The RV industry made a $114 billion impact on the nation’s economy in 2018, with nearly one third of that coming to Indiana.
This is according to the latest RVs Move America Impact Study released June 3 by the Elkhart-based RV Industry Association.
According to the study, the industry supported nearly 600,000 jobs nationally, contributing more than $32 billion in wages, and paying more than $12 billion in federal, state, and local taxes. The RVs Move America Economic Impact Study, conducted for the association by John Dunham & Associates Inc., includes all companies involved in the manufacture, sale, rental, repair, storage, and service of recreation vehicles, as well as the aftermarket industry and the financing and insurance of RV purchases and the economic impact of recreation vehicle travel.
“What the study reveals is that RVs are not just the familiar highway scene of an American summer,” said Garry Enyart, chairman, RV Industry
Association, and director, mobile generator sales and coach care at Onan/Cummins. “Indeed, RVs are the heart of an industry that has become an American juggernaut, a business that has tripled in size since the Great Recession of 2009.”
Indiana – where the association says RV manufacturing industry was founded – ranked first among all states with $32 billion in total economic activity by the RV industry followed by California, Texas, Oregon, and Ohio. A total of 29 states has at least $1 billion in total economic activity.
Nationally, the study shows the RV industry’s $114 billion economic impact includes:
- $68 billion generated by RV manufacturers and suppliers;
- $25.6 billion by RV campgrounds and related travel; and
- $20.1 billion by RV sales and service activities.
In 2018, 482,389 RVs were made in the US, with towable vehicles accounting for 88 percent of shipments to dealers, and motorized vehicles the other 12 percent.
The 25 million Americans who go RVing each year contribute not only generally to the nation’s economy, but to the outdoor recreation economy, which according to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis represents 2.2 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product.
