Tennessee

Tennessee Exports and Foreign Investment

In 2024, Tennessee exported a record $38.9 billion of goods to the world. In 2022, exports from Tennessee supported an estimated 125 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from Tennessee and Jobs

• Tennessee was the 16th largest state exporter of goods in 2024.
• In 2024, Tennessee goods exports were $38.9 billion, an increase of 17 percent ($5.7 billion) from its export level in 2014.
• Goods exports accounted for 7.3 percent of Tennessee GDP in 2023 (latest data available).
• Tennessee goods exports in 2022 supported an estimated 125 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 Tennessee and Jobs

• In 2024, Tennessee exported $36.4 billion of manufactured products.
• Tennessee exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 113 thousand jobs in 2022 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is computer & electronic products, which accounted for $8.1 billion of Tennessee's total goods exports in 2024.
• Other top manufacturing exports are transportation equipment ($6.1 billion), chemicals ($5.5 billion), miscellaneous manufactured commodities ($5.0 billion), and machinery, except electrical ($3.0 billion).

Exports Sustain Thousands of Tennessee Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 7,268 companies exported from Tennessee locations in 2022 (latest data available). Of those, 5,981 (82 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 16.7 percent of Tennessee's total exports of goods in 2022.

Tennessee Depends on World Markets

• The state’s largest market was Canada. Tennessee exported $7.8 billion in goods to Canada in 2024, representing 20 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Canada was followed by Mexico ($6.7 billion), China ($3.4 billion), Netherlands ($2.9 billion), and Japan ($1.9 billion).
• Tennessee’s exports to major world areas included:

 

• 48 percent of Tennessee’s goods exports ($18.7 billion) in 2024 went to current FTA partners.  

Agriculture in Tennessee depends on Exports

• Tennessee is the country’s 26th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $2.2 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
soybeans	$605 million	16
cotton	$347 million	9
other plant products	$243 million	22
corn	$142 million	19
wheat	$116 million	19

International Investment Creates Jobs in Tennessee

• In 2022 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 213,000 Tennessee workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Tennessee included Japan, the United Kingdom and France.
• Foreign investment in Tennessee was responsible for 7.5 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2022.

Tennessee’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting
In 2023 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Tennessee recorded goods exports: Chattanooga ($2.4 billion), Clarksville ($445.6 million), Cleveland ($538.4 million), Jackson ($570.1 million), Johnson City ($538.5 million), Kingsport-Bristol ($3.8 billion), Knoxville ($2.9 billion), Memphis ($17.9 billion), Morristown ($472.3 million), and Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin ($10.4 billion).