Zacatecas
Zacatecas was founded on silver.
Capital: Zacatecas · Area: 75,275 km² · Checked 3 Nov 2026
Zacatecas 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 Zacatecas
Zacatecas was founded on silver. In 1546 Juan de Tolosa, shown stones containing silver, climbed the Cerro de la Bufa, and the city grew from the discovery of one of the world's richest silver veins. In the early 18th century the state produced a fifth of the world's silver, and late in the 19th century silver recovered after years of fighting. Mining remains the dominant sector, and two of the world's largest silver mines, Fresnillo's Proaño and Peñasquito, operate here. Zacatecas is also Mexico's main producer of beans, and grows chili peppers, guavas and nopal. Migration runs deep: in the 20th century, 6.1% of the 9.2 million Mexican migrants to the United States came from Zacatecas. In 1968 the Instituto de Ciencias Autónomo became the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas. 18
Who it suits
Zacatecas, like Durango, suits a company that needs a resource-based input or lower wages and can accept thin supplier networks. 5
The Bajío suits a supplier to automotive and aerospace makers already in Mexico, a company that sells to the Mexican and American markets, and a plant with moderate load that values a deep supply base and a choice of mid-sized labor markets. It suits less well a company whose only customer is across the border and whose freight is time-sensitive, which Chapters 13 and 14 serve better, and a very large electrical load in Querétaro until the substations arrive. A company that will run trucks on the MEX-45D and MEX-57D, or place people in León, should budget for security as a line, not a contingency. Zacatecas and Durango suit a company that needs a resource-based input or lower wages and can accept thin supplier networks.
What to check first
- Start with power, in writing: which substation serves the lot, how many megawatts are free today, and when the next block arrives, above all in Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, and Guanajuato.
- Then the route: the corridor sections the plant’s trucks will use, with tracking-firm or insurer data for each, and the hours they will run.
- Then the labor market of the specific city, not the state: this year’s turnover from the plants nearest the site, formal job growth, and whether the anchor customers nearby are expanding or leaving, as Aguascalientes showed.
- Then vacancy, from 2 or 3 brokers, since the sources disagree.
- Chapter 23 takes those checks from shortlist to site.
Weighing Zacatecas for a plant, a warehouse or an office? Work with us.
Industry and plants
Only 0.6% of manufacturing firms used artificial intelligence, the lowest share of any state (Centro México Digital, reading the 2024 Economic Census). 5
Unemployment was 2.4% in the second quarter of 2026 (INEGI), against 2.7 nationally, but informality was 61.2% against 55.1% nationally. Lokus Data’s IMSS series showed 190,788 formal jobs in July 2026, up 0.7% year over year. 5
Output by sector, 2024
Share of the state’s output, current prices 16
- 45.0%Services +4.8% real, 2024
- 37.5%Industry: manufacturing, construction, energy, mining +3.8% real, 2024
- 9.4%Agriculture, livestock, fishing +15.3% real, 2024
- 8.1%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; Zacatecas is the bright one with the white edge. 1 2 3 7 6
Beside its neighbours in the Bajío and Center-North
Share of Mexico’s output, 2024
Exports, 2025
Formal private jobs, July 2026
Informal work, Q2 2026
Zacatecas against Mexico
Coloured: the state. Grey: the whole country.
Safety, taxes and incentives
INEGI counted 2,912 businesses victimized per 10,000 in 2023, a little above the national 2,722. The Mexico Peace Index 2026 ranks it the eleventh most peaceful, yet the USA advisory of May 29, 2026, sets Level 4, don’t travel, the corridor’s widest gap between instruments. 5
The 2026 payroll tax is 3.5% (BHR), the corridor’s highest. The World Bank ranked Zacatecas 30th of 32 on construction permits in 2016, and IMCO 28th in competitiveness in 2026. A governor is elected June 6, 2027. 5
Cities, ports, airports, crossings, power and water
Zacatecas
The capital: 149,607 people (2020) 17
Guadalupe
City: 170,029 people (2020) 17
Fresnillo
City: 143,281 people (2020) 17
General Leobardo C. Ruiz International Airport
International airport (ZCL) · 427,259 passengers in 2025 17
Power and water
The corridor’s power gaps, in Chapter 6, center on Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, and Guanajuato. Drought is the corridor’s hazard (Chapter 7). 5
Logistics and crossings
Zacatecas sits on the road north of the Bajío, and a security specialist said in November 2025 that cargo theft there was rising sharply. 5
Development pole
No federal development pole has been declared here. 5
The recent arrivals
- Book 6 records no dated plant announcement for this state.
The average daily IMSS contribution wage was 654.28 pesos in July 2026, eleventh of the 32, just below the national average of 673.9. 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 15, The Bajío and Center-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: Zacatecas (English Wikipedia) (en); Zacatecas (Wikipedia en español) (es), 3 Nov 2026 · link
Pictures
- CSMLMZZAC002: Carlos Martell Muñoz, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Parroquia de la Purificación 04: Francisco Javier Alavarez Aparicio, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons