Kentucky

Kentucky Exports and Foreign Investment

• In 2025, Kentucky exported a record $51.7 billion of goods to the world. In 2023, exports from Kentucky supported an estimated 129 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from Kentucky and Jobs

• Kentucky was the 13th largest state exporter of goods in 2025.
• In 2025, Kentucky goods exports were $51.7 billion, an increase of 87 percent ($24 billion) from its export level in 2015.
• Goods exports accounted for 16.8 percent of Kentucky GDP in 2025.
• Kentucky goods exports in 2023 supported an estimated 129 thousand jobs (latest data available). Nationally, jobs supported by goods exports pay up to an estimated 18 percent above the national average.

Manufacturing Exports from Kentucky and Jobs

• In 2025, Kentucky exported $50.5 billion of manufactured products.
• Kentucky exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 120 thousand jobs in 2023 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is transportation equipment, which accounted for $30.1 billion of Kentucky's total goods exports in 2025.
• Other top manufacturing exports are chemicals ($6.8 billion), computer & electronic products ($3.8 billion), machinery, except electrical ($2.5 billion), and other fabricated metal products ($1.7 billion).

Exports Sustain Thousands of Kentucky Businesses Many of Which are SMEs

• A total of 4,533 companies exported from Kentucky locations in 2024 (latest data available). Of those, 3,561 (79 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 9.2 percent of Kentucky's total exports of goods in 2024.

Kentucky's Largest Export Markets

• The state’s largest market was Canada. Kentucky exported $9.4 billion in goods to Canada in 2025, representing 18 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Canada was followed by the United Kingdom ($5.4 billion), France ($5.3 billion), China ($4.7 billion), and Mexico ($4.0 billion).
• Kentucky goods exports to major world areas included:

• 34 percent of Kentucky’s goods exports ($17.5 billion) in 2025 went to current FTA partners.

Kentucky's Top Agricultural Exports

• Kentucky is the country’s 20th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $2.9 billion in domestic agricultural exports abroad in 2024 (latest data available according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).^[1]
• Top agricultural exports were:

Product	2024 Value	2024 State Rank
other livestock products	$621 million	1
soybeans	$551 million	15
tobacco	$333 million	2
corn	$230 million	14
feeds and other feed grains	$218 million	14

International Investment Creates Jobs in Kentucky

• In 2024 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 152,800 Kentucky workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Kentucky included Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
• Foreign investment in Kentucky was responsible for 8.2 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2024.

Kentucky’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting

• In 2024 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Kentucky recorded goods exports: Cincinnati ($38.8 billion), Louisville/Jefferson County ($12.1 billion), Lexington-Fayette ($3.1 billion), Huntington-Ashland ($1.7 billion), Bowling Green ($871.7 million), Paducah ($838.9 million), Clarksville ($561.8 million), Elizabethtown ($118.7 million), and Owensboro ($58.7 million).