Oaxaca
Oaxaca's first export fortune was red: cochineal, a dye from an insect that lives on the nopal cactus, shipped to Europe especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, until cheaper dyes displaced it in the 19th.
Capital: Oaxaca de Juárez · Area: 93,758 km² · Checked 3 Nov 2026
Oaxaca 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 Oaxaca
Oaxaca's first export fortune was red: cochineal, a dye from an insect that lives on the nopal cactus, shipped to Europe especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, until cheaper dyes displaced it in the 19th. Oaxaca has the greatest linguistic diversity in Mexico. Sixteen ethnolinguistic groups are recognised by the Instituto Nacional Indigenista, the Zapotecs and Mixtecs the most populous, and in 2005 some 1.09 million Oaxacans spoke an Indigenous language. Most of its municipalities govern themselves by usos y costumbres. The Chivela pass in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec gives Mexico its best conditions for wind power, and Salina Cruz has a refinery. The Instituto de Ciencias y Artes, opened in 1827, where Benito Juárez studied, is the forerunner of today's UABJO, established in 1955. 18
Who it suits
The Isthmus suits a patient company wanting concession land and a rail bridge to the Pacific; the interior waits on power and roads. 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 Oaxaca for a plant, a warehouse or an office? Work with us.
Industry and plants
The economy grew 5.4% in 2024, the fastest of any state, but activity was 2.8% smaller in the first quarter of 2026 (INEGI). 5
Unemployment was 0.8% in the second quarter of 2026 (INEGI), the lowest in Mexico, while informality was 80.1%, the highest, compared with 2.7% and 55.1% nationally. Multidimensional poverty was 51.6% in 2024 (INEGI). Lokus Data’s IMSS processing counted 241,108 formal private jobs in July 2026, up 5.8%. 5
Output by sector, 2024
Share of the state’s output, current prices 16
- 55.5%Services +1.3% real, 2024
- 35.3%Industry: manufacturing, construction, energy, mining +13.7% real, 2024
- 4.5%Agriculture, livestock, fishing +1.4% real, 2024
- 4.7%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; Oaxaca 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
Oaxaca against Mexico
Coloured: the state. Grey: the whole country.
Safety, taxes and incentives
The May 29, 2026, USA advisory sets Oaxaca at Level 2. The Mexico Peace Index 2026 ranks it eighth most peaceful; INEGI counted 1,810 businesses victimized per 10,000 in 2023, against 2,722. 5
Payroll tax is 3.0% for 2026 (BHR). IMCO ranks it 31st in 2026; registering property took 78 days in the World Bank’s 2016 study, the slowest. 5
Cities, ports, airports, crossings, power and water
Oaxaca de Juárez
The capital: 258,913 people (2020) 17
San Juan Bautista Tuxtepec
City: 103,609 people (2020) 17
Juchitán de Zaragoza
City: 88,280 people (2020) 17
Xoxocotlán International Airport
International airport (OAX) · 1,870,913 passengers in 2025 17
Bahías de Huatulco International Airport
International airport (HUX) · 804,891 passengers in 2025 17
Puerto Escondido International Airport
International airport (PXM) · 948,590 passengers in 2025 17
Port of Salina Cruz
Commercial seaport 17
Interoceanic Corridor (Isthmus of Tehuantepec)
Rail line serving the state 17
Power and water
Salina Cruz still had no natural gas in November 2023, the builders’ chamber said. Hurricane Agatha left Oaxaca with 41.5% of national disaster damage in 2022 (CENAPRED). 5
Logistics and crossings
Line Z runs 308 kilometers from Coatzacoalcos to Salina Cruz, carrying freight since September 2023. 5
Development pole
Salina Cruz was declared in the Diario Oficial on May 12, 2023, one of 6 Isthmus poles there. 5
The recent arrivals
- Sep 2024Copenhagen Infrastructure PartnersThe largest announced energy project is about $10,000 million of green hydrogen at Ixtepec by the Danish fund Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, reported in September 2024. 8
Lokus Data reported an average registered daily wage of 554.49 pesos in July 2026, compared with a national average of 673.9 pesos that 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: Oaxaca (English Wikipedia) (en); Oaxaca (Wikipedia en español) (es); Mezcal (English Wikipedia) (en); Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca (Wikipedia en español) (es), 3 Nov 2026 · link
Pictures
- MonteAlbanWest: No machine-readable author provided. João Sousa assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Monte Alban West Side Platform: nsaum75 !Dígame¡, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons