Facts & Figures

With two of the premier and most heavily trafficked business hubs in the world in Dallas Ft Worth and the port of Houston, Texas has the ability to reach any part of the global economy. However, all of Texas benefits from exports, with an astounding eight metropolitan areas exporting over a billion
dollars a year in goods and services.

Job Creation

Trade supported 3 million jobs in Texas in 2008, or 20.5 % of total jobs, up from 10.9% in 1992.¹
More than one-fourth (26.3%) of all manufacturing workers in Texas depended on exports for their jobs.²
In 2008, 439,400 people in Texas were employed by U.S. affiliates of companies that are at least 50% foreign-owned.³

Exports and Growth

Texas exported $163 billion in merchandise to more than 20,000 foreign markets in 2009 (an increase of $33.7 billion over 2005). Texas’s largest market in 2009 was Mexico ($56 billion), followed by Canada ($13.8 billion), China ($8.9 billion), the Netherlands ($6.1 billion), and South Korea ($5.3 billion).⁴
In 2008, 26,265 companies exported goods from Texas. Of these, 92% were small- and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.⁵
Agricultural exports are important to Texas’s economy, totaling $6 billion and supporting about 69,498 jobs in 2008.⁶
Since 2007, the U.S. Export-Import Bank has financed $9.67 billion in exports from 833 companies in 118 communities in Texas.⁷

Education and Research

In 2008-2009, 10,934 Texas students studied abroad, a 5.5% increase over the previous academic year.⁸
During 2009-2010, 58,934 international students were enrolled in Texas colleges and universities and contributed $1.25 billion to the Texas economy.⁹

Global Engagement

Since 1961, 6,224 Peace Corps volunteers from Texas 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 Texas totaled over $6.2 million in 2008.¹¹

Download the Fact Sheet

http://businessroundtable.org/uploads/studies-reports/downloads/Trade_and_American_Jobs.pdf
http://ita.doc.gov/td/industry/otea/state_reports/
Anderson, Thomas and William J. Zeile. “U.S. Affiliates of Foreign Companies Operations in 2008”. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Department of Commerce. http://www.bea.gov/scb/pdf/2010/11%20November/1110_us_ops.pdf
http://ita.doc.gov/td/industry/otea/state_reports/
http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/industry/otea/state_reports/index.html
http://www.fas.usda.gov/info/factsheets/WTO/states.html
https://webappsprod01.exim.gov/apps/usmap/usmap.nsf
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
http://www.nafsa.org/publicpolicy/default.aspx?id=23158
http://multimedia.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/stats/homestates.pdf
http://www.pvo.net/usaid/