Section 1 Introduction

The California Military Economic Impact Study series began in 2016, when the California Governor’s Office of Planning & Research (OPR) and the Governor’s Military Council requested the California Research Bureau, a unit of the California State Library, to conduct the first assessment. This study estimates detailed statewide and localized economic impacts of national security activity in California. The federal agencies identified as related to national security spending include the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and specified sub-agencies of the Department of Energy. Economic activity detailed in the report includes spending (contracts, grants, veterans’ benefits, and SmartPay charge card) and employment data (civilian and military). The first report, published in August 2018, utilized federal fiscal year 2016 data, while the second report, published in December 2019, used fiscal year 2018 data.

Following these two reports, OPR secured grant funding from the U.S. Department of Defense to support two full-time, temporary positions to develop supplemental reports that localize the economic impacts detailed in the statewide report. In December 2020, the California Research Bureau produced the 2020 California Military Economic Impact Study and followed this third edition of the statewide report with two first-time supplements that discuss the economic impacts in every county and congressional district in California. In December 2021, the Research Bureau completed the fourth edition of the statewide report as well as the second edition of the county and congressional district supplements. After completion of the second round of supplements, the Research Bureau was tasked with producing this process guide document.

This process guide and supporting documentation were developed to allow other states to replicate the methodology of this study for their respective geography of interest. Additionally, this documentation serves to provide the rationale behind how the data was gathered, error checked, and analyzed in order to justify the estimates in our reports.