🇲🇽 Mexico · 2026 edition
Investing in Querétaro
Querétaro ranks 11 of 13 Latin American cities on the ProLatam Data Index with 42.6 of 100, and 9 of 13 on the ProLatam Score. Its strongest pillar is safety (63), its weakest is innovation (5). A foreign shareholder pays 37.00% in total on repatriated profit.
ProLatam Data Index
42.6
Rank 11 of 13, balanced weighting
ProLatam Score
42.4
Rank 9 of 13, market-entry weighting
Strongest pillar
Safety
63 of 100
Weakest pillar
Innovation
5 of 100
How Querétaro scores on each pillar
Eight pillars, each normalized to 0 to 100 by a fixed published rule. A dash means the source does not cover Querétaro, which is not the same as a zero. Coverage of the weighted index for this city is 100%.
Swipe the table sideways for the reported value, the weights and the source.
What a foreign shareholder pays in Mexico
Corporate income tax plus the standard non-treaty withholding on the dividend paid out of what is left, which is the figure that actually reaches an owner abroad.
Total on repatriated profit
37.00%
Corporate income tax
30.0%
Dividend withholding
10.0%
Standard non-treaty rate
Compliance hours per year
240.5
World Bank Paying Taxes, 2018 data
Mexico taxes on a worldwide basis, so worldwide income is in scope. The 2025 Plan Mexico decree allows immediate deduction of 35% to 91% on new fixed assets and a 30% R&D credit. IMMEX waives duties on temporarily imported inputs that are re-exported.
Context, published but not scored
These shape a decision without belonging in the index. FDI inflows track the size of an economy rather than the appeal of a city, and a sovereign rating measures a government's ability to repay debt rather than a company's ability to operate.
GDP growth 2026
1.6%
IMF World Economic Outlook, national
FDI inflows
$43.2B
National, latest published year
Sovereign rating
BBB (Negative)
Long-term foreign currency
English proficiency
466 (Low)
EF EPI city score, 1 to 800
Where Mexico has moved since 2021
The rule of law pillar is the only one of the eight with a series comparable across five editions, so it is the only place this profile shows a direction rather than a snapshot. Scores are national, 0 to 1, higher is better.
2021
0.428
2022
0.423
2023
0.417
2024
0.415
2025
0.403
Over the period Mexico weakened, -0.025 points. A move under 0.005 is reported as flat rather than as a trend. Compare all 10 economies.
Sectors with a documented presence
Aerospace
The Aeroclúster de Querétaro groups 60 companies employing about 15,000 people and projects 550 new jobs in 2026.
SourceData Centers & Cloud
AWS opened its Mexico (Central) Region in Querétaro in January 2025 with three availability zones, part of a planned investment above USD 5 bn over 15 years.
SourceWhere Mexico's inbound FDI comes from
National statistics, share of inbound foreign direct investment.
- United States38.8%
- Spain10.8%
- Canada8.1%
- Netherlands5.8%
- Other36.5%
Secretaría de Economía, 2025 flows into Mexico (USD 40,871 M).
Citing the Querétaro figures
Published under CC BY 4.0. Reuse is welcome, including commercially, with credit and a link.
Pro Latam. (2026). ProLatam Latin American City Investment Index 2026 (Version 2026.4) [Data set]. https://invest.pro-latam.orgSource: Pro Latam Investment Hub, ProLatam Data Index 2026 (https://invest.pro-latam.org). Updated 2026-09-04.
Considering Querétaro for a market entry?
Pro Latam has been placing international companies in Latin America since 2010. The ranking is the public part of the work, and the rest is the part that depends on what you are actually trying to build.