01Key Takeaways
- The USA imported $3.17 trillion worth of goods in 2023, down 6.1% from $3.37 trillion in 2022, snapping two straight years of import growth.
- Mexico was the top source, supplying 15.2% of imports worth $480.05 billion, followed by China at 14.1% ($448.02 billion) and Canada at 13.6% ($429.60 billion).
- The top three import sources together accounted for 42.8% of total import value, a tightly bunched group rather than one dominant supplier.
- Electrical machinery and equipment led all import categories at 14.6% of total value ($463.36 billion), with machinery and mechanical appliances close behind at 14.5% ($459.20 billion).
025-Year Trend
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | $2567.5B | $2405.4B | $2933.0B | $3372.9B | $3168.5B |
03Top Import Markets (2023)
| Rank | Partner | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mexico | $480.1B | 15.2% |
| 2 | China | $448.0B | 14.1% |
| 3 | Canada | $429.6B | 13.6% |
| 4 | Germany | $163.0B | 5.1% |
| 5 | Japan | $151.6B | 4.8% |
| 6 | South Korea | $119.7B | 3.8% |
| 7 | Vietnam | $118.9B | 3.8% |
| 8 | Other Asia, nes | $89.9B | 2.8% |
| 9 | India | $87.3B | 2.8% |
| 10 | Ireland | $82.7B | 2.6% |
04Top Import Categories (2023)
| Rank | Category | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Electrical Machinery and Equipment and parts thereof; Sound Recorders and Reproducers, Television Image and Sound Recorders and Reproducers, and Parts and Accessories of such Articles | $463.4B | 14.6% |
| 2 | Nuclear Reactors, Boilers, Machinery and Mechanical Appliances; Parts thereof | $459.2B | 14.5% |
| 3 | Vehicles other than Railway or Tramway Rolling-Stock, and parts and accessories thereof | $381.0B | 12.0% |
| 4 | Mineral Fuels, Mineral Oils and Products of their Distillation; Bituminous Substances; Mineral Waxes | $266.6B | 8.4% |
| 5 | Pharmaceutical Products | $177.8B | 5.6% |
| 6 | Commodities not specified according to kind | $125.0B | 3.9% |
| 7 | Optical, Photographic, Cinematographic, Measuring, Checking, Precision, Medical or Surgical Instruments and Apparatus; Parts and Accessories thereof | $118.3B | 3.7% |
| 8 | Natural or Cultured Pearls, Precious or Semi-Precious Stones, Precious Metals, Metals Clad with Precious Metal, and Articles thereof; Imitation Jewellery; Coin | $85.5B | 2.7% |
| 9 | Plastics and Articles thereof | $72.3B | 2.3% |
| 10 | Furniture; Bedding, Mattresses, Mattress Supports, Cushions and similar Stuffed Furnishings; Lamps and Lighting Fittings, not elsewhere specified or included; Illuminated Signs, Illuminated Name-plates and the like; Prefabricated Buildings | $69.0B | 2.2% |
05Trade Partner Map
06Analysis
USA's Top Import Sources in 2023
The United States imported $3.17 trillion worth of goods in 2023, the latest year with verified trade data in this dataset. That total marks a decline of 6.1% from the $3.37 trillion recorded in 2022, the first pullback after inbound shipments climbed over the prior two years. Mexico was the largest source of U.S. imports, supplying 15.2% of the total, worth $480.05 billion. China followed at 14.1%, or $448.02 billion, and Canada ranked third at 13.6% ($429.60 billion), making North America's two neighboring economies and China together responsible for nearly 43% of everything the United States brought in.
Germany ranked fourth at 5.1% ($162.96 billion), ahead of Japan at 4.8% ($151.58 billion) and South Korea at 3.8% ($119.72 billion). Vietnam took seventh place, also at 3.8% ($118.94 billion), followed by a regional grouping the dataset labels Other Asia, nes at 2.8% ($89.92 billion). India and Ireland rounded out the top ten at 2.8% and 2.6% respectively, worth $87.28 billion and $82.71 billion. Together, the top three sources made up 42.8% of total import value.
Unlike many partner rankings where a single country dominates, the top three U.S. import sources sit within about two percentage points of each other, a notably even distribution given the very different economies involved. That balance means no single trade relationship carries outsized weight at the very top, even though Mexico, China, and Canada combined still account for more than four in every ten dollars of goods entering the country. The remaining seven partners in the top ten are more thinly spread, each holding between roughly 2.6% and 5.1% of the total, which points to a long tail of established secondary suppliers across Europe and Asia beneath the three leading sources. That combination of a closely bunched top three and a gradually tapering tail suggests U.S. import demand is anchored in a handful of large, well-established supply relationships rather than concentrated behind one dominant partner, which can make the overall import total somewhat less sensitive to a slowdown in any single country's shipments.
Leading Import Categories
Electrical machinery and equipment topped the import list in 2023, worth $463.36 billion and accounting for 14.6% of total import value. Machinery and mechanical appliances followed closely at 14.5%, worth $459.20 billion, and vehicles and related parts and accessories ranked third at 12.0% ($381.04 billion). Together, these three categories made up more than four-tenths of everything the United States imported, underscoring how heavily electronics, industrial equipment, and transportation goods shape the overall import mix.
Mineral fuels, mineral oils, and related distillation products added 8.4% ($266.59 billion), while pharmaceutical products contributed 5.6% ($177.85 billion). Commodities not specified according to kind brought in 3.9% ($124.98 billion), and optical, photographic, and medical instruments added 3.7% ($118.32 billion). Precious stones and metals contributed 2.7% ($85.49 billion), plastics added 2.3% ($72.35 billion), and furniture, lighting fittings, and related fixtures closed out the top ten at 2.2% ($69.01 billion).
For exporters evaluating the United States as a destination market, the category mix signals broad, sustained demand for electronics, industrial machinery, and vehicles well ahead of anything else on the list, with energy and pharmaceuticals forming a substantial second tier. Sellers of consumer goods outside those leading categories will find a comparatively thinner market at the national level, since nothing past the top four clears even 6% of total import value, though the long tail of smaller categories still represents tens of billions of dollars in aggregate demand. The gap between the top two categories and the rest of the list is narrow enough that either could plausibly lead in a future data update, while the gap down to the fifth-ranked category and beyond is wide enough to suggest that ordering is more stable year to year.
A Steeper Pullback After Two Years of Growth
The five-year trend shows imports climbing before easing back more sharply than exports did in the same year. Imports moved from $2.57 trillion in 2019 to $2.41 trillion in 2020, recovered to $2.93 trillion in 2021, then climbed further to $3.37 trillion in 2022 before falling 6.1% to $3.17 trillion in 2023. Even with that decline, the 2023 total remains well above the 2019 through 2021 levels, leaving the broader five-year trajectory pointed upward despite the pullback in the most recent year.
This pattern fits the wider picture described by the World Bank, which points to slowing global demand and tighter monetary conditions as factors that weighed on trade flows across many economies in 2023. For a closer look at how individual partner countries or product categories break down year over year, the data panels above provide the full detail behind these figures.