Facts & Figures

California is one of the world’s largest economies, and the exports show it—California’s products make up 11% of total U.S. exports, topping $140 billion in 2010. Agricultural production and state of the art computer and technology manufacturing drive growth in California. Up to 96% of all California exports come from small and medium sized businesses, and seven different metropolitan areas each export over a billion dollars in goods and services a year.

Job Creation

• Trade supported 4.3 million jobs in California in 2008, or 20.5% of total jobs, up from 10.6% in 1992.¹
• About one-quarter (23.7%) of all manufacturing workers in California depended on exports for their jobs.²
• In 2008, 594,100 people in California were employed by U.S. affiliates of companies that are at least 50% foreign-owned.³

Exports and Growth

• California exported $143.3 billion in merchandise to foreign markets in 2010. California’s largest market in 2010 was Mexico ($21 billion), followed by Canada ($16.1 billion), China ($12.5 billion), Japan ($12.2 billion), and South Korea ($8 billion).⁴
• In 2008, 59,998 companies exported goods from California. Of these, 96% were small- and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.⁵
• Agricultural exports are important to California’s economy, totaling $13.6 billion and supporting about 157,528 jobs in 2008.⁶
• Since 2007, the U.S. Export-Import Bank has financed $7.2 billion in exports from 713 companies in 218 communities in California.⁷

Education and Research

• In 2008-2009, 26,715 California students studied abroad.⁸
• During 2009-2010, 94,279 international students were enrolled in California colleges and universities and contributed $2.83 billion to the California economy.⁹

Global Engagement

• Since 1961, 25,249 Peace Corps volunteers from California have served in dozens of countries overseas.¹⁰
• Support from U.S. government grants and contracts to private voluntary organizations engaged in foreign assistance and development in California totaled $127,564,370 219,419,568 in 2008.¹¹

Download the Fact Sheet

1. http://businessroundtable.org/uploads/studies-reports/downloads/Trade_and_American_Jobs.pdf
2. http://ita.doc.gov/td/industry/otea/state_reports/
3. Anderson, Thomas and William J. Zeile. “Operations of U.S. Affiliates of Foreign Companies: Preliminary Results From the 2008 Benchmark Survey”. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Department of Commerce. http://www.bea.gov/scb/pdf/2010/11%20November/1110_us_ops.pdf
4. http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/state/data/ca.html
5. http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/industry/otea/state_reports/index.html
6. http://www.fas.usda.gov/info/factsheets/WTO/states.html
7. https://webappsprod01.exim.gov/apps/usmap/usmap.nsf
8. Institute of International Education. “Open Doors 2010 Report on International Educational Exchange Institute of International Education”. STUDY ABROAD BY U.S. STATE, http://www.iie.org/en/Research-and-Publications/Open-Doors/Data/Fact-Sheets-by-US-State
9. http://www.nafsa.org/publicpolicy/default.aspx?id=23158
10. http://multimedia.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/stats/homestates.pdf
11. http://www.pvo.net/usaid/