Arizona exports surge 37% to $44.4B, second-fastest growth rate in the nation
Story Highlights
Arizona’s exports totaled $44.4 billion in 2025, growing 37% annually.
Mexico accounted for 32.8% of Arizona exports, a 63.6% year-over-year increase.
Arizona ranked No. 4 nationally in semiconductor manufacturing with 24,431 employees.
A day rarely passes when my inbox doesn’t include updates about something happening elsewhere in the nation or even on the planet. So, it likely would come as no surprise that I’m prompted to invariably wonder: Where does Arizona fit in, especially in the industry I serve and represent?
My latest answers came when I was invited to attend a presentation by the Arizona Commerce Authority at a recent meeting of the Arizona-Mexico Commission Economic Development Committee. In my roles on the board of governors of the United States-Mexico Foundation for Science and the Arizona District Export Council, our state’s relations with our neighbors to the south and rest of the world are constantly on my mind.
Starting with an overall view, I learned it’s been a bit of a roller coaster for Arizona’s gross domestic product (GDP), which is the value of the final goods and services produced. Fortunately, the trend in the past two decades has been all about expansion as the annual growth rate began with 4.4% from Q1 2005 to Q3 2007 then 2.9% from Q3 2009 to Q4 2019. Arizona from Q2 2020 to Q4 2025 spiked to a 5.3% annual growth rate ending at $460.6 billion, ranking us the No. 3 state in GDP growth for the period Q1 2020 to Q4 2025.
Helping achieve these numbers was a total labor force that exceeded 3.8 million. The labor force increased by more than 300,000 since December 2020 and over 30,000 in just the past year.
Representative of the impact of our technology sector, the year 2025 had 24,431 employees reported working in semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing, making Arizona No. 4 in the nation. Ranking No. 5 was aerospace product and parts manufacturing with 32,589 workers.
When it came to tallying what the world needed from our state, overall exports in 2025 totaled $44.4 billion, an annual increase of 37% and the second-fastest growth rate in the nation.
For the top 10 exports, technology was front and center. Computer equipment, semiconductors and other electronic components, and aerospace products and parts were in the first three spots, respectively. No. 5 was navigational, measuring, electromedical and control instruments while Nos. 7 through 10 were medical equipment and supplies, electrical equipment and components, industrial machinery, and magnetic and optical media, respectively.
And who were our export customers? In 2025, the leaders, their shares of the overall pie and total dollar amounts were:
- 1. Mexico – 32.8% ($14.6 billion)
- 2. Taiwan – 10.2% ($4.5 billion)
- 3. Canada – 6.3% ($2.8 billion)
- 4. Netherlands – 5.3% ($2.4 billion)
- 5. Germany – 3.6% ($1.6 billion)
- 6. All other countries – 41.8%
By comparison, the leaders and their portions 10 years earlier were:
- 1. Mexico – 40.4%
- 2. Canada – 10.2%
- 3. China – 5.6%
- 4. United Kingdom – 4.7%
- 5. Germany – 3.7%
- 6. All other countries – 35.4%
Specific to Mexico, the 2025 dollar total was a $5.6 billion year-over-year increase in exports, up 63.6%. As a result, the country was No. 1 in Arizona’s export growth and placed our state at No. 4 among U.S. states for exports to Mexico.
For the top 10 exports across the border, No. 1 was computer equipment. For Nos. 3 through 7, they respectively were semiconductors and other electronic components, electrical equipment and components, magnetic and optical media, aerospace products and parts, and electrical equipment.
Collectively, it’s interesting to note that “China” is listed as recipient of Arizona exports in 2015. There was no breakout of “Taiwan” as there is now. The world has changed and so has Arizona — for the better.
Steve Zylstra is president and CEO of the Arizona Technology Council and SciTech Institute.