The backbone
Advanced manufacturing
Industry is the load-bearing wall of the state economy: the secondary sector is about 45% of GDP, and it is moving up the value chain.
Baja California leads Mexico in export-manufacturing (IMMEX) plants, with roughly 17.5% of the national total.
~45%of state GDP from the secondary sector (industry)
~600export-manufacturing establishments in Tijuana, the most of any Mexican city
1 in 5workers in the state employed in manufacturing
$16.5Bforeign direct investment drawn over the past decade
INEGI, IMMEX manufacturing statistics, IMSS (formal employment).
The load-bearing wall of the economy
- Baja California leads Mexico in export-manufacturing (IMMEX) plants, with roughly 17.5% of the national total. Tijuana alone had more than 600 establishments in late 2024, the most of any Mexican city, concentrated in electronics, medical devices, and aerospace.
- The sector employs roughly one in five workers in the state and about 40% of those registered with social security (IMSS), making it the single largest source of formal jobs.
- Manufacturing has drawn about $16.5 billion in foreign direct investment over the past decade, with nearshoring still driving expansions by companies already established here.
- Mexicali, the capital, anchors aerospace and farming, with long-established primes such as Honeywell and Collins Aerospace alongside the Mexicali Valley. Ensenada is the high-tech outlier: small by plant count but technical (Lowrance marine electronics, aerospace and medical parts), and home to CICESE, a top national research center.
Where the plants are
Illustrative, keyed to IMMEX establishment counts (Tijuana ~600 in late 2024). Bars show relative concentration, not exact totals.
Deeply binational, and cooling
- The economy is deeply binational. About 70,000 residents statewide commute to jobs in Southern California, earning US-dollar wages and spending much of it back home. That figure peaked near 87,000 in early 2024 before falling roughly 20% by 2025 (INEGI).
- Growth has cooled. The state economy grew 3.5% in 2023 but was essentially flat in 2024, as US tariff pressure and a softer auto sector weighed on exports.
- Where it is headed. Nearshoring demand remains the structural tailwind: expansions are led by companies already on the ground, and the medical-device and aerospace clusters keep moving the mix toward higher-value, more automation-intensive work.