Alaska

Alaska Exports and Foreign Investment

 

In 2024, Alaska exported $5.9 billion of goods to the world. In 2022, exports from Alaska supported an estimated 28 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from Alaska and Jobs

• Alaska was the 39th largest state exporter of goods in 2024.
• In 2024, Alaska goods exports were $5.9 billion, an increase of 16 percent ($821 million) from its export level in 2014.
• Goods exports accounted for 7.8 percent of Alaska GDP in 2023 (latest data available).
• Alaska goods exports in 2022 supported an estimated 28 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 Alaska and Jobs

• In 2024, Alaska exported $1.4 billion of manufactured products.
• Alaska exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 2,000 jobs in 2022 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is primary metal manufacturing, which accounted for $1.0 billion of Alaska's total goods exports in 2024.
• Other top manufacturing exports are transportation equipment ($149 million), petroleum & coal products ($79 million), computer & electronic products ($72 million), and food & kindred products ($49 million).

Exports Sustain Alaska Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 755 companies exported from Alaska locations in 2022 (latest data available). Of those, 543 (72 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 27.1 percent of Alaska's total exports of goods in 2022.

Alaska Depends on World Markets

• The state’s largest market was China. Alaska exported $1.5 billion in goods to China in 2024, representing 26 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• China was followed by Australia ($820 million), Japan ($674 million), South Korea ($634 million), and Canada ($614 million).
• Alaska’s exports to major world areas included:

 

• 36 percent of Alaska’s goods exports ($2.2 billion) in 2024 went to current FTA partners.  

Agriculture in Alaska depends on Exports

• Alaska is the country’s 50th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $21 million in domestic agricultural exports abroad in 2022 (latest data available according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).
• Top Agricultural exports were:

	2022 Value	2022 State Rank
other plant products	$16 million	50
other livestock products	$2 million	49
feeds and other feed grains	$790 thousand	47
beef and veal	$638 thousand	49
grain products, processed	$240 thousand	47

International Investment Creates Jobs in Alabama

• In 2022 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 132,400 Alabama workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Alabama included Japan, Germany and Canada.
• Foreign investment in Alabama was responsible for 7.7 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2022.

Alabama’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting
In 2023 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Alabama recorded goods exports: Columbus ($911.8 million), Anniston-Oxford ($587.1 million), Auburn-Opelika ($234 million), Birmingham ($2 billion), Daphne-Fairhope-Foley ($1.6 billion), Decatur ($361.8 million), Dothan ($204.4 million), Florence-Muscle Shoals ($195.7 million), Gadsden ($41.2 million), Huntsville ($1.8 billion), Mobile ($2.2 billion), and Montgomery ($996.2 million).

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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.