity generated by universities. That’s not as bad as it sounds, though. Oregon’s universities contribute a smaller share of the state’s research activity because the semiconductor sector is so big.
In dollar terms, the federal analysis values the economic contribution from Oregon university research at $640 million. That ranks 26th among the 50 states, right in the middle of the pack.
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