North Carolina

North Carolina Exports and Foreign Investment

In 2025, North Carolina exported a record $43.8 billion of goods to the world. In 2023, exports from North Carolina supported an estimated 142 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from North Carolina and Jobs

• North Carolina was the 16th largest state exporter of goods in 2025.
• In 2025, North Carolina goods exports were $43.8 billion, an increase of 45 percent ($14 billion) from its export level in 2015.
• North Carolina goods exports in 2023 supported an estimated 142 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 North Carolina and Jobs

• In 2025, North Carolina exported $41.5 billion of manufactured products.
• North Carolina’s exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 132 thousand jobs in 2023 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category was chemicals, which accounted for $17.7 billion of North Carolina's total goods exports in 2025.
• Other top manufacturing exports were machinery, except electrical ($3.9 billion), transportation equipment ($3.4 billion), computer & electronic products ($2.3 billion), and electrical equipment, appliances & components ($2.2 billion).

Exports Sustain Thousands of North Carolina Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 10,986 companies exported from North Carolina locations in 2023 (latest data available). Of those, 9,542 (87 percent) were small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 22.5 percent of North Carolina's total exports of goods in 2023.

North Carolina's Largest Export Markets

• The state’s largest export market was Canada. North Carolina exported $8.6 billion in goods to Canada in 2025, representing 20 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Canada was followed by China ($6.7 billion), Mexico ($5.3 billion), France ($2.0 billion), and Germany ($1.2 billion).
• North Carolina goods exports to major world areas included:

• 42 percent of North Carolina goods exports ($18.4 billion) in 2025 went to current FTA partners.

North Carolina's Top Agricultural Exports

• North Carolina is the country’s 13th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $4.5 billion in domestic agricultural exports abroad in 2024 (latest data available according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture). 1
• Top agricultural exports were:

	2024 Value	2024 State Rank
tobacco	$818 million	1
pork	$784 million	3
other plant products	$594 million	11
broiler meat	$563 million	2
soybeans	$344 million	17

International Investment Creates Jobs in North Carolina

• In 2023 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 347 thousand workers in North Carolina. Major sources of foreign investment in North Carolina included the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan.

North Carolina’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting

• In 2024 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in North Carolina recorded goods exports: Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia ($10.2 billion), Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk ($7.8 billion), Raleigh-Cary ($6.7 billion), Durham-Chapel Hill ($4.5 billion), Greensboro-High Point ($2.3 billion), Rocky Mount ($1.6 billion), Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton ($1.3 billion), Winston-Salem ($1.2 billion), Greenville ($1 billion), Wilmington ($808 million), Asheville ($756.3 million), Fayetteville ($288.3 million), Burlington ($286.4 million), Goldsboro ($130.4 million), Pinehurst-Southern Pines ($81.7 million), and Jacksonville ($41 million).