Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

By the numbers: The business of same-sex marriage in Nevada

The Center2

Steve Marcus

Tina, center, and Dee Reynolds attend a celebration at The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada (The Center) Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014. At left are Jefferson Ruck and Thomas Topovski. People gathered to celebrate a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that overturned Nevada’s prohibition on gay marriage.

Same-sex marriage is on its way to Nevada and with it could come millions of dollars in new spending for the state’s economy.

Weddings are already a $2.3 billion industry in Las Vegas, according to The Wedding Report. That number stands to grow even larger with thousands of in-state same-sex couples ready to marry and even more looking to travel to the "Marriage Capital of the World" to tie the knot.

A June report from the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles laid out the potential economic impact from legalizing same-sex marriage in Nevada.

Here are some highlights from the report, which did not include spending from out-of-state couples traveling to Las Vegas to wed.

54 percent: Percentage of Nevadans who support same-sex marriage, according to a 2013 study by the Retail Association of Nevada.

7,140: Number of same-sex couples living in Nevada, according to the 2010 Census.

51 percent: Percentage of same-sex couples in Massachusetts who wed within three years of gay marriage being legalized in the state.

24: Number of same-sex couples from Nevada who wed in other states, according to 2011 data.

2,285: Estimated number of Nevada same-sex couples who would marry in the first year after gay marriage is legalized in the state.

2,038: Number of same-sex couples in Nevada with domestic partnerships.

$23 million to $52 million: Estimated spending by Nevada same-sex couples generated by direct wedding spending (dresses, tuxedos, flowers and cake) and out-of-state guests attending the wedding over the first three years of legalization.

16: Average number of out-of-state guests who attended same-sex weddings in Massachusetts.

193 to 449: Number of new Nevada jobs created by the legalization of same-sex marriages. The number depends on how many marriages take place.

$1.1 million to $2.7 million: Estimated sales tax revenues for local and state governments in Nevada generated from same-sex wedding spending.

80,493: Number of marriage licenses issued in Clark County in 2013.

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