From sea to shining sea, with the Great Lakes in between, U.S. coastal areas provide cargo handling, port operations, fishing, shipbuilding/repairs, navigational services and vacation accommodations. All are integral to the U.S. marine economy.

The nonemployer marine economy consists of businesses primarily made up of self-employed owner-operators of businesses that are dependent on and utilize coastal resources.

The NES data provide estimates of the number of nonemployer businesses and their receipts in six marine economic sectors defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Living Resources, Marine Transportation, and Tourism and Recreation were the three largest portions of the nonemployer marine economy, accounting for $9.2 billion or 86.1% of that economy in 2022.

About 35.8% of nonemployer marine businesses were in the Living Resources sector, which was the largest by both number of businesses and total receipts: 49,379 nonemployer businesses performed living resource-related activities, generating $3.9 billion in receipts or approximately 36.1% of the total U.S. nonemployer marine economy in 2022.

The Marine Transportation and Tourism and Recreation sectors were a close second and third with 36,056 and 35,241 nonemployer businesses, respectively. Combined, they represented half the receipts ($2.7 billion each) of the U.S. nonemployer marine economy in 2022.

Florida was the biggest player in the 2022 U.S. nonemployer marine economy. According to NES data, it was home to 28,258 nonemployer marine economy businesses with total receipts of $2.1 billion, about 20.5% and 19.7%, respectively, of the total U.S. nonemployer marine economy.

That was about double the second-place state, California, where 14,640 nonemployer marine businesses generated $1.1 billion in receipts. These made up 10.6% of businesses and 10.3% of receipts of the total U.S. nonemployer marine economy.

In third place is Texas, where the 2022 nonemployer marine economy was made up of 11,113 nonemployer businesses that earned $1.0 billion — making up 8.1% of businesses and 9.4% of receipts, respectively, of the total U.S. nonemployer marine economy.

In 2022, Texas was home to more nonemployer Offshore Mineral establishments (4,677) than any other state and generated nearly half ($495 million) of the state’s receipts from the marine economy and 56.6% of total U.S. receipts of Offshore Mineral establishments.

Activities that make up the marine economy are not exclusive to salt water. NOAA’s definition includes sectors dependent not only on oceans but the Great Lakes too.

New York is the only state with coasts directly on the Great Lakes and an ocean (the Atlantic). Of the receipts generated by New York’s nonemployer marine economy, $680.2 million stemmed from 14 counties (Albany, Bronx, Dutchess, Kings, Nassau, New York, Orange, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk, Ulster and Westchester) with access to the Atlantic, 91.8% of the state’s $741.3 million total.

New York has 11 Great Lakes counties—nine on Lake Ontario (Cayuga, Franklin, Jefferson, Monroe, Niagara, Orleans, Oswego, St. Lawrence, and Wayne) and two (Chautauqua and Erie) on Lake Erie.

In 2022, the Lake Ontario counties generated a total of $35.6 million and the two on Lake Erie produced $25.4 million, 4.8% and 3.4%, respectively, of the state’s total marine economy receipts.

Despite Pennsylvania’s lack of an Atlantic coast, most of its nonemployer marine economy activity was in its three coastal counties (Bucks, Delaware, and Philadelphia) on the eastern side of the state, where businesses access the Atlantic via a short trip on the Delaware River. These counties brought in $68.4 million or 87.9% of the state’s nonemployer marine economy receipts in 2022.

Pennsylvania also has an Erie County, its only county on the Great Lakes, which picked up the state’s remaining $9.5 million (12.1% of the state total) in the 2022 nonemployer marine economy.

Six Midwestern states directly border at least one of the Great Lakes and lack direct coastal access to an ocean: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Combined, these states were home to 9,333 or 6.8% of the businesses in the 2022 U.S. nonemployer marine economy and generated $550.6 million or 5.1% of the receipts.

Michigan and Illinois were the greatest contributors, with 3,156 and 2,866 nonemployer marine businesses generating receipts of $201.8 million and $152.5 million, respectively.