West Virginia

West Virginia Exports and Foreign Investment

In 2024, West Virginia exported $4.9 billion of goods to the world. In 2022, exports from West Virginia supported an estimated 27 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from West Virginia and Jobs

• West Virginia was the 41st largest state exporter of goods in 2024.
• In 2024, West Virginia goods exports were $4.9 billion, a decrease of 36 percent ($2.7 billion) from its export level in 2014.
• Goods exports accounted for 5.7 percent of West Virginia GDP in 2023 (latest data available).
• West Virginia goods exports in 2022 supported an estimated 27 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 West Virginia and Jobs

• In 2024, West Virginia exported $4.3 billion of manufactured products.
• West Virginia exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 12 thousand jobs in 2022 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is chemicals, which accounted for $1.6 billion of West Virginia's total goods exports in 2024.
• Other top manufacturing exports are transportation equipment ($1.4 billion), machinery, except electrical ($476 million), primary metal manufacturing ($260 million), and petroleum & coal products ($95 million).

Exports Sustain West Virginia Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 980 companies exported from West Virginia locations in 2022 (latest data available). Of those, 735 (75 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 47.3 percent of West Virginia's total exports of goods in 2022.

West Virginia Depends on World Markets

• The state’s largest market was Canada. West Virginia exported $2.0 billion in goods to Canada in 2024, representing 41 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Canada was followed by China ($443 million), Belgium ($312 million), Mexico ($253 million), and Netherlands ($188 million).
• West Virginia’s exports to major world areas included:

 

• 52 percent of West Virginia’s goods exports ($2.5 billion) in 2024 went to current FTA partners.  

Agriculture in West Virginia depends on Exports

• West Virginia is the country’s 47th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $183 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	$53 million	45
other livestock products	$34 million	38
beef and veal	$27 million	38
broiler meat	$22 million	20
other poultry products	$20 million	28

International Investment Creates Jobs in West Virginia

• In 2022 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 30,600 West Virginia workers. Major sources of foreign investment in West Virginia included Japan, Canada and France.
• Foreign investment in West Virginia was responsible for 5.5 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2022.

West Virginia’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting
In 2023 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in West Virginia recorded goods exports: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria ($14.8 billion), Hagerstown-Martinsburg ($202.4 million), Winchester ($329.5 million), Beckley ($326.3 million), Charleston ($479 million), Huntington-Ashland ($1.7 billion), Morgantown ($58.5 million), and Parkersburg-Vienna ($719.4 million).