Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration released the 2018 goods export data for the nation's 392 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA), highlighting that U.S. metro areas exported a significant $1.5 trillion in merchandise across the world last year. In fact, from 2017 to 2018, exports from MSAs increased $110.3 billion – or 8.1 percent, and 259 metropolitan areas reported positive export growth, with 94 reaching record-level exports.

"The Trump Administration is committed to addressing trade imbalances, breaking down trade barriers, and providing U.S. companies with new reach in foreign markets," said Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, Gilbert Kaplan. "With this increase in exports over the last year and the continued work of the Commercial Service, it is a fruitful time for American businesses."

In 2018, 165 metropolitan areas supported more than $1 billion in merchandise exports; of these, 22 areas reported exports between $10 and $25 billion, and 12 eclipsed the $25 billion threshold. Additionally, 10 metropolitan areas from Texas and 5 metropolitan areas from California are included in the top 50 ranking of metropolitan areas by 2018 export value.

The Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land (Texas) metropolitan area topped the rankings with $120.7 billion in goods exports. As in 2017, this metropolitan area also showed the highest annual dollar growth in exports, expanding $25.0 billion from 2017 to 2018. The remaining top five metropolitan areas are: New York-Newark-Jersey City (New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania) with exports of $97.7 billion; Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (California) with exports of $64.8 billion; Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue (Washington) with exports of $59.7 billion; and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin (Illinois-Indiana-Wisconsin) with exports of $47.3 billion.

For more information, please view the Metropolitan Export Series Database.