Colorado

Colorado Exports & Foreign Investment

 

In 2023, Colorado exported a record $10.4 billion of goods to the world.  In 2021, exports from Colorado supported an estimated 38 thousand jobs.

 

Exports from Colorado and Jobs

• Colorado was the 32^nd largest state exporter of goods in 2023.
• In 2023, Colorado goods exports were $10.4 billion, an increase of 21 percent ($1.8 billion) from its export level in 2013 (latest data available).
• Goods exports accounted for 2.0 percent of Colorado GDP in 2023 (latest data available).
• Colorado goods exports in 2021 (latest data available) supported an estimated 38 thousand jobs. Nationally, jobs supported by goods exports pay up to an estimated 18 percent above the national average.

Manufacturing Exports from Colorado and Jobs

• In 2023, Colorado exported $9.8 billion of manufactured products.
• Colorado exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 33 thousand jobs in 2021 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is food and kindred products, which accounted for $2.2 billion of Colorado's total goods exports in 2023.
• Other top manufacturing exports are computer and electronic products ($2.1 billion), machinery, except electrical ($1.2 billion), chemicals ($874 million), and transportation equipment ($646 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 Canada. Colorado exported $1.9 billion in goods to Canada in 2023, representing 18 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Canada was followed by Mexico ($1.6 billion), China ($896 million), Korea, South ($734 million), and Switzerland ($713 million).
• Colorado’s exports to major world areas included:

 

• 46 percent of Colorado’s goods exports ($4.8 billion) in 2023 went to current FTA partners. 

Agriculture in Colorado depends on Exports

• Colorado is the country’s 27^th 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).^[1]
• Top Agricultural exports were:

 

International Investment Creates Jobs in Colorado

• In 2021 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 123,200 Colorado workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Colorado included Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan.
• Foreign investment in Colorado was responsible for 5.3 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2021.

Colorado’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting

In 2022 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Colorado recorded goods exports: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood ($5.8 billion), Greeley ($2.1 billion), Colorado Springs ($1.2 billion), Boulder ($1.2 billion), Fort Collins ($1.2 billion), Pueblo ($217.3 million), and Grand Junction ($96.3 million).