North Dakota has been and still is an important agricultural state, especially as a producer of wheat, much of which finds its way onto the world market. Many segments of the economy are affected by agriculture; for example, a substantial wholesale trade is involved in moving grain and livestock to market. Like other Midwestern farmers, North Dakotans suffered from high interest rates and a federal embargo on grain shipments to the Soviet Union in the early 1980s. Farm numbers have continued to decline, posing a threat to the vitality of the state's rural lifestyle. From 1970, 43 of North Dakota's 53 counties have lost population, and for 23 of these the population decline accelerated in the 1990s. The exodus has been aggravated by prolonged drought conditions, which in 2002 helped reduce wheat production (representing a quarter of the states total agricultural revenues) by 24% and disrupted cattle production. Not being deeply involved in the dot.com frenzy of the 1990s, North Dakota was only slightly affected by the national recession and slowdown of 2001 and 2002. By December 2002, state unemployment which had risen to 3.6% in October, had fallen back to 3%.
Growth industries for the state include petroleum and the mining of coal, chiefly lignite; North Dakota has more coal resources than any other state. Manufacturing is concentrated to a great extent on farm products and machinery.
North Dakota's gross state product in 2001 was $19 billion, smallest among the 50 states, to which general services contributed $3.7 billion; trade, $3.5 billion; government, $3 billion; financial services, $2.8 billion; transportation and public utilities, $1.9 billion, and construction, $896 million. The public sector in 2001 constituted 15.7% of gross state product, the 9th-highest among the states.