North Carolina

North Carolina Exports and Foreign Investment

In 2024, North Carolina exported a record$42.8 billion of goods to the world. In 2022, exports from North Carolina supported an estimated 145 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from North Carolina and Jobs

• North Carolina was the 15th largest state exporter of goods in 2024.
• In 2024, North Carolina goods exports were $42.8 billion, an increase of 36 percent ($11 billion) from its export level in 2014.
• Goods exports accounted for 5.5 percent of North Carolina GDP in 2023 (latest data available).
• North Carolina goods exports in 2022 supported an estimated 145 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 2024, North Carolina exported $40.2 billion of manufactured products.
• North Carolina exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 133 thousand jobs in 2022 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is chemicals, which accounted for $16.5 billion of North Carolina's total goods exports in 2024.
• Other top manufacturing exports are machinery, except electrical ($4.6 billion), transportation equipment ($3.4 billion), computer & electronic products ($2.0 billion), and electrical equipment, appliances & components ($2.0 billion).

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

• A total of 11,115 companies exported from North Carolina locations in 2022 (latest data available). Of those, 9,646 (87 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 21.9 percent of North Carolina's total exports of goods in 2022.

North Carolina Depends on World Markets

• The state’s largest market was Canada. North Carolina exported $8.7 billion in goods to Canada in 2024, representing 20 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Canada was followed by China ($5.9 billion), Mexico ($5.0 billion), France ($2.0 billion), and Japan ($1.2 billion).
• North Carolina’s exports to major world areas included:

 

• 43 percent of North Carolina’s goods exports ($18.5 billion) in 2024 went to current FTA partners.  

Agriculture in North Carolina depends on Exports

North Carolina is the country’s 14th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $4.5 billion 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
pork	$781 million	3
broiler meat	$584 million	1
tobacco	$533 million	1
other plant products	$497 million	13
soybeans	$489 million	17

International Investment Creates Jobs in North Carolina

• In 2022 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 321,400 North Carolina workers. Major sources of foreign investment in North Carolina included the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.
• Foreign investment in North Carolina was responsible for 7.8 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2022.

North Carolina’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting
In 2023 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in North Carolina recorded goods exports: Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk ($6.3 billion), Asheville ($886.6 million), Burlington ($281.7 million), Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia ($11.5 billion), Durham-Chapel Hill ($4.9 billion), Fayetteville ($297.5 million), Goldsboro ($184.9 million), Greensboro-High Point ($2.2 billion), Greenville ($1.2 billion), Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton ($1.3 billion), Jacksonville ($35.1 million), Pinehurst-Southern Pines ($84.8 million), Raleigh-Cary ($6 billion), Rocky Mount ($1.3 billion), Wilmington ($671.5 million), and Winston-Salem ($1.1 billion).