North Dakota

North Dakota Exports and Foreign Investment

• In 2025, North Dakota exported $8.7 billion of goods to the world. In 2023, exports from North Dakota supported an estimated 35 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from North Dakota and Jobs

• North Dakota was the 35th largest state exporter of goods in 2025.
• In 2025, North Dakota goods exports were $8.7 billion, an increase of 115 percent ($4.6 billion) from its export level in 2015.
• Goods exports accounted for 10.6 percent of North Dakota GDP in 2025.
• North Dakota goods exports in 2023 supported an estimated 35 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 North Dakota and Jobs

• In 2025, North Dakota exported $6.0 billion of manufactured products.
• North Dakota exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 20 thousand jobs in 2023 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is petroleum & coal products, which accounted for $3.8 billion of North Dakota's total goods exports in 2025.
• Other top manufacturing exports are machinery, except electrical ($1.0 billion), chemicals ($434 million), food & kindred products ($295 million), and transportation equipment ($173 million).

Exports Sustain Thousands of North Dakota Businesses Many of Which are SMEs

• A total of 1,734 companies exported from North Dakota locations in 2024 (latest data available). Of those, 1,454 (84 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 28.1 percent of North Dakota's total exports of goods in 2024.

North Dakota's Largest Export Markets

• The state’s largest market was Canada. North Dakota exported $7.0 billion in goods to Canada in 2025, representing 81 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Canada was followed by Mexico ($819 million), Australia ($164 million), Czech Republic ($70 million), and Taiwan ($51 million).
• North Dakota’s goods exports to major world areas included:

• 93 percent of North Dakota goods exports ($8.1 billion) in 2025 went to current FTA partners.

North Dakota's Top Agricultural Exports

• North Dakota is the country’s 9th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $5.4 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
soybeans	$1.2 billion	9
wheat	$1.0 billion	1
other oilseeds and products	$634 million	1
corn	$457 million	10
feeds and other feed grains	$367 million	11

International Investment Creates Jobs in North Dakota

• In 2024 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 16,200 North Dakota workers. Major sources of foreign investment in North Dakota included Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
• Foreign investment in North Dakota was responsible for 4.2 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2024.

North Dakota’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting

• In 2024 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in North Dakota recorded goods exports: Fargo ($819.2 million), Grand Forks ($377.6 million), Minot ($302.5 million), and Bismarck ($123 million).