Delaware

Delaware Exports and Foreign Investment

In 2024, Delaware exported $4.7 billion of goods to the world. In 2022, exports from Delaware supported an estimated 17 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from Delaware and Jobs

• Delaware was the 42nd largest state exporter of goods in 2024.
• In 2024, Delaware goods exports were $4.7 billion, a decrease of 11 percent ($561 million) from its export level in 2014.
• Goods exports accounted for 5.3 percent of Delaware GDP in 2023 (latest data available).
• Delaware goods exports in 2022 supported an estimated 17 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 Delaware and Jobs

• In 2024, Delaware exported $4.4 billion of manufactured products.
• Delaware exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 16 thousand jobs in 2022 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is chemicals, which accounted for $1.3 billion of Delaware's total goods exports in 2024.
• Other top manufacturing exports are computer & electronic products ($655 million), machinery, except electrical ($574 million), transportation equipment ($457 million), and plastics & rubber products ($237 million).

Exports Sustain Thousands of Delaware Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 2,233 companies exported from Delaware locations in 2022 (latest data available). Of those, 1,969 (88 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 19.5 percent of Delaware's total exports of goods in 2022.

Delaware Depends on World Markets

• The state’s largest market was Canada. Delaware exported $825 million in goods to Canada in 2024, representing 18 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Canada was followed by China ($532 million), Mexico ($399 million), South Korea ($273 million), and United Arab Emirates ($262 million).
• Delaware’s exports to major world areas included:

 

• 40 percent of Delaware’s goods exports ($1.9 billion) in 2024 went to current FTA partners.  

Agriculture in Delaware depends on Exports

• Delaware is the country’s 40th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $354 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
broiler meat	$130 million	10
soybeans	$55 million	26
other plant products	$52 million	47
corn	$38 million	29
feeds and other feed grains	$24 million	38

International Investment Creates Jobs in Delaware

• In 2022 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 36,200 Delaware workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Delaware included the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands.
• Foreign investment in Delaware was responsible for 9.0 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2022.

Delaware’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting
In 2023 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Delaware recorded goods exports: Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington ($28.8 billion), and Dover ($207.1 million).