Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas is Mexico's sixth-largest exporter.
Capital: Ciudad Victoria · Area: 80,249 km² · Checked 3 Nov 2026
.jpg){kind=link}
Tamaulipas 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 Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas began as Nuevo Santander, a province of New Spain from 1746, settled under José de Escandón, whose towns along the Rio Grande included Reynosa, Camargo and Mier. Tampico, founded in 1554, was the first permanent Spanish settlement, and the railway later brought significant growth to Matamoros and Nuevo Laredo. Today manufacturing leads: Reynosa is the largest maquiladora centre in north-eastern Mexico and Matamoros the second in the state, while the south has petrochemical plants around Altamira, a principal Gulf container port, and a refinery in Ciudad Madero. Nuevo Laredo is Mexico's most important land border crossing. Farms grow sorghum, maize, citrus and sugarcane. The state's name is thought to come from the Huastec Tamaholipa, and the Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas has its main campus in Ciudad Victoria. 18
Who it suits
Its crossings handle heavy goods bound for Texas, and a newcomer will find workers and buildings in Matamoros but should ask why they’re available. 5
The Texas-facing North suits a manufacturer that ships heavy or time-sensitive goods to the United States, needs a deep supplier base in automotive, appliances, or electronics, and can pay the region’s wages for experienced people. It suits a supplier following a customer already there. It suits less well a company that needs much water, since the main aquifers have none to grant; a large new electrical load that can’t wait 1 to 2 years for a substation; a labor-intensive plant whose margin depends on low wages; and a product sold mainly in central or southern Mexico, which gains nothing from Laredo. Chapter 21 weighs this corridor against the Bajío and the south.
What to check first
- Get the substation answer in writing, from CFE and from the park, with a date.
- Get the water answer next: whether the site’s water comes from a title, the park, or treated supply, and what happened to the site in 2022.
- Ask the park and 2 neighboring plants for their monthly turnover and starting wage, and price housing and commuting for the people you’ll hire.
- Get crossing times by hour from your carrier and customs broker for the bridge you’ll use.
- And read every state figure for investment and jobs against the official table and the 5-year window in which announced jobs arrive.
Weighing Tamaulipas for a plant, a warehouse or an office? Work with us.
Industry and plants
INEGI reported that the state accounted for 7.4% of export-plant employment in July 2026 and found its economy 5.3% larger in the first quarter of 2026, the second-fastest. Foreign investment totaled $59.1 million in 2025, according to the Secretaría de Economía. 5
INEGI put unemployment at 3.2% in the second quarter of 2026, against 2.7 nationally, and informality at 44.4%, against 55.1. Lokus Data’s IMSS count showed 676,530 formal jobs in July 2026, down 2.5% year over year. 5
Output by sector, 2024
Share of the state’s output, current prices 16
- 51.7%Services +2.3% real, 2024
- 39.2%Industry: manufacturing, construction, energy, mining +2.9% real, 2024
- 2.7%Agriculture, livestock, fishing −4.3% real, 2024
- 6.4%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; Tamaulipas is the bright one with the white edge. 1 2 3 7 6
Beside its neighbours in the Texas-Facing North
Share of Mexico’s output, 2024
Exports, 2025
Formal private jobs, July 2026
Informal work, Q2 2026
Tamaulipas against Mexico
Coloured: the state. Grey: the whole country.
Safety, taxes and incentives
INEGI found 1,756 businesses per 10,000 victimized in 2023, Mexico’s lowest, compared with 2,722 nationally, and the Mexico Peace Index 2026 ranks it tenth most peaceful. The USA State Department’s May 29, 2026 advisory sets it at Level 4, don’t travel. 5
Payroll tax is 3.0% in 2026, by BHR. IMCO’s 2026 index ranks it 11th. 5
Cities, ports, airports, crossings, power and water
Ciudad Victoria
The capital: 332,100 people (2020) 17
Reynosa
City: 691,557 people (2020) 17
Matamoros
City: 510,739 people (2020) 17
General Lucio Blanco International Airport (Reynosa)
International airport (REX) · 442,464 passengers in 2025 17
General Francisco Javier Mina International Airport (Tampico)
International airport (TAM) · 611,494 passengers in 2025 17
Quetzalcóatl International Airport (Nuevo Laredo)
International airport (NLD) · 167,165 passengers in 2025 17
General Servando Canales International Airport (Matamoros)
International airport (MAM) · 107,489 passengers in 2025 17
Port of Altamira
Commercial seaport 17
Port of Tampico
Commercial seaport 17
Nuevo Laredo-Laredo, Texas (World Trade Bridge)
Border crossing: Nuevo Laredo, facing Laredo, Texas (World Trade Bridge) · commercial trucks 17
Reynosa-Pharr, Texas (Pharr-Reynosa Bridge)
Border crossing: Reynosa, facing Pharr, Texas (Pharr-Reynosa Bridge) · commercial trucks 17
Matamoros-Brownsville, Texas (Veterans International Bridge)
Border crossing: Matamoros, facing Brownsville, Texas (Veterans International Bridge) · commercial trucks 17
CPKC (Kansas City Southern de México), 5,335 km
Rail line serving the state 17
Power and water
Drought covered 25.6% of municipalities in January 2026 and 14% by the end of July, according to CONAGUA’s monitor, and the 1944 water treaty draws on the state’s Río Bravo. Chapter 6 compares power tariffs. 5
Logistics and crossings
Laredo, facing Nuevo Laredo, handled 2,945,388 northbound trucks in 2025; Hidalgo, facing Reynosa, handled 719,184, according to USA transportation statistics; Altamira moved 887,101 TEU in 2025. 5
Development pole
The Altamira pole was declared in the Diario Oficial on October 21, 2025. 5
The recent arrivals
- Jan 2026TridonexA Matamoros reporter said on January 28, 2026, that Tridonex was closing its branch in the city and that workers were guarding the company’s assets to secure their severance. 8
The average daily contribution wage reached 705.86 pesos in July 2026 (Lokus Data), the sixth-highest, above 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 13, The Texas-Facing North, 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: Tamaulipas (English Wikipedia) (en); Tamaulipas (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
- Tampico, Centro Historico (12059306706): Comisión Mexicana de Filmaciones from México D. F., México, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Montaje de Victoria: Calixto8910, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons