Campeche
Campeche is Mexico's fifth-most peaceful state.
Capital: Campeche · Area: 57,485 km² · Checked 3 Nov 2026
Campeche at a glance
INEGI publishes IMMEX export-plant counts by state only in its database, not in the monthly bulletin we could read, so no count is shown here rather than an estimate; where Book 6 gives a share, it is in the text below.
This is Campeche
The port of San Francisco de Campeche was established in 1540 on the site of a Maya village, and the walls built after the pirate Laurens de Graaf sacked it in 1685 helped make it a World Heritage Site in 1997. Dyewood left its harbours for European textile makers. In 1971 a fisherman, Rudesindo Cantarell, discovered the oil that gave the Cantarell field its name, and oil made Campeche and Ciudad del Carmen important economic centres. Shrimp is the most valuable catch. Yucatec Maya is the most spoken Indigenous language, and Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites who arrived in the 1980s farm around Hopelchén and Hecelchakán. The 2020 census counted 928,363 residents. The Universidad Autónoma de Campeche was founded by the state in 1957. 18
Who it suits
Outside the oil service trade, Campeche is for later, as Chapter 19 concludes. 5
The Peninsula suits a light, labor-intensive manufacturer, in apparel, wiring, electronics, food, beverages, or medical devices, that values a stable and willing workforce, a safe place for its managers to live, and a sea route to the Gulf and east coasts of the United States, and that can protect itself against short power cuts. It suits a company selling to southeast Mexico from nearby, and one that can use Progreso and, from 2027, the Tren Maya freight line. It doesn’t suit a heavy power user until the new plants and the gas are in place, a just-in-time supplier to the automotive plants of the north and the Bajío, or a company that needs a deep local base of engineers and tool makers. Campeche, outside the oil service trade, and Quintana Roo, outside tourism, are for later. It’s a small state of about a million people, split between 2 cities: Campeche, the capital, and Ciudad del Carmen, which lives on oil. What it needs is investment. The work is convincing companies with plans that can succeed in places like Campeche, close to Mérida and the port of Progreso.
What to check first
- Ask CFE for a connection date and capacity, and ask which plant and which pipeline the nearest substation depends on.
- Price backup generation into the plan from the start.
- Get a water feasibility letter and an environmental review of the parcel that accounts for the limestone.
- Price freight to your customers by sea through Progreso and by road, and ask when the Tren Maya’s freight terminals will serve your site.
- In a town, find out who the existing employers are, what they pay, and which local authorities and leaders you will deal with before you buy land.
Weighing Campeche for a plant, a warehouse or an office? Work with us.
Industry and plants
Oil carries the state, and it’s shrinking. INEGI put real output down 6.9% in 2024 and activity down 5.3% in the first quarter of 2026, the weakest reading of the 32. 5
Unemployment was 2.7% in the second quarter of 2026 (INEGI), in line with the national average; informality was 61.4% against 55.1%. Lokus Data’s IMSS processing counted 129,666 formal private jobs in July 2026, down 7.3% year over year, the steepest fall in Mexico. 5
Output by sector, 2024
Share of the state’s output, current prices 16
- 24.0%Services +0.3% real, 2024
- 71.0%Industry: manufacturing, construction, energy, mining −9.1% real, 2024
- 2.1%Agriculture, livestock, fishing +10.6% real, 2024
- 2.9%Taxes on products, net
Among the 32, measure by measure
Each bar is one state, largest on the left, in the colour of its corridor; Campeche is the bright one with the white edge. 1 2 3 7 6
Beside its neighbours in the Peninsula
Share of Mexico’s output, 2024
Exports, 2025
Formal private jobs, July 2026
Informal work, Q2 2026
Campeche against Mexico
Coloured: the state. Grey: the whole country.
