Massachusetts Exports and Foreign Investment
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In 2025, Massachusetts exported a record $38.8 billion of goods to the world. In 2023, exports from Massachusetts supported an estimated 106 thousand jobs (latest data available).
Exports from Massachusetts and Jobs
- Massachusetts was the 17th largest state exporter of goods in 2025.
- In 2025, Massachusetts goods exports were $38.8 billion, an increase of 53 percent ($14 billion) from its export level in 2015.
- Goods exports accounted for 4.7 percent of Massachusetts GDP in 2025.
- Massachusetts goods exports in 2023 supported an estimated 106 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 Massachusetts and Jobs
- In 2025, Massachusetts exported $36.7 billion of manufactured products.
- Massachusetts exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 101 thousand jobs in 2023 (latest data available).
- The state's largest manufacturing export category is chemicals, which accounted for $8.1 billion of Massachusetts' total goods exports in 2025.
- Other top manufacturing exports are computer & electronic products ($7.1 billion), primary metal manufacturing ($6.5 billion), machinery, except electrical ($5.2 billion), and miscellaneous manufactured commodities ($2.8 billion).
Exports Sustain Thousands of Massachusetts Businesses Many of Which are SMEs
- A total of 9,010 companies exported from Massachusetts locations in 2024 (latest data available). Of those, 7,869 (87 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
- Small and medium-sized firms generated 31.5 percent of Massachusetts' total exports of goods in 2024.
Massachusetts's Largest Export Markets
- The state’s largest market was the United Kingdom. Massachusetts exported $4.5 billion in goods to the United Kingdom in 2025, representing 12 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
- The United Kingdom was followed by Canada ($3.2 billion), Mexico ($3.0 billion), China ($2.8 billion), and Germany ($2.5 billion).
- Massachusetts’s goods exports to major world areas included:
|
Region |
2025 Value |
|
APEC |
$17.8 billion |
|
Asia |
$12.2 billion |
|
European Union |
$11.1 billion |
|
South/Central America and Caribbean |
$1.2 billion |
|
Sub-Saharan Africa |
$169 million |
- 29 percent of Massachusetts’ goods exports ($11.1 billion) in 2025 went to current FTA partners.
Massachusetts's Top Agricultural Exports
- Massachusetts is the country’s 44th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $240 million 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 plant products |
$169 million |
31 |
|
other livestock products |
$30 million |
38 |
|
fruits, fresh |
$16 million |
15 |
|
fruits, processed |
$13 million |
15 |
|
dairy products |
$7 million |
39 |
Massachusetts Seafood is a Key Export for the State
- Massachusetts was the country’s sixth largest seafood exporting state, shipping more than $316 million in domestic seafood exports abroad in 2025.
International Investment Creates Jobs in Massachusetts
- In 2024 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 237,900 Massachusetts workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Massachusetts included the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France.
- Foreign investment in Massachusetts was responsible for 6.8 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2024.
Massachusetts’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting
- In 2024 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Massachusetts recorded goods exports: Boston-Cambridge-Newton ($29.9 billion), Providence-Warwick ($9.8 billion), Worcester ($2.4 billion), Springfield ($670 million), Pittsfield ($291.7 million), Amherst Town-Northampton ($290.8 million), and Barnstable Town ($166.9 million).
[1] Estimates of state exports of agricultural products by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and goods exports by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce are based on different methodologies and are not directly comparable.




