PROVIDENCE – Five percent, or 24, of Rhode Island’s 506 middle-market firms are engaged in exporting, according to Middle Market Power Index: Taking the Global Stage,a report from American Express and Dun & Bradstreet.
The report looks at U.S. middle-market companies, defined as businesses generating between $10 million and $1 billion in revenue, that export their products and services.
Rhode Island’s percentage of middle-market firms engaged in exporting matches the national percentage. There are more than 136,000 middle market firms nationwide, with 7,066 engaged in exporting, or 5 percent.
The report said that middle-market firms represent 18 percent of all exporting firms, though middle-market enterprises represent less than 1 percent of all American businesses.
Also, middle-market manufacturers are nearly three times more likely (14 percent versus 5 percent of all middle-market firms) and those in wholesale trade are twice as likely (12 percent versus 5 percent of all middle-market firms) to be exporting than the average middle-market firm, the report stated.
Florida led the nation with 10 percent, or 696, of its 6,715 middle-market firms engaged in exporting.
In New England, Connecticut also reported that 5 percent of its middle-market firms are engaged in exporting, or 92 out of 1,953.
Statistics on the rest of New England are as follows:
- Massachusetts: 4 percent of all middle-market firms are engaged in exporting, or 168 out of 3,963
- New Hampshire: 4 percent, or 29 out of 678
- Maine: 3 percent, or 19 out of 619
- Vermont: 3 percent, or 11 out of 340