Cities of Baja California
The economy of Tijuana
Tijuana is Baja California's largest city, about 1.9 million people, sitting right on the US border across from San Diego.
It is the state's manufacturing and nearshoring engine, home to roughly 600 export-manufacturing plants, the most of any Mexican city.
The manufacturing engine of the state
- Tijuana is the state's manufacturing and nearshoring engine. It hosts roughly 600 export-manufacturing (IMMEX) plants, the most of any Mexican city, concentrated in electronics, medical devices, and aerospace. See advanced manufacturing and nearshoring for the wider picture.
- Manufacturing carries the formal workforce. The sector employs about 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.
- The city is deeply binational. About 70,000 Baja California residents commute to jobs in Southern California, a figure that peaked near 87,000 in early 2024 before falling roughly 20% by 2025 (INEGI). Tijuana anchors the San Diego-Tijuana border region and the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa crossings, among the world's busiest land borders.
- Where it is headed. As the anchor of the San Diego-Tijuana metro, the city keeps pulling nearshoring expansions from companies already on the ground, with the electronics, medical-device, and aerospace clusters moving the mix toward higher-value work.
On the busiest land border in the world
- Tijuana sits directly across from San Diego, and the metro it anchors moves people and goods across the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa crossings, among the busiest land borders anywhere.
- Cross-border wages flow home. The roughly 70,000 residents who commute north earn US-dollar wages and spend much of it back in the city, tying local demand to the Southern California economy.