The US State That Quietly Produces The Most Honey

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Honey is a staple in grocery stores across the United States. The sweet, syrupy product has plenty of uses. Among them, honey can be added to lemonade or used to glaze meats and veggies. With the ingredient in such high demand, where is it all coming from? Every state in the nation produces honey, but one in the upper Midwest outshines all the others in terms of output: North Dakota. It's the top U.S. producer of honey, and has been for over two decades, starting in 2003.

Other honey-producing states are nowhere close to matching North Dakota's numbers. As of 2023, the state produced over 38 million pounds of honey — over double the amount of honey of the second and third honey-producing states combined (South Dakota with 18 million pounds, and California with more than 13.5 million pounds, respectively). North Dakota doesn't just rank No. 1 in the American honey industry, though – it's also the state that consumes the most beer in the United States. 

Honey bees have been residents of the United States since the early 17th century, when European settlers first arrived. As it turns out, North Dakota has a great natural environment for making honey in the summer. Mark Sperry, owner of Sperry Apiaries in Kindred, North Dakota, told Marketplace that "Warm days and cool nights are optimal for nectar secretion for a number of plants that honeybees visit." These include clover and alfalfa, which local producers like TJO Bees often combine to make products like their Raw & Unfiltered Honey. The state has fewer pesticides because of a lack of agriculture and farming. It also has fewer people and plenty of verdant land, making it the perfect place for bees to pollinate. (In the winter, many beekeepers bring their buzzing buddies from North Dakota to warmer locales like Louisiana, Texas, and California so that the insects can safely continue pollinating and producing honey.

In 2023, the state produced 7 million more pounds of honey than the year before. In the same year, North Dakota had over 500,000 honey-producing colonies. Considering it takes around 500 bees to produce an 8-ounce jar of honey, that's a lot of stocked store shelves. However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service noted that North Dakota's honey production and colonies fell in 2024, with only 490,000 honey-making colonies. The state also harvested 2 million fewer pounds of the sweet stuff. Despite that drop, North Dakota continues to lead the nation as a producer of honey.