Medical and recreational cannabis markets continue to have a growing impact on the broader U.S. economy, but the state-level impact differs based on each market’s size, maturity, and type.

The total U.S. economic impact from marijuana sales in 2023 is expected to reach $100 billion – up more than 12% from last year.

For California – by far the largest cannabis market in the U.S. by sales and population – the economic impact from marijuana sales can amount to $17.7 billion pumped into the state’s economy in 2023.

By contrast, marijuana’s contribution to sparsely populated recreational and medical markets is much less, but not insignificant.

If we consider a state’s total population, some benefit more than others.

California’s marijuana market might have the most significant impact, but other states deliver more per capita. California, which creates almost three times the total dollar amount of impact than Colorado, will contribute a little more than $450 of economic impact per person.

The economic impact of the marijuana industry is not the same as supply-chain revenues that are often used to estimate the “total size” of an industry. Instead, the economic multiplier paints a picture of the industry’s impact on the broader economy. In this case, for every $1 consumers and patients spend at retail locations, an additional $2 will be injected into the economy, much of it at the local level.

While it might be hard to adjust for those disparities, the estimates give us a good look at how the industry contributes to the overall economic picture.