The U.S. marine economy contributed about $361 billion of the nation’s gross domestic product in 2020, according to the most current results of the annual Marine Economy Satellite Account by NOAA and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

These numbers are from the first year of the coronavirus pandemic and represent a 5.8 percent, or $23 billion, reduction in real terms (adjusted for inflation) from 2019, outpacing the general economy’s decline of 3.4 percent. 

For these statistics, experts from NOAA and BEA described 10 sectors representing businesses dependent on the nation’s ocean, coasts and Great Lakes between the years 2014 and 2020. Businesses included in the report generated a total of $610 billion in sales and supported 2.2 million jobs in 2020. 

The 10 sectors ranked by their sales (adjusted for inflation) are:

• Coastal tourism and recreation ($191 billion in 2020, with a 20 percent decline from 2019)

• National defense and public administration ($187 billion in 2020, with a 5.5 percent growth from 2019)

• Offshore minerals ($97 billion in 2020, with a 12 percent decline from 2019)

• Marine transportation ($54 billion in 2020, with a 16 percent decline from 2019)

• Living resources, such as fisheries and other biological products ($27 billion in 2020, with a 4.1 percent growth from 2019)

• Ship and boat building ($16 billion in 2020, with a 0.9 percent decline from 2019)

• Coastal utilities ($15 billion in 2020, with a 1.6 percent decline from 2019)

• Research and education ($11 billion in 2020, with a 9.8 percent growth from 2019)

• Marine construction ($7 billion in 2020, with a 0.6 percent decline from 2019)

• Professional and technical services ($6 billion in 2020, with a 2.1 percent decline from 2019)

The data, report and other materials are available at NOAA’s Digital Coast website and on the BEA Marine Economy website.