Michoacán
The Purépecha state dominated the Lake Pátzcuaro basin by the 15th century and by its close rivalled the Aztecs.
Capital: Morelia · Area: 58,599 km² · Checked 3 Nov 2026
Michoacán 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 Michoacán
The Purépecha state dominated the Lake Pátzcuaro basin by the 15th century and by its close rivalled the Aztecs. After the conquest, Bishop Vasco de Quiroga founded the Spanish city of Pátzcuaro in 1538 and the Colegio de San Nicolás Obispo in 1540, the origin of today's Universidad Michoacana. Paracho still builds guitars and vihuelas and hosts the National Guitar Festival. Morelia, founded in 1541, became a World Heritage Site in 1991. Avocados define the modern economy: in 2017 the state grew 82.7% of Mexico's crop, and avocado exports rose from US$951 million in 2011 to US$2.961 billion in 2017. The port of Lázaro Cárdenas ships mostly minerals and grains. Purépecha had 128,620 speakers in 2020, and the census that year counted 4,748,846 residents. 18
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Who it suits
Michoacán suits agribusiness and food processing tied to its crops, and port users bound for the Bajío by rail, with a security budget planned from the first day. 5
The ports suit importers and companies moving Asian components inland, and Lázaro Cárdenas suits a shipper bound for the Bajío or Laredo by rail; neither Colima nor coastal Michoacán carries Guadalajara’s labor market behind it. Michoacán and Sinaloa suit agribusiness and food processing tied to their crops, with a security budget planned from the first day.
What to check first
- Start with power: ask CFE in writing what it can connect at the candidate park and when, and ask whether the park self-supplies.
- Confirm that the developer is certified under the April 2026 agreement and that the site sits in one of the 8 municipalities.
- Get the latest vacancy figure for the submarket from at least 2 brokers, because published figures vary from 1.2% to 6.0% within a year.
- Choose the port and the route before the site, and check the security of the highway the trucks will use, not the state average.
- In Colima and on the coast, have the structure checked against zone D.
- For Michoacán and Sinaloa, ask IMSS for the series in the municipality itself, because state totals are moving.
Weighing Michoacán for a plant, a warehouse or an office? Work with us.
Industry and plants
Agro-exports, the economy’s core, totaled $4,584 million in 2024, about 26.3% of the national total, and avocado production covers about 182,000 hectares (INEGI via Expansión). The state held 0.4% of IMMEX export plants in June 2024. 5
Michoacán had 487,638 IMSS-registered formal jobs in July 2026, down 0.5%, per Lokus Data. Informality was 71.3% in the second quarter of 2026, the sixth-highest of the 32, against 55.1 nationally (INEGI). 5
Output by sector, 2024
Share of the state’s output, current prices 16
- 63.8%Services +3.4% real, 2024
- 15.9%Industry: manufacturing, construction, energy, mining −6.6% real, 2024
- 14.9%Agriculture, livestock, fishing −2.4% real, 2024
- 5.4%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; Michoacán is the bright one with the white edge. 1 2 3 7 6
Beside its neighbours in the West
Share of Mexico’s output, 2024
Exports, 2025
Formal private jobs, July 2026
Informal work, Q2 2026
Michoacán against Mexico
Coloured: the state. Grey: the whole country.
Safety, taxes and incentives
INEGI counted 2,761 victimized businesses per 10,000 in 2023, near 2,722 nationally, but homicide ran at 31 per 100,000 in 2025, against 21.4 nationally (INEGI, preliminary). The USA advisory of May 29, 2026, sets Level 4, don’t travel. 5
Payroll tax is 3.0% in 2026 (BHR). Foreign investment was $178.8 million in 2025, and IMCO’s 2026 index ranks the state 30th. A new governor is elected on June 6, 2027. 5
Cities, ports, airports, crossings, power and water
Morelia
The capital: 743,275 people (2020) 17
Uruapan
City: 299,523 people (2020) 17
Zamora
City: 154,546 people (2020) 17
General Francisco J. Mujica International Airport (Morelia)
International airport (MLM) · 1,518,006 passengers in 2025 17
Lic. y Gen. Ignacio López Rayón International Airport (Uruapan)
International airport (UPN) · 175,010 passengers in 2025 17
Port of Lázaro Cárdenas
Commercial seaport 17
CPKC (Kansas City Southern de México), 5,335 km
Rail line serving the state 17
Power and water
An analyst linked Michoacán’s June 2026 outages to distribution rather than generation; Chapter 7 compares its water. 5
Logistics and crossings
Lázaro Cárdenas moved 2,616,770 containers (TEU) in 2025, up about 9%, with rail carrying 26%, which ties it to the Bajío and Laredo. 5
Development pole
The Parque Industrial Bajío at Morelia was declared in the Diario Oficial on July 7, 2025. 5
The recent arrivals
- Jun 2026Pemex (Fertinal-Proagro)At Lázaro Cárdenas, a Pemex presenter said in June 2026 that the Fertinal-Proagro project would invest 13,700 million pesos to rehabilitate fertilizer plants there and at Coatzacoalcos. 8
The average daily contribution wage was 562.46 pesos in July 2026, well below the national average of 673.9 pesos for 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 17, The West, 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: Michoacán (en); Michoacán (es), 3 Nov 2026 · link
Pictures
- TEC I: Puerto Lázaro Cárdenas, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Capilla de la Virgen de Guadalupe (Vista Interior): Rayordaz, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons