Submitted Photo U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Ethan Bowman, 91st Missile Maintenance Squadron missile handling team chief, observes his team retracting a transporter erector during a training exercise at Minot Air Force Base on Nov. 16, 2023. Photo by U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Alexander Nottingham.

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE – Minot Air Force Base contributed $621.6 million to the local economy in fiscal year 2023. That was a $26.6 million increase from fiscal year 2022 when the base’s economic impact was $595 million.

Maj. Andrew Triplett, commander of the base’s 5th Comptroller Squadron, presented the annual economic impact analysis report to members of the Minot Area Chamber EDC’s Military Affairs Committee at its meeting on Thursday in Minot.

The report is done to inform community leaders of the impact of the Air Force base on the local area.

The comptroller squadron explained how the data is produced in a statement to The Minot Daily News:

“The 5th BW Comptroller Squadron gathers information related to Minot AFB’s organizational purchases, contracts, utilities, construction, along with number of personnel and their pay from multiple different sources. All that data is then compiled and analyzed according to official Air Force directorates. Following Department of Defense standards, multipliers, like the Indirect Jobs multiplier, were developed based on the size of the employment base for each region surrounding an installation and the mission set of the installation.”

According to the report, as of Sept. 30, 2023, Minot AFB had 11,827 total personnel. That number includes 5,413 military members (5,391 active-duty members and 22 Air Force Reserve), 5,416 family members and 998 civilians (federal employees and others) in the workforce at the base.

Of the 5,413 military members, 3,592 of them live off base in surrounding communities. Of the 5,416 family members, 2,787 of them live off base.

In fiscal year 2023, the annual payroll of the base totaled $420.3 million; and annual expenditures for construction, services and procurement of materials, equipment and supplies totaled $84.2 million.

A total of 1,995 indirect jobs were created in the Minot area. The number of indirect jobs is determined based on an estimated average annual pay of $58,656, resulting in an estimated annual dollar value of jobs created at $117,018,720.

In addition to the total economic impact and not part of the economic models is retired military pay. The Minot area has 1,492 military retirees, the majority of them Air Force, with a gross payroll of $40.6 million.

Triplett said the fiscal year 2023 economic impact was 4.3% higher than fiscal year 2022. He said some key factors that contribute to this were the increases in the total payroll and construction, services and expenditures.

More than $3 billion impact

Since fiscal year 2019, Minot Air Force Base has contributed more than $3 billion to the Minot and area economy.

– Fiscal year 2019: $559.3M

– Fiscal year 2020: $622.4M

– Fiscal year 2021: $606.8M

– Fiscal year 2022: $595M

– Fiscal year 2023: $621.6M