List of metropolitan areas of Mexico
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aside from the Metropolitan area of Mexico City, megacities in Mexico are usually not well defined. The smallest administrative divisions are the "municipios" (municipalities), which can be roughly compared to the U.S. counties, or the French communes. Municipalities tend to include rural areas which might slightly inflate the actual population size of the cities. (Rural communities, as defined by INEGI, have a population of 15,000 or less).
The National Population Council (CONAPO) and the National Institute of Statistics, Geography, and Data Processing (INEGI) define metropolitan areas as the group of municipalities that heavily interact with each other, usually around a core city. It should also be noted that in some Northern states (usually with small population densities) municipalities tend to cover larger areas than those in Central and Southern Mexico (with higher population densities), and therefore, they might include other small cities and villags that may not be part of any megacity.
Few metropolitan areas extend beyond the limits of one state, namely: Mexico City (Distrito Federal, Mexico and Hidalgo), Puebla (Puebla and Tlaxcala, but excludes the city of Tlaxcala), La Laguna (Coahuila and Durango), and Tampico (Tamaulipas and Veracruz).
[edit] Largest Metropolitan Areas of Mexico by Population 2005
Population of the 30 biggest metropolitan areas in Mexico as reported in the 2005 Census [1]:
| Rank | City | State | Population | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Mexico City | Federal District | 19.23 million | Center South |
| 02 | Guadalajara | Jalisco | 4.10 million | West |
| 03 | Monterrey | Nuevo León | 3.66 million | North East |
| 04 | Puebla | Puebla | 2.11 million | East |
| 05 | Toluca | México | 1.61 million | Center South |
| 06 | Tijuana | Baja California | 1.48 million | North West |
| 07 | León | Guanajuato | 1.43 million | Center |
| 08 | Ciudad Juárez | Chihuahua | 1.31 million | North |
| 09 | Torreón | Coahuila | 1.11 million | North East |
| 10 | San Luis Potosí | San Luis Potosí | 0.96 million | Center |
| 11 | Querétaro | Querétaro | 0.92 million | Center |
| 12 | Mérida | Yucatán | 0.90 million | South East |
| 13 | Mexicali | Baja California | 0.85 million | North West |
| 14 | Aguascalientes | Aguascalientes | 0.81 million | Center |
| 15 | Tampico | Tamaulipas | 0.80 million | North East |
| 16 | Cuernavaca | Morelos | 0.79 million | Center |
| 17 | Acapulco | Guerrero | 0.79 million | South |
| 18 | Chihuahua | Chihuahua | 0.78 million | North |
| 19 | Culiacán | Sinaloa | 0.76 million | North West |
| 20 | Morelia | Michoacán | 0.74 million | West |
| 21 | Saltillo | Coahuila | 0.73 million | Northeast |
| 22 | Veracruz | Veracruz | 0.70 million | East |
| 23 | Villahermosa | Tabasco | 0.65 million | Southeast |
| 24 | Río Bravo | Tamaulipas | 0.63 million | West |
| 25 | Cancún | Quintana Roo | 0.59 million | Southeast |
| 26 | Tuxtla Gutiérrez | Chiapas | 0.58 million | South |
| 27 | Xalapa | Veracruz | 0.55 million | East |
| 28 | Oaxaca | Oaxaca | 0.50 million | South |
| 29 | Matamoros | Tamaulipas | 0.46 million | Northeast |
| 30 | Poza Rica | Veracruz | 0.46 million | East |
[edit] Metropolitan Areas of Mexico by GDP per Capita 2000
The following list contains population as reported by CONAPO with data for the 2000 census. The National Population Council prepares information regarding the Human Development Index of all the municipalities in the country, which includes GDP per capita and is the source for this article. [2]
| Ranking | Population Rank | Metro Area | Population | GDP per Capita |
| 1 | 20 | Saltillo | 637,273 | 13,936 |
| 2 | 3 | Monterrey | 3,299,302 | 13,779 |
| 3 | 13 | Querétaro | 787,341 | 13,696 |
| 4 | 17 | Chihuahua | 696,495 | 13,489 |
| 5 | 8 | Juárez | 1,218,817 | 12,970 |
| 6 | 1 | Valle de México | 18,396,677 | 11,306 |
| 7 | 16 | Aguascalientes | 707,516 | 10,905 |
| 8 | 9 | La Laguna | 1,007,291 | 10,120 |
| 9 | 10 | San Luis Potosí | 850,828 | 9,606 |
| 10 | 6 | Tijuana | 1,274,240 | 9,590 |
| 11 | 4 | Puebla | 1,888,891 | 9,544 |
| 12 | 5 | Toluca | 1,451,801 | 9,383 |
| 13 | 11 | Mérida | 803,920 | 9,344 |
| 14 | 19 | Veracruz | 642,680 | 9,198 |
| 15 | 2 | Guadalajara | 3,699,136 | 8,849 |
| 16 | 15 | Cuernavaca | 738,326 | 8,150 |
| 17 | 14 | Tampico | 746,417 | 8,128 |
| 18 | 21 | Villahermosa | 600,580 | 7,976 |
| 19 | 12 | Acapulco | 791,558 | 7,759 |
| 20 | 7 | León | 1,269,179 | 7,550 |
| 21 | 18 | Morelia | 659,940 | 7,477 |

