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Maryland

Maryland Exports and Foreign Investment

In 2024, Maryland exported $17.9 billion of goods to the world.  In 2022, exports from Maryland supported an estimated 55 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from Maryland and Jobs

  • Maryland was the 27th largest state exporter of goods in 2024.
  • In 2024, Maryland goods exports were $17.9 billion, an increase of 46 percent ($5.6 billion) from its export level in 2014.
  • Goods exports accounted for 3.6 percent of Maryland GDP in 2023 (latest data available).
  • Maryland goods exports in 2022 supported an estimated 55 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 Maryland and Jobs

  • In 2024, Maryland exported $13.2 billion of manufactured products.
  • Maryland exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 40 thousand jobs in 2022 (latest data available).
  • The state's largest manufacturing export category is transportation equipment, which accounted for $4.2 billion of Maryland's total goods exports in 2024.
  • Other top manufacturing exports are chemicals ($2.8 billion), machinery, except electrical ($1.6 billion), computer & electronic products ($1.2 billion), and electrical equipment, appliances & components ($615 million).

Exports Sustain Thousands of Maryland Businesses many of which are SMEs

  • A total of 6,626 companies exported from Maryland locations in 2022 (latest data available). Of those, 5,806 (88 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
  • Small and medium-sized firms generated 33.4 percent of Maryland's total exports of goods in 2022.

Maryland Depends on World Markets

  • The state’s largest market was Canada. Maryland exported $2.2 billion in goods to Canada in 2024, representing 12 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
  • Canada was followed by France ($1.9 billion), Netherlands ($1.3 billion), China ($1.2 billion), and Japan ($1.1 billion).
  • Maryland’s exports to major world areas included:

 

2024 Value

APEC

$7.1 billion

European Union

$5.9 billion

Asia

$5.4 billion

South/Central America and Caribbean

$765 million

Sub-Saharan Africa 

$329 million

 

  • 29 percent of Maryland’s goods exports ($5.2 billion) in 2024 went to current FTA partners.  

Agriculture in Maryland depends on Exports

  • Maryland is the country’s 36th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $935 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

$223 million

27

soybeans

$180 million

21

broiler meat

$126 million

12

corn

$87 million

24

other livestock products

$64 million

23


International Investment Creates Jobs in Maryland

  • In 2022 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 122,800 Maryland workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Maryland included the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Canada.
  • Foreign investment in Maryland was responsible for 5.5 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2022.

Maryland’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting
In 2023 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Maryland recorded goods exports: Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington ($28.8 billion), Washington-Arlington-Alexandria ($14.8 billion), Baltimore-Columbia-Towson ($10.2 billion), Hagerstown-Martinsburg ($202.4 million), Lexington Park ($2 billion), and Salisbury ($178.2 million).


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.