Editing Demographics of Mexico (section)

==Cities and metropolitan areas==
===Settlements, cities and municipalities===
{{main|List of cities in Mexico}}
{{see also|Municipalities of Mexico}}
[[File:Palacio de Gobierno y Plaza de Armas.JPG|200px|thumb|right]]
{| style="width: 22em; font-size: 85%; text-align: left;" class="wikitable floatright"
|+Most populated municipalities
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center" | ''Municipality of Guadalajara''
|-
! style="background:#e8e8e8;" | Municipality
! style="background:#e8e8e8;" | Pop. (2020)<ref name="census2020" />
|-
| style="background:#efefef;" | [[Mexico City]]
| style="background:#efefef;" align=right | 9,209,944
|-
| [[Tijuana (municipality)|Tijuana]]
| align=right | 1,922,523
|-
| style="background:#efefef;" | [[León, Guanajuato|León]]
| style="background:#efefef;" align=right | 1,721,215
|-
| [[Puebla (municipality)|Puebla]]
| align=right |1,692,181
|-
| style="background:#efefef;" | [[Ecatepec de Morelos|Ecatepec]]
| style="background:#efefef;" align=right |  1,645,352 
|-
| [[Juárez Municipality, Chihuahua|Juárez]]
| align=right |  1,512,450 
|}
In 2010, Mexico had more than 189,432 ''localidades'' (lit. "localities" or "settlements"), which are census-designated places defined as a small town, a large city, or simply as a single unit housing in a rural area whether situated remotely or close to an urban area.<ref name=estudio>[https://centrodeestudios.ift.org.mx/admin/files/estudios/1705017510.pdf "Proyecto para dotar de conectividad a una región marginada en México"] page 4, retrieved on September 7, 2024.</ref> Localities with more than 2,500 inhabitants are considered urban settlements whereas thos with less than 2500 inhabitants are considered rural settlements. In 2010 there were 3,021 cities with a population between 2,500 and 15,000 inhabitants, 413 with a population between 15,000 and 50,000 inhabitants, 86 with a population between 50,000 and 100,000, 95 with a population between 100,000 and 500,000, 25 with a population between 500,000 and one million and 11 with a population of more than one million. Urban areas contain 76.81% of Mexico's total population and rural settlements contain 23% of the population.<ref name=programa>[https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/643102/PNOTDU_VERSION_FINAL_28.05.2021-comprimido.pdf "Programa Nacional de Ordenamiento Territorial y Urbano"] page 27, retrieved in August 28, 2024.</ref>

[[Municipalities of Mexico|Municipalities]] (''municipios'' in Spanish) and [[boroughs of the Mexican Federal District|boroughs]] (''delegaciones'' in Spanish) are incorporated places in Mexico, that is, second or third-level political divisions with internal autonomy, legally prescribed limits, powers and functions. In terms of second-level political divisions there are 2,477 municipalities, including 16 semi-autonomous boroughs all within Mexico city.<ref name=Cifras>[https://www.inegi.org.mx/app/areasgeograficas/ "Mexico en cifras"] INEGI, retrieved in September 1, 2024.</ref> A municipality can be constituted by one or more cities one of which is the ''cabecera municipal'' (municipal seat). Cities are usually contained within the limits of a single municipality, with a few exceptions in which small areas of one city may extend to other adjacent municipalities ''without'' incorporating the city which serves as the municipal seat of the adjacent municipality. Some municipalities or cities within municipalities are further divided into ''delegaciones'' or boroughs. However, unlike the boroughs of the Federal District, these are third-level administrative divisions; they have very limited autonomy and no elective representatives.

Municipalities in central Mexico are usually very small in area and thus coextensive with cities (as is the case of Guadalajara, Puebla and León), whereas municipalities in northern and southeastern Mexico are much larger and usually contain more than one city or town that may not necessarily conform a single urban agglomeration (as is the case of Tijuana).

===Metropolitan areas===
{{Main|Metropolitan areas of Mexico}}
[[File:En_Ajuchitlan_del_Progreso_01.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Mexican woman from [[Ajuchitlán del Progreso (municipality)|Ajuchitlán del Progreso]], a [[Nahua]] area, (2021).]]
A metropolitan area in Mexico is defined as a group of municipalities that heavily interact with each other, usually around a core city.<ref name="CONAPO">[http://www.inegi.gob.mx/est/contenidos/espanol/metodologias/otras/zonas_met.pdf CONAPO Áreas Metropolitanas] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501065908/http://www.inegi.gob.mx/est/contenidos/espanol/metodologias/otras/zonas_met.pdf |date=May 1, 2011 }}</ref> In 2004, a joint effort between CONAPO, [[Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía|INEGI]] and the Ministry of Social Development (SEDESOL) agreed to define metropolitan areas as either:<ref name="CONAPO"/>
* a group of two or more municipalities in which a city with a population of at least 50,000 is located whose urban area extends over the limit of the municipality that originally contained the core city incorporating either physically or under its area of direct influence other adjacent predominantly urban municipalities all of which have a high degree of social and economic integration or are relevant for urban politics and administration; or
* a single municipality in which a city of a population of at least one million is located and fully contained, (that is, it does not transcend the limits of a single municipality); or
* a city with a population of at least 250,000 which forms a conurbation with other cities in the United States of America.

In 2020 there were 48 metropolitan areas in Mexico, in which close to 53% of the country's population lives.<ref name=metro>[https://www.gob.mx/sedatu/documentos/metropolis-de-mexico-2020%3Fstate%3Dpublished "Metropolis de México 2020"] Retrieved September 7, 2024.</ref> The most populous metropolitan area in Mexico is the ''Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico'', or [[Greater Mexico City]], which in 2020 had a population of 21.8&nbsp;million, or around 18% of the nation's population. The next four largest metropolitan areas in Mexico are [[Monterrey Metropolitan area|Greater Monterrey]] (5.3&nbsp;million), [[Guadalajara Metropolitan Area|Greater Guadalajara]] (5.2&nbsp;million), [[Metropolitan area of Puebla|Greater Puebla]] (3.2&nbsp;million) and [[Greater Toluca]] (2.3&nbsp;million),<ref name="census2020" /> whose added population, along with Greater Mexico City, is equivalent to nearly 30% of the nation's population. Greater Mexico City was the fastest growing metropolitan area in the country since the 1930s until the late 1980s. Since then, the country has slowly become economically and demographically less centralized. From 2000 to 2005 the average annual growth rate of Greater Mexico City was the lowest of the five largest metropolitan areas, whereas the fastest growing metropolitan area was Puebla (2.0%) followed by Monterrey (1.9%), Toluca (1.8%) and Guadalajara (1.8%).<ref name="sintesis">{{cite web|url=http://www.inegi.gob.mx/img/ppt.gif|title=Síntesis de resultados 2005|website=Inegi.org.mx|access-date=August 29, 2017|archive-date=March 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303215818/http://www.inegi.gob.mx/img/ppt.gif|url-status=live}}</ref>
{{Largest metropolitan areas of Mexico|class=info}}
{{anchor|Ethnography}}