Beyond the Building

From 2017-2021, the U.S. data center industry’s direct employment grew by over 17%, compared to 2% employment growth for the United States overall during the same period.

Each direct job in the data center industry supports more than six jobs elsewhere in the U.S. economy.

In total, the data center industry directly and indirectly contributed $486 billion to U.S. GDP in 2021. This is a 37% increase from 2017, when the industry had a total contribution of $355 billion. In comparison, the growth rate in GDP for the entire U.S. economy in that same period was only about half as much.

While data center computing workloads increased by nearly 550% between 2010 and 2018, electricity consumption grew only six percent due to efficiencies from the cloud migration, improvements in cooling systems, and other operational and technological efficiency gains at modern data centers.

Leading data center companies are addressing regional water stress for data center sites and have pledged to become water positive by 2030, which involves replenishing more water in the natural environment than is consumed in operations. Water positive initiatives include reducing water use, using sustainable water sources, and supporting water replenishment projects.

Data center companies collectively contributed billions of dollars to Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math (STEAM) education programs and other workforce development initiatives to support the communities where they are based.

Many data center operators have made concerted efforts to give back to the communities in which they are located. Data centers have contributed volunteer hours and made donations to a variety of causes, ranging from food security and disaster relief to environmental stewardship and community revitalization.