Image from Michael SKOPAL for Unsplash

Rio Grande City might not be your immediate guess when thinking about prominent trade hubs. Nevertheless, its strategic location on the US-Mexico border makes it so that thousands of trucks, personal vehicles, and pedestrians traverse the city month after month.  More so now that Mexico surpassed China as the top trade partner to the US, Rio Grande City’s prominence is only likely to increase. All this at a time when western nations are looking to Mexico as the crown jewel of a global nearshoring trend.

Given its relevance, this week we wanted to take a closer look at Rio Grande: why it plays such a  crucial role in commerce and just how prominent that role truly is.

Where is Rio Grande City?

Rio Grande City is a town of little above 15,000 people located right on the border of the U.S. and Mexico in the state of Tamaulipas. Yet, when we speak of Rio Grande we are more frequently referencing its international bridge connecting the US with Mexico. The bridge itself—known as the Starr-Camargo bridge—connects Rio Grande City in Starr County, Texas with the neighboring Ciudad Camargo.

So, Rio Grande City is more than just a city: it is a link between Mexico and the U.S. through a crucial international bridge capable of handling considerable amounts of traffic—as we will explore in the subsequent sections.

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How Important is Rio Grande City?

As one of the few border crossings between the US and Mexico, Rio Grande City derives a great deal of importance from international trade. In 2023 alone, it was estimated that over 43,500 trucks crossed the border at this border crossing—a data point that is even more relevant when  feat given that over 87.3% of all transportation revenues in Mexico were related to trucks. 

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Now, it is worth noting that Rio Grande City pales in comparison to other major border crossing points. While its 43,500 truck crossings are certainly meaningful, neighboring Nuevo Laredo experienced over two million truck crossings in the same period. Meanwhile, Otay Mesa, in California, came in a distant second position, with 1.03 million truck crossings. So this particular border crossing City still has a ways to go to enter the top ranks of border crossings.

But there is much more to Rio Grande City than just trucks. The city has slowly grown into a living border, where hundreds of thousands of people cross between Mexico and the US every month—likely making a home in both countries. According to the most recent data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, monthly crossings between Ciudad Camacho and Rio Grande are consistently above 70,000 people—and, in recent months, have even approached 100,000.

Looking at individual crossing data we also notice an important pattern: Rio Grande City has lost its once-held prominence. While border crossings continue to grow in the 2020s, they are far below the over 200,000 people that crossed every month in the early 2000s.

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Despite its declining prominence, Rio Grande remains a crucial point for US-Mexico trade—and one that could be invested heavily to regain its previous traffic. Its value is based on a profound ability to manage large amounts of trade between the largest economy in the world and its largest partner: Mexico and the US.

How Many Vehicles Cross Through Rio Grande City?

We already talked briefly about the number of truck crossings in Rio Grande City which, by far, is the clearest signal of the city’s commercial relevance—even if it falls behind other prominent cities in the US-Mexico border. 

The same pattern, however, is repeated when looking at personal vehicles—going hand in hand with the high number of overall people crossing the border at Rio Grande. In 2023 alone, it was estimated that over 435,000 personal vehicles entered the US through Rio Grande City—namely, almost half a million people crossed the border through the Starr-Camargo bridge. 

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These figures, again, pale in comparison to the personal vehicles entering the US through other major border crossings. Take, for instance, San Ysidro in California, connecting the City of San Diego with neighboring Tijuana. In the same period of time in which Rio Grande saw close to half a million vehicle crossings, a shocking 15.8 million vehicles entered the US through San Ysidro.

Yet, even with these metrics, Rio Grande City remains a relevant destination for international trade along the US-Mexico border, with crossings consistently in the thousands every month.