Exporting Companies: What Do We Know?

The U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce, tracks exporting companies. In 2003, accounted for nearly $630 billion in exports or almost 87 percent of the total export value ($725 billion).

Identified U.S. exporters are defined as exporting companies that can be linked to the Business Register. In 2003 the number of identified U.S. exporters was 225,190. Of these, 142,853 also exported goods in 2002.

Because not all export shipments can be linked to specific companies, the number of exporters may be understated. Approximately 13 percent of the 2002 and 2003 total export value could not be linked to specific companies. The remaining portion of the total export value was accounted for by individuals, governments, low-value estimates, and documentation filed with missing, unknown, or incomplete company identifiers. Export values are taken from detailed export documentation used to compile the official U.S. trade statistics. Company size and type information are taken from administrative records and census or survey data on file with the Census Bureau.

The highlights in this release, extracted from A Profile of U.S. Exporting Companies, 2002 - 2003, represent only those export transactions linked to specific companies and are focused on the 2003 data year. Additional information on the 2002 data year can be found in the full profile.

Download the analysis here.