Florida is a global business hub because of its location at the commercial crossroads of the Americas, as well as its well-developed port infrastructure, and multilingual workforce. Florida’s attractive business climate helped it export over $55 billion in goods in 2021, which helped support nearly 2.8 million jobs in the state.

• In Florida, 2,770,200 jobs were supported by international trade in 2019, representing 21.5% of all jobs in the state.^1,2
• In 2020, 54,553 companies exported goods from Florida of which 95% were small- and medium-sized enterprises. In 2018, 366,000 people were employed by affiliates of companies at least 50% foreign-owned.^3,4

• Florida exported $55.5 billion in goods to foreign markets in 2021, an 21% increase compared to 2020 driven by continued economic recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy.⁵
  • Brazil ($4.5 billion)
  • Canada ($4.1 billion)
  • Mexico ($3.3 billion)
  • Colombia ($2.3 billion)
  • Dominican Republic ($2.2 billion)
• Agricultural exports are important to Florida's' economy, totaling $3. 2 billion in 2020, according to the USDA.⁶
• Since 2014, the U.S. Export-Import Bank has financed $6 billion in exports from 569 companies in Florida.⁷
• Since 1971, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation - which has been modernized into the Development Finance Corporation (DFC) - has invested $2.2 billion in Florida companies for overseas investment.⁸
• Since 1992, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency has helped facilitate $574 million in exports from Florida companies.⁹

• In 2018-2019, 13,401 Florida students studied abroad.¹⁰
• During 2020, 46,221 international students were enrolled in Florida colleges and universities and contributed $1.5 billion to the Florida economy.¹⁰

• Since 1961, 8,548 Peace Corps volunteers from Florida have served in dozens of countries overseas.¹¹

1. https://tradepartnership.com/reports/trade-and-american-jobs-the-impact-of-trade-on-u-s-and-state-level-employment-update-2020/
2. https://www.businessroundtable.org/policy-perspectives/trade-international/benefits-of-trade-data
3. https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-Release/edb/2019/index.html
4. https://www.bea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-11/imne1120.pdf
5. https://www.trade.gov/data-visualization/state-economy-and-trade-factsheets
6. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/state-fact-sheets.aspx#.U2ERwbQzqX8
7. https://www.exim.gov/customer-map/
8. https://www.opic.gov/sites/default/files/docs/OPIC_local_impact.pdf
9. https://ustda.gov/ustda-success-by-state/
10. https://opendoorsdata.org/fact_sheets/
11. https://www.peacecorps.gov/news/library/peace-corps-announces-top-volunteer-producing-states-2018/