You know how you're just going down a google rabbit hole after hearing something on the radio and boom! A random number drops you right on your head.
Lucky 13, my old friend.
Did you know Kentucky is ranked 13th in exports by state? I didn't. That's much better than I thought. We don't usually do that well in comparative state rankings.
The number didn't come from one random article, I found it in several online sources. In 2024, Kentucky exported over 47 billion dollars worth of goods to foreign countries. That's well over double Virginia's measly 21 billion export business.
Thanks Daniel Boone!
We rank ahead of Tennessee, the Carolinas, and we export 10 times more stuff than West Virginia. We rank ahead of New Jersey and Massachusetts and they've got an ocean on one side. How hard can it be?
Kentucky's export business has grown 60% in the last 4 years. Thanks Andy. Exports accounted for 16.8% of our gross domestic product. Only Texas and Louisiana's exports account for larger shares of their states' GDP.
Our biggest market is Canada, followed by the United Kingdom, Mexico, France and China. There's a very good reason both Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell oppose Trump's tariffs and it's not Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Over 20% of all jobs in the state are tied to foreign trade. 4600 Kentucky companies export goods. We produce $10,450 in exports per capita, compared to the national average of $8850.
You should pat yourself on the back, but don't break your arm.
I've got 13 bucks that says you can't name Kentucky's number one export. Sorry it isn't coal. It isn't bourbon or horses or soy beans either. It isn't even Toyotas.
Okay, you've had enough time to search it. Kentucky's number one export is civilian aircraft and engines. That industry accounts for 18.8 billion of the total.
You'll never guess the second, either. Antisera and other blood based serums to fight various viruses. Third is diesel trucks and fourth is transmission shafts. Coal comes in sixth. Bourbon, horses or tobacco no longer crack the top ten Kentucky exports.
Anyway, it's just amazing what you'll learn when wondering how bourbon is doing in the tariff wars. The tariff war Trump ran on, most of you voted for, is hammering the state's international bourbon and hardwood sales. Soybean sales to China have stopped. The state's beef industry is bracing for the influx of Argentinian beef imports.
But here's the real problem. We import 32.3% of our GDP, more than any other state. Most of that stuff we import is used in the production of stuff we sell.The 95 billion dollars of imports becomes 104.5 billion with 10% across the board tariffs, which is a conservative estimate.
No state in the nation is hurt by tariffs more than Kentucky. Our economy relies on imports and exports. One adds costs to materials, the other adds costs to the final product. Increased prices and limited access means decreased sales which means fewer jobs across the board.
The result of that will also drop us on our heads. Too bad we'll be paying more for insurance, too.