Safety, taxes and incentives
The USA advisory of May 29, 2026, sets Campeche at Level 1. The Mexico Peace Index 2026 ranks it the fifth most peaceful; INEGI counted 2,756 businesses victimized per 10,000 in 2023, compared with 2,722 nationally. 5
Payroll tax is 3.00% for 2026 (BHR). IMCO’s 2026 index ranks Campeche 13th, up 6 places, and a governor is elected on June 6, 2027. 5
Cities, ports, airports, crossings, power and water
Campeche
The capital: 249,623 people (2020) 17
Ciudad del Carmen
City: 191,238 people (2020) 17
Champotón
City: 30,881 people (2010) 17
Ciudad del Carmen International Airport
International airport (CME) · 292,917 passengers in 2025 17
Ing. Alberto Acuña Ongay International Airport
International airport (CPE) · 127,492 passengers in 2025 17
Tren Maya
Rail line serving the state 17
Power and water
Two transmission lines feed the Peninsula grid, and the August 31, 2026, blackout reached Campeche. A water consultant said in April 2026 that a volume is easier to obtain here than in the north. 5
Logistics and crossings
The Tren Maya crosses the state; the road to Texas is the longest of any corridor (Chapter 9). 5
Development pole
Seybaplaya I was declared in the Diario Oficial on June 30, 2025. 5
The recent arrivals
- Book 6 records no dated plant announcement for this state.
The average registered daily wage was 711.68 pesos in July 2026 (Lokus Data), the fifth-highest of the 32, lifted by oil pay. 5
Book 6’s cost model prices only Monterrey, Querétaro and Mérida in full.
Rent per square metre, freight to your customers and the fully loaded cost of your own workforce are figures we prepare for each client, not numbers to publish: work with us.
Sources, each with its date
- INEGI, Encuesta Intercensal 2025 (people in private dwellings; median age from the tabulates), 22 Sep 2026 · link
- INEGI, PIB por Entidad Federativa 2024, current prices; share our arithmetic over the national 33,506,847 million pesos, 5 Dec 2025 · link
- INEGI, Exportaciones Trimestrales por Entidad Federativa, the four quarters of 2025 summed (our arithmetic), preliminary, 31 Mar 2026 · link
- Wikipedia, List of states of Mexico, citing INEGI (continental area, 2016), 22 Oct 2026 · link
- Book 6, Where to Go in Mexico, Part V, with the sources listed there, Nov 2026 · link
- INEGI, ENOE second quarter 2026, bulletin 503/26, as compiled in Book 6, Part V, 25 Aug 2026 · link
- IMSS open data as processed by Lokus Data (private formal jobs and average daily contribution wage; the national wage of 673.9 pesos covers all IMSS-insured workers), as compiled in Book 6, Jul 2026 · link
- Book 6, Where to Go in Mexico, chapter 19, The Peninsula, with the sources listed there, Nov 2026 · link
- INEGI, quarterly state exports, bulletin 609/26, as compiled in Book 6, 30 Sep 2026 · link
- Secretaría de Economía, foreign direct investment by state of destination, as reproduced by the Chamber of Deputies, Gaceta Parlamentaria, 14 Apr 2026 · link
- IMCO, Índice de Competitividad Estatal 2026, 21 Sep 2026 · link
- BHR, bulletin on state payroll-tax rates for 2026, as compiled in Book 6, Jan 2026 · link
- Institute for Economics and Peace, Mexico Peace Index 2026; USA Department of State travel advisory of 29 May 2026, 29 May 2026 · link
- INEGI, ENVE 2024 (businesses victimized in 2023, per 10,000), 10 Dec 2024 · link
- INEGI, ITAEE first quarter 2026 (change on a year), from Book 6, Figure VII.18, Nov 2026 · link
- INEGI, PIB por Entidad Federativa 2024, the state's press release (shares at current prices, growth at constant prices; taxes on products are 100 less the three activities, our arithmetic), 5 Dec 2025 · link
- Wikipedia, the city, airport, port and crossing pages (EN and ES), read 3 November 2026, 3 Nov 2026 · link
- Wikipedia and the pages listed: Campeche (en); Campeche (es), 3 Nov 2026 · link
Pictures
- Ciudaddelcarmen: cmakin, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Montaje de San Francisco de Campeche: self., CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons