Sinaloa
Sinaloa is known as “the granary of Mexico”.
Capital: Culiacán · Area: 57,365 km² · Checked 3 Nov 2026
Sinaloa 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 Sinaloa
Sinaloa is known as “the granary of Mexico”. Irrigation in the Culiacán Valley began in 1916 with the Rosales canal, and dams such as Sanalona, Humaya and Miguel Hidalgo later watered large farms for tomatoes, maize, wheat and beans. Mazatlán, founded as a free-navigation port in 1826, and Topolobampo are among Mexico's largest Pacific ports, supporting trade and tourism, and the state has the second-largest fishing fleet in the country. The Chihuahua–Pacific railway links Los Mochis with Chihuahua. The Yoreme (Mayo) are the main Indigenous people of the north. Since 1970 many Sinaloans have moved to the United States, with a large community in California's Coachella Valley. The Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa was founded in 1873 as the Liceo Rosales. 18
Who it suits
It suits agribusiness and food processing tied to its crops, with a security budget from day one; for anything else, it is a place to watch for now. 5
Michoacán and Sinaloa suit agribusiness and food processing tied to their crops, with a security budget planned from the first day. Sinaloa, with formal employment falling through mid-2026, is a place to watch rather than to enter for anything not tied to its farms and sea.
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 Sinaloa for a plant, a warehouse or an office? Work with us.
Industry and plants
A farm-and-fishing state, it’s a leading vegetable exporter, a panelist said in 2022. INEGI gave it 0.7% of IMMEX plants in June 2024. 5
INEGI put unemployment at 3.1% in the second quarter of 2026, against 2.7 nationally, and informality at 49.0%, against 55.1% nationally. IMSS reported 26,787 jobs lost in the first half of 2026, the most of any state, and Lokus Data counted 561,368 formal jobs in July 2026, down 1.3% year over year. 5
Output by sector, 2024
Share of the state’s output, current prices 16
- 67.6%Services +2.6% real, 2024
- 17.1%Industry: manufacturing, construction, energy, mining −8.1% real, 2024
- 10.1%Agriculture, livestock, fishing −7.2% real, 2024
- 5.2%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; Sinaloa 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
Sinaloa against Mexico
Coloured: the state. Grey: the whole country.
Safety, taxes and incentives
INEGI found 2,505 of every 10,000 businesses victimized in 2023, against 2,722 nationally, yet its preliminary 2025 homicide rate was 57 per 100,000. The Mexico Peace Index 2026 ranks it 31st of 32; the USA State Department’s May 29, 2026 advisory sets it at Level 4, don’t travel. 5
BHR lists payroll tax at 2.4% to 3.0% for 2026. The World Bank ranked it second in 2016 for construction permits. IMCO’s 2026 index dropped it 7 places to 23rd. 5
Cities, ports, airports, crossings, power and water
Culiacán
The capital: 808,416 people (2020) 17
Mazatlán
City: 441,975 people (2020) 17
Los Mochis
City: 298,009 people (2020) 17
Federal de Bachigualato International Airport (Culiacán)
International airport (CUL) · 2,227,343 passengers in 2025 17
General Rafael Buelna International Airport (Mazatlán)
International airport (MZT) · 1,749,103 passengers in 2025 17
Federal del Valle del Fuerte International Airport (Los Mochis)
International airport (LMM) · 716,648 passengers in 2025 17
Port of Topolobampo
Commercial seaport 17
Port of Mazatlán
Commercial seaport 17
Ferromex (with Ferrosur; 12,100 km combined)
Rail line serving the state 17
Power and water
Drought affected 38.9% of municipalities in January 2026, the third-highest figure, according to CONAGUA’s monitor. Chapter 6 compares power tariffs. 5
Logistics and crossings
Topolobampo shipped 13,500 metric tons of maize to Veracruz on June 30, 2024; Chapter 9 compares ports. 5
Development pole
Topolobampo’s pole was declared in the Diario Oficial on March 20, 2026. 5
The recent arrivals
- Book 6 records no dated plant announcement for this state.
Lokus Data’s average daily contribution wage was 545.90 pesos in July 2026, the second-lowest; 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 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
- 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
- Secretaría de Economía, foreign direct investment by state of destination, as reproduced by the Chamber of Deputies, Gaceta Parlamentaria, 14 Apr 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: Sinaloa (English Wikipedia) (en); Sinaloa (Wikipedia en español) (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
- Vista panorámica de Culiacán: FAL56, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- MazatlánCollage: Microstar, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons