Colorado

Colorado Exports & Foreign Investment

In 2024, Colorado exported a record $10.5 billion of goods to the world. In 2022, exports from Colorado supported an estimated 40 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from Colorado and Jobs

• Colorado was the 3rd largest state exporter of goods in 2024.
• In 2024, Colorado goods exports were $10.5 billion, an increase of 26 percent ($2.1 billion) from its export level in 2014.
• Goods exports accounted for 2.0 percent of Colorado GDP in 2023 (latest data available).
• Colorado goods exports in 2022 supported an estimated 40 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 Colorado and Jobs

• In 2024, Colorado exported $9.7 billion of manufactured products.
• Colorado exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 36 thousand jobs in 2022 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is food & kindred products, which accounted for $2.3 billion of Colorado's total goods exports in 2024.
• Other top manufacturing exports are computer & electronic products ($2.1 billion), machinery, except electrical ($1.1 billion), chemicals ($896 million), and transportation equipment ($710 million).

Exports Sustain Thousands of Colorado Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 5,722 companies exported from Colorado locations in 2022 (latest data available). Of those, 4,986 (87 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 30.5 percent of Colorado's total exports of goods in 2022.

Colorado Depends on World Markets

• The state’s largest market was Mexico. Colorado exported $1.7 billion in goods to Mexico in 2024, representing 17 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Mexico was followed by Canada ($1.6 billion), China ($758 million), South Korea ($626 million), and Malaysia ($548 million).
• Colorado’s exports to major world areas included:

 

• 46 percent of Colorado’s goods exports ($4.8 billion) in 2024 went to current FTA partners.  

Agriculture in Colorado depends on Exports

Colorado is the country’s 27th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $2.2 billion 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
beef and veal	$606 million	6
other plant products	$297 million	18
dairy products	$226 million	13
wheat	$209 million	11
feeds and other feed grains	$189 million	15

International Investment Creates Jobs in Colorado

• In 2022 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 126,600 Colorado workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Colorado included the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan.
• Foreign investment in Colorado was responsible for 5.2 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2022.

Colorado’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting
In 2023 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Colorado recorded goods exports: Boulder ($1.2 billion), Colorado Springs ($1.4 billion), Denver-Aurora-Centennial ($5.7 billion), Fort Collins-Loveland ($1.2 billion), Grand Junction ($95.3 million), Greeley ($2 billion), and Pueblo ($216.5 million).