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 $45 billion in goods in 2020, which helped support more than 2.5 million jobs in the state.

• In Florida, 2,563,400 jobs were supported by international trade in 2018, representing 20.60% of all jobs in the state.^1,2
• In 2019, 57,846 companies exported goods from Florida of which 95% were small- and medium-sized enterprises. In 2018, 358,700 people were employed by affiliates of companies at least 50% foreign-owned.^3,4

• Florida exported $45.8 billion in goods to foreign markets in 2020, an 18% decline compared to 2019 driven by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy.⁵
  • Brazil ($3.5 billion)
  • Canada ($3.4 billion)
  • Mexico ($2.6 billion)
  • United Kingdom ($1.8 billion)
  • Colombia ($1.8 billion)
• Agricultural exports are important to Florida's' economy, totaling $3.4 billion in 2019, according to the USDA.⁶
• Since 2014, the U.S. Export-Import Bank has financed $5 billion in exports from 559 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 $558 million in exports from Florida companies, supporting an estimated 3,000 jobs in the state.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/