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Greater Mexico City refers to the
conurbation A conurbation is a region comprising a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most cas ...
around
Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
, officially called Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico ( es, Zona metropolitana del Valle de México). It encompasses Mexico City itself and 60 adjacent
municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...
of the
State of Mexico The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is ...
and Hidalgo. Mexico City's metropolitan area is the economic, political, and cultural hub of Mexico. In recent years it has reduced its relative importance in domestic manufacturing, but has kept its dominant role in the country’s economy thanks to an expansion of its tertiary activities. The area is also one of the powerhouse regions of Latin America, generating approximately $200 billion in GDP growth or 10 percent of the regional total. , 21,804,515 people lived in Greater Mexico City, making it the largest metropolitan area in North America. Covering an area of , it is surrounded by thin strips of highlands separating it from other adjacent metropolitan areas, together with which it makes up the Mexico City megalopolis.


Definition

The phenomenon of
conurbation A conurbation is a region comprising a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most cas ...
in Mexico is relatively recent, starting in the 1940s. Mexico City became the first metropolitan area in the country when its urban core spread beyond the borders of the Federal District into the municipality of
Naucalpan Naucalpan, officially Naucalpan de Juárez, is one of 125 municipalities located just northwest of Mexico City in the adjoining State of Mexico. The municipal seat is the city of Naucalpan de Juárez, which extends into the neighboring municipa ...
in the
State of Mexico The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is ...
. From that date, there have been different proposals to establish the limits of the growing conurbation of Mexico City, and different definitions were used unofficially as the city continued to grow: between 1950 and 1980, the conurbation extended to dozens of municipalities in the State of Mexico and the population trebled. The first official definition of Greater Mexico City was coined in 2004. A joint effort between the National Population Council (CONAPO), the
National Institute of Statistics and Geography The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI by its name in es, Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática) is an autonomous agency of the Mexican Government dedicated to coordinate the National System of Stat ...
(INEGI) and the Ministry of Social Development (SEDESOL) named the 16
boroughs of Mexico City Mexico City is one of the 32 federal entities of Mexico, the others being the 31 states. It was named (Federal District) up to February 5, 2016, when it was officially renamed the . According to the 2020 Mexican Census, it is the second most ...
and 59 municipalities in the State of Mexico and Hidalgo as the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico. This definition was also agreed by the government of Mexico City and the government of the
State of Mