Kentucky

Kentucky Exports and Foreign Investment

In 2024, Kentucky exported a record $47.8 billion of goods to the world. In 2022, exports from Kentucky supported an estimated 122 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from Kentucky and Jobs

• Kentucky was the 13th largest state exporter of goods in 2024.
• In 2024, Kentucky goods exports were $47.8 billion, an increase of 72 percent ($20 billion) from its export level in 2014.
• Goods exports accounted for 17.1 percent of Kentucky GDP in 2024.
• Kentucky goods exports in 2022 supported an estimated 122 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 Kentucky and Jobs

• In 2024, Kentucky exported $46.6 billion of manufactured products.
• Kentucky exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 112 thousand jobs in 2022 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is transportation equipment, which accounted for $25.5 billion of Kentucky's total goods exports in 2024.
• Other top manufacturing exports are chemicals ($6.6 billion), computer & electronic products ($3.6 billion), machinery, except electrical ($3.1 billion), and fabricated metal products, not elsewhere specified ($1.5 billion).

Exports Sustain Thousands of Kentucky Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 4,637 companies exported from Kentucky locations in 2023 (latest data available). Of those, 3,661 (79 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 10.7 percent of Kentucky's total exports of goods in 2023.

Kentucky Depends on World Markets

• The state’s largest market was Canada. Kentucky exported $9.3 billion in goods to Canada in 2024, representing 20 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Canada was followed by the United Kingdom ($4.9 billion), France ($4.8 billion), China ($4.3 billion), and Mexico ($4.2 billion).
• Kentucky’s exports to major world areas included:

• 36 percent of Kentucky’s goods exports ($17.1 billion) in 2024 went to current FTA partners.  

Agriculture in Kentucky depends on Exports

• Kentucky is the country’s 20th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $3.0 billion in domestic agricultural exports abroad in 2023 (latest data available according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).
• Top Agricultural exports were:

	2023 Value	2023 State Rank
soybeans	$701 million	15
other livestock products	$630 million	1
tobacco	$277 million	2
corn	$208 million	14
feeds and other feed grains	$201 million	14

International Investment Creates Jobs in Kentucky

• In 2022 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 149,500 Kentucky workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Kentucky included Japan, Germany and Canada.
• Foreign investment in Kentucky was responsible for 8.8 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2022.

Kentucky’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting
In 2023 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Kentucky recorded goods exports: Cincinnati ($31.2 billion), Clarksville ($445.6 million), Huntington-Ashland ($1.7 billion), Bowling Green ($760.9 million), Elizabethtown ($119.9 million), Lexington-Fayette ($3.3 billion), Louisville/Jefferson County ($11.1 billion), Owensboro ($66 million), and Paducah ($165.9 million).