Uber paid $1.07 billion to ride-hailing and UberEats drivers in the Bay Area last year, the company said Thursday.

Throughout California, Uber drivers and delivery people made $2.97 billion, and Nationwide the figure was $12.9 billion, Uber said.

The San Francisco company revealed those figures as part of the release of five economic impact reports looking at how its business affects riders and drivers in specific regions and nationwide.

“It’s very cool to actually have numbers for some of these benefits,” said Olivia van Nieuwenhuizen, a data scientist at Uber. “It gives more of the story of what’s happening with riders and drivers, and why they use the platform.”

Uber said it had 148,000 active drivers in California as of December and 900,000 nationwide.

Many drivers are extremely part time. Statewide, 39 percent of them average fewer than 10 hours a week, Uber said. In San Francisco, 60 percent of drivers put in fewer than 20 hours a week, the company reported. That means that dividing the overall income figure by the number of drivers doesn’t yield a meaningful average income, Uber said.

Boston’s Economic Development Research Group, which Uber hired to produce the reports based on internal data as well as surveys of riders and drivers conducted by EDR Group, said Uber’s ride business contributes $1.6 billion in gross regional product to San Francisco’s regional economy. It did not look at the effect of Uber’s San Francisco headquarters or its UberEats business. That number derives from income generated by drivers and from workers in other industries when drivers spend their Uber income.

For the country as a whole, Uber’s economic contribution is $17 billion in gross domestic product (excluding UberEats and Uber offices), the report said.

Bay Area riders benefit to the tune of $2.3 billion annually “when considering cost savings, time savings, and added amenity benefits,” the report said. Nationwide, rider benefits total $17.6 billion, according to the report.

Another interesting statistic: 27 percent of Uber’s drivers were unemployed before they starting working for the company.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid