Guerrero
Acapulco was New Spain's main western port, receiving the Manila galleon each year.
Capital: Chilpancingo · Area: 63,596 km² · Checked 3 Nov 2026
Guerrero 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 Guerrero
Acapulco was New Spain's main western port, receiving the Manila galleon each year. Taxco was one of the primary colonial mining areas, and its silver mining and silversmithing revived through the efforts of William Spratling; the town hosts the National Silver Fair. Olinalá has made lacquer since pre-Hispanic times, including lináloe-wood boxes, and Amuzgo weavers work on backstrap looms. More than 20 Indigenous languages are spoken, led by Nahuatl, Mixtec, Tlapanec and Amuzgo, and in the 2020 census 8.58% of residents identified as Afro-Mexican, the highest share of any state. Guerrero sends more labour migrants to the United States than any other state. The 2020 census counted 3,540,685 residents. The Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero began in 1852 as the Instituto Literario de Álvarez. 18
Who it suits
Chapter 20 holds that Guerrero could take manufacturing once energy and logistics are solved, and that for most companies the answer today is no. 5
Today the deep south suits a narrow set of companies: processors of the region’s own agriculture, coffee, cacao, fruit, poultry and palm oil; makers of building materials for the southern market; and light, labor-intensive assemblers willing to be early, preferably inside a development pole with power and a railway, near the Isthmus or Palenque, where the federal government has committed its money. It doesn’t yet suit a just-in-time supplier, a heavy-power user, or a company that can’t afford a hurricane season.
What to check first
- Ask CFE what load the nearest substation can take and when.
- Price the route to the nearest working port or rail terminal with a quoted rate.
- Read the state’s crime figures by municipality and road, not by state.
- Pull the flood and hurricane record for the parcel.
- Before you buy anything, find out which local authorities and leaders you will deal with in the town, what existing employers pay, and whether a state or federal program will back you if someone objects to your arrival.
Weighing Guerrero for a plant, a warehouse or an office? Work with us.
Industry and plants
Output per hour worked was 109 pesos in the first quarter of 2026 (México ¿cómo vamos?), against 222 nationally. 5
Unemployment was 1.1% in the second quarter of 2026 (INEGI), the second-lowest in Mexico, compared with 2.7% nationally, while informality was 77.6%, the second-highest. Multidimensional poverty was 58.1% in 2024 (INEGI), compared with 29.6% nationally. Lokus Data’s IMSS processing counted 160,478 formal private jobs in July 2026, up 0.2% in a year. 5
Output by sector, 2024
Share of the state’s output, current prices 16
- 72.0%Services +1.5% real, 2024
- 17.1%Industry: manufacturing, construction, energy, mining −2.3% real, 2024
- 5.9%Agriculture, livestock, fishing +3.3% real, 2024
- 5.0%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; Guerrero is the bright one with the white edge. 1 2 3 7 6
Beside its neighbours in the Deep South: Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas
Share of Mexico’s output, 2024
Exports, 2025
Formal private jobs, July 2026
Informal work, Q2 2026
Guerrero against Mexico
Coloured: the state. Grey: the whole country.
Safety, taxes and incentives
The USA advisory of May 29, 2026, sets Guerrero at Level 4, don’t travel. Yet INEGI counted 1,825 businesses victimized per 10,000 in 2023, against 2,722 nationally; the risk concentrates in Acapulco and the Tierra Caliente. 5
Payroll tax is 3.0% for 2026 (BHR). IMCO’s 2026 index ranks Guerrero last of the 32, and a governor is elected on June 6, 2027. 5
Cities, ports, airports, crossings, power and water
Chilpancingo
The capital: 225,728 people (2020) 17
Acapulco
City: 658,609 people (2020) 17
Zihuatanejo
City: 70,760 people (2020) 17
General Juan N. Álvarez International Airport
International airport (ACA) · 692,210 passengers in 2025 17
Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo International Airport
International airport (ZIH) · 733,132 passengers in 2025 17
Port of Acapulco
Commercial seaport 17
Power and water
The grid reaches the state, but industrial-scale power is what it lacks first (Chapter 20); Chapter 7 treats its water. 5
Logistics and crossings
Acapulco, the main port, serves cruise ships and general cargo rather than containers. 5
Development pole
No development pole has been named or declared in Guerrero. 5
The recent arrivals
- Book 6 records no dated plant announcement for this state.
Registered workers averaged 555.50 pesos per day in July 2026 (Lokus Data); the national average of 673.9 covers all IMSS-insured workers. 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 20, The Deep South: Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas, 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: Guerrero (en); Estado de Guerrero (es), 3 Nov 2026 · link
- Book 6, Where to Go in Mexico, chapter 12, The Landed Cost and Time to Production, State by State, Nov 2026 · link
Pictures
- Skyscrapers in Acapulco Diamante: Mitrush, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- TaxcoaMontage: Microstar, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons