This is a list of the Top 100 cities in Mexico by fixed population, according to the 2020 Mexican National Census. [1]
According to Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), a locality is "any place settled with one or more dwellings, which may or may not be inhabited, and which is known by a name given by law or tradition". [2] Urban localities are those with more than 2,500 residents, which can be designated as cities, villages or towns according to the laws of each state. The National Urban System, compiled by the National Population Council (CONAPO) in 2018, identifies 401 urban localities in Mexico with more than 15,000 residents as "cities". [3] Mexican localities are contained within the higher-level administrative division of municipalities.
This list does not consider the entire population of metropolitan areas and is limited by political boundaries within each municipality or state. Popular notions of city population are not based on official city boundaries, but on metropolitan areas. For population data reflecting common usage, see Metropolitan areas of Mexico.
Only one state (Tlaxcala) has no cities in the Top 100. Mexico City contains all of the federal entity's area, including rural areas with relatively small populations. All of the map links are of the same scale.
State capital | |
State largest city | |
State capital and largest city | |
Federal capital |
‡ These cities extend beyond the borders of a single municipality.
For the Top 100 cities, the following distributions hold as of the 2020 Census.
The total population is 57,930,969, 45.97% of Mexico's total.
The mean city population is 579,310. The median city in population is Villahermosa.
The mean city growth from 2010 to 2020 is 20.77%, compared to a national growth of 12.17%. [1] The median city in population growth is Ixtapaluca.
Population | Number of cities |
---|---|
1,000,000+ | 10 |
500,000–999,999 | 26 |
250,000–499,999 | 32 |
100,000–249,999 | 32 |
Total | 100 |
State | Number of listed cities |
---|---|
State of Mexico | 17 |
Nuevo León | 8 |
Tamaulipas | 7 |
Coahuila, Jalisco, Veracruz | 5 |
Guanajuato, Sonora | 4 |
Baja California, Chiapas, Colima, Michoacán, Morelos, Quintana Roo. Sinaloa | 3 |
Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chihuahua, Durango, Guerrero, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí | 2 |
Aguascalientes, Hidalgo, Mexico City, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Yucatán, Zacatecas | 1 |
Tlaxcala | 0 |
With a population of about 129 million in 2022, Mexico is the 10th most populated country in the world. It is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world and the third-most populous country in the Americas after the United States and Brazil.
A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which are sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metropolitan area usually comprises multiple principal cities, jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships, boroughs, cities, towns, exurbs, suburbs, counties, districts and even states and nations in areas like the eurodistricts. As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions.
Guerrero is a state in Southwest Mexico that is divided into 85 municipalities. According to the 2020 Mexican census, Guerrero is the 13th most populous state with 3,540,685 inhabitants and the 14th largest by land area spanning 63,803.42 square kilometres (24,634.64 sq mi).
An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. This is the core of a metropolitan statistical area in the United States, if it contains a population of more than 50,000.
Greater Mexico City is the conurbation around Mexico City, officially called the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico. It encompasses Mexico City itself and 60 adjacent municipalities of the State of Mexico and Hidalgo.
General Escobedo, or simply Escobedo, is a city and municipality in Nuevo León, Mexico that is part of the Monterrey Metropolitan area. As of the census of 2005, the population was 295,131 in the city and 299,364 in the municipality. The municipality has an area of around 149 km² and shares borders to the south with San Nicolás de los Garza, Monterrey and Santa Catarina; to the north with Hidalgo and El Carmen; to the east with Apodaca and Salinas Victoria; and to the west with García. Escobedo is also the home of the Mexican Army's 7th Military Zone Army Base.
Mexicali Municipality is a municipality in the Mexican state of Baja California. Its municipal seat is located in the city of Mexicali. As of 2020, the municipality had a total population of 1,049,792. The municipality has an area of 13,700 km2 (5,300 sq mi). This includes many smaller outlying communities as well as the city of Mexicali. Also, the islands of Baja California located in the Gulf of California are part of the municipality, among them the mudflat islands at the mouth of the Colorado River, Isla Ángel de la Guarda and the islands of the San Lorenzo Marine Archipelago National Park. Mexicali is the northernmost municipality of Latin America.
Tecate is a municipality in the Mexican state of Baja California. Its municipal seat is located in the city of Tecate. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 108,440 inhabitants. The municipality has an area of 3,079.0 km².
Playas de Rosarito Municipality is located in the northwestern part of the Mexican state of Baja California comprising part of the Tijuana metropolitan area. It lies just south of the city of Tijuana. Its municipal seat is the city of Rosarito. According to the 2020 census, the municipality had a population of 126,890 inhabitants. Its area is 513.32 km2.
Valle de Chalco, officially named Valle de Chalco Solidaridad, is a municipality located in the State of Mexico, Mexico, on the eastern outskirts of the metropolitan area of Mexico City. Formerly part of the municipality of Chalco, it was split off as a separate entity in 1994, during the presidency of Salinas de Gortari, under his Programa Nacional de Solidaridad. The municipality lies on the old bed of Lake Chalco, which was substantially drained in the nineteenth century. Technically, the municipal seat is Xico, after a high point of land that once formed an island, and now remains as a small hill within an otherwise monotonous, urban expanse. "Chalco" refers to the Chalca tribe, whose territory covered the area around the lake, prior to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.
Metropolitan areas of Mexico have been traditionally defined as the group of municipalities that heavily interact with each other, usually around a core city, in Mexico. The phenomenon of metropolization in Mexico is relatively recent, starting in the 1940s. Because of an accelerated level of urbanization in the country, the definition of a metropolitan area is reviewed periodically by the Mexican population and census authorities.
Miramar is a city near the southeastern tip of the state of Tamaulipas in Mexico. It is the largest city in the municipality of Altamira and third largest of the Tampico Metropolitan Area. It has 161,820 inhabitants according to the official 2020 INEGI count, making it the largest locality in the municipality. It is the seventh-largest community in the state, having passed Río Bravo since the previous census.
Pabellón de Arteaga is municipality in the Mexican state of Aguascalientes. It stands at 22°09′N102°16′W in the central part of the state. The city of Pabellón de Arteaga serves as its municipal seat. The municipality had a population of 41,862 and an area of 199.33 km². Its largest other town is named Emiliano Zapata.
The Mexico City megalopolis, also known as the Megalopolis of Central Mexico, is a megalopolis containing Greater Mexico City and surrounding metropolitan areas.
Calpulalpan officially as Heroic City of Calpulalpan, is a Mexican city, head and main urban center of the homonymous municipality, located to the west of the Mexican state of Tlaxcala. With 33 263 inhabitants in 2010 according to the population and housing census conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), is the sixth most populous city in the state. It has an estimated population of 37,752 inhabitants for 2017, according to the National Population Council (CONAPO).
The Pachuca metropolitan area is a metropolitan area located in the state of Hidalgo in Mexico. It consists of the municipalities of Pachuca, Mineral del Monte, Mineral de la Reforma, San Agustín Tlaxiaca, Epazoyucan, Zapotlán de Juárez and Zempoala.
Morelos is a semi-urban municipality in the Zacatecas metropolitan area in the Mexican state of Zacatecas.
Susticacán is a municipality in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, located approximately 55 kilometres (34 mi) west of Zacatecas City, the state capital.