Rhode Island

Rhode Island Exports and Foreign Investment

In 2024, Rhode Island exported a record $3.1 billion of goods to the world. In 2022, exports from Rhode Island supported an estimated 8,000 jobs (latest data available).

Exports from Rhode Island and Jobs

• Rhode Island was the 44th largest state exporter of goods in 2024.
• In 2024, Rhode Island goods exports were $3.1 billion, an increase of 29 percent ($686 million) from its export level in 2014.
• Goods exports accounted for 3.9 percent of Rhode Island GDP in 2023 (latest data available).
• Rhode Island goods exports in 2022 supported an estimated 8,000 jobs (latest data available). Nationally, jobs supported by goods exports pay up to an estimated 18 percent above the national average.

Manufacturing Exports from Rhode Island and Jobs

• In 2024, Rhode Island exported $2.0 billion of manufactured products.
• Rhode Island exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 6,000 jobs in 2022 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is chemicals, which accounted for $658 million of Rhode Island's total goods exports in 2024.
• Other top manufacturing exports are miscellaneous manufactured commodities ($262 million), primary metal manufacturing ($221 million), computer & electronic products ($167 million), and machinery, except electrical ($150 million).

Exports Sustain Thousands of Rhode Island Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 2,024 companies exported from Rhode Island locations in 2022 (latest data available). Of those, 1,764 (87 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 51.6 percent of Rhode Island's total exports of goods in 2022.

Rhode Island Depends on World Markets

• The state’s largest market was Canada. Rhode Island exported $511 million in goods to Canada in 2024, representing 17 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Canada was followed by Italy ($416 million), Ireland ($263 million), Turkey ($201 million), and Mexico ($188 million).
• Rhode Island’s exports to major world areas included:

 

• 37 percent of Rhode Island’s goods exports ($1.1 billion) in 2024 went to current FTA partners.  

Agriculture in Rhode Island depends on Exports

• Rhode Island is the country’s 49th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $33 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	$23 million	49
other livestock products	$7 million	46
other poultry products	$2 million	49
dairy products	$455 thousand	48
pork	$160 thousand	47

International Investment Creates Jobs in Rhode Island

• In 2022 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 33,000 Rhode Island workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Rhode Island included France, the United Kingdom and Canada.
• Foreign investment in Rhode Island was responsible for 7.6 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2022.

Rhode Island’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting
In 2023 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Rhode Island recorded goods exports: Providence-Warwick ($6.5 billion).