That dollar amount reflects an 18.9% gain from $4.41 billion four years earlier in 2019.
Year over year, the overall value of Delaware’s exported goods increased by 10.4% compared to $4.74 billion in 2021.
Delaware ranks among America’s 10 smallest exporters by state far behind front-runners Texas, California, Louisiana, New York State and Illinois. The value of Delaware’s exports equals 0.3% of the United States’ overall exported products for 2022.
Based on research from Statista, Delaware’s exported products represent 8% of the state’s total economic output or real Gross Domestic Product in 2022 ($65.75 billion).
Given Delaware’s population of 1,018,396 people, its total $5.24 billion in 2022 exports translates to roughly $5,100 for every resident in the First State. That dollar metric beats the average $4,700 per capita in 2021.
Delaware’s unemployment rate was 4.4% at the end of March 2023, down from 4.5% at February 2022 per YCharts.
Delaware’s Top 10 Exports
The following export products represent the highest dollar value in Delaware global shipments during 2022. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Delaware.
Figures are shown at the more granular six-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, for more precise product identification.
- Civilian aircraft, parts including engines: US$574.7 million (11% of Delaware’s exports)
- Direct current (DC) motors, generators: $410.2 million (7.8%)
- Miscellaneous medications for retail: $333.1 million (6.4%)
- Mass spectrometers: $225.7 million (4.3%)
- Immunological products in doses for retail: $209.8 million (4%)
- Parts for filtering or purifying machines: $140.9 million (2.7%)
- Miscellaneous items made from plastic: $136.5 million (2.6%)
- Machinery parts: $124.5 million (2.4%)
- Large automobiles (piston engine): $118.4 million (2.3%)
- Bananas (fresh or dried): $103.1 million (2%)
Delaware’s top 10 exports were responsible for less than half (45.4%) of the overall value of the state’s global shipments.
Immunological products in measured doses for retail sale represent the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 12,539% from 2021 to 2022.
In second place for improving export sales was aircraft both fully assembled or aircraft parts including engines via a 136.4% advance.
Delawarean exports of DC motors and generators s (up 42.1% from 2021) and parts for filtering or purifying machines (up 16.2%) also posted strong gains.
There were 3 double-digit decliners among Delaware’s top 10 export products. Delaware’s export sales of exported miscellaneous medications for retail sale fell -31.4% year over year. Miscellaneous items made from plastic shrank in value by -21.2% ahead of the -18.3% downturn for fresh or dried exported bananas.
More Key Facts about Delaware’s International Trade
Overall, Delaware incurred a -$9.5 billion deficit exporting and importing products during 2022. That dollar amount reflects a 50% expansion from -$6.4 billion in red ink for 2021.
Another way of saying surplus or deficit is positive or negative net exports. In a nutshell, the term “net exports” quantifies the amount by which foreign spending on a state’s goods or services exceeds or lags that same state’s spending on foreign goods or services.
Below are Delaware’s top 10 import products highlighting the state’s highest spending on foreign-made goods in 2022.
- Crude petroleum oils: US$4.5 billion (30.6% of Delaware’s imports)
- Miscellaneous medications for retail: $2.7 billion (18%)
- Nucleic acids, salts: $369.2 million (2.5%)
- Miscellaneous petroleum oils (not biodiesel): $349.7 million (2.4%)
- Lead-acid batteries: $349.5 million (2.4%)
- Bananas (fresh or dried): $300 million (2%)
- Adrenal cortex hormones: $249.4 million (1.7%)
- Human medicine vaccines: $213.7 million (1.4%)
- Electrical machinery with individual functions: $185.5 million (1.3%)
- Miscellaneous precious metal articles: $169.3 million (1.1%)
Delaware has highly negative net exports in the international trade of crude petroleum oils and miscellaneous medications. In turn, these cashflows indicate Delaware’s competitive disadvantages under those product categories.
Delaware’s Major Trade Partners
The following list shows the top 10 customers that purchased approaching three-quarters (72.1%) worth of the total value of products exported from Delaware during 2022.
- Canada: US$725.3 million (13.8% of Delaware’s exports)
- South Korea: $642.9 million (12.3%)
- mainland China: $497.9 million (9.5%)
- Singapore: $444.9 million (8.5%)
- Japan: $403.5 million (7.7%)
- United Kingdom: $291.5 million (5.6%)
- Germany: $249.3 million (4.8%)
- Mexico: $243 million (4.6%)
- Taiwan: $147.6 million (2.8%)
- United Arab Emirates: $133.1 million (2.5%)
Delaware’s top trade partners in Asia plus the Middle East (South Korea, mainland China, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates) bought 43.3% of the overall value of goods exported from the First State.
That percentage compares to 18.5% for North American customers (Canada and Mexico), and 10.3% for leading buyers of Delaware’s exports in Europe (United Kingdom and Germany).
Delawarean Export Companies
Two Delaware-based corporations rank among Fortune 1000 Companies, a list that showcases America’s largest businesses. Those examples are listed below.
- DuPont (chemicals)
- Navient Corp (servicing/collecting student loans)
Shown within brackets for each company is a summary of the products or services which each business sells. DuPont is an international trade leader in chemicals-related sales.
Delaware’s capital is Dover, a city literally nicknamed Capital of the First State.
See also North Dakota’s Top 10 Exports, Montana’s Top 10 Exports, Wisconsin’s Top 10 Exports, Arizona’s Top 10 Exports and Vermont’s Top 10 Exports
Research Sources:
Department of Numbers, Delaware GDP (dollars shown in real terms). Accessed on May 7, 2023
FlagPictures.org, Flags of US States. Accessed on May 7, 2023
Forbes, 2019 Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on May 7, 2023
GeoLounge, Fortune 1000 Companies List for 2019 , Fortune 1000 by State and Place. Accessed on May 7, 2023
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on May 7, 2023
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on May 7, 2023
State Symbols USA, State Nicknames. Accessed on May 7, 2023
Statista, Real gross domestic product of Delaware. Accessed on May 7, 2023
United States Census Bureau, QuickFacts: Delaware. Accessed on May 7, 2023
USA Trade Online, Official Source of Trade Statistics. Accessed on May 7, 2023
Wikipedia, Delaware. Accessed on May 7, 2023
Wikipedia, List of Delaware Companies. Accessed on May 7, 2023
Wikipedia, List of U.S. states and territories by GDP. Accessed on May 7, 2023
World’s Capital Cities, Capital Facts for Dover, United States. Accessed on May 7, 2023
YCharts, Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Report. Accessed on May 7, 2023