BayCare’s annual economic impact in Florida climbed 30% to $13 billion from three years earlier, as the health system added hospitals, expanded its physician group and pushed further across West Central Florida. The growth now supports more than 66,000 jobs statewide, according to a Washington Economics Group study based on 2025 data, giving BayCare a footprint that stretches well beyond its 16 hospitals and more than 400 points of access.
That footprint translates into $4.8 billion in household income and $7.2 billion in annual contributions to Florida’s gross domestic product, while BayCare’s operations also generate more than $1.6 billion in revenue for federal, state and local governments.
Much of that activity sits close to home, with more than $5.1 billion in annual economic impact tied to Pinellas County and another $4.1 billion generated in Hillsborough County. Polk County accounts for more than $1 billion, followed by Pasco County at $677 million and Manatee County at $88 million. Pasco grew the fastest of the five, with its economic impact jumping 71% from the previous study, driven largely by the 2023 opening of BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel.
One of the fastest-growing pieces of the system sits outside the hospital walls, where BayCare Medical Group, its multispecialty physician network, increased its economic impact 154% to $1.9 billion.
That expansion is not slowing down, with BayCare planning another wave of capital projects through 2030 that economists estimate will generate a cumulative $6.6 billion in additional economic impact and support 30,871 jobs across Florida. The pipeline includes a new hospital in Manatee County opening in 2028, a new children’s hospital facility in Tampa opening in 2030 and more urgent care centers, HealthHubs and freestanding emergency departments spread across the region.
The study also found that 77% of the jobs supported by BayCare are in higher-wage, knowledge-based services, putting much of the system’s economic weight in occupations that require specialized training and education. BayCare separately reported providing $500 million in community benefit programs and health care services in 2025, adding another measure of how far the system’s reach now extends beyond the patients moving through its hospitals and clinics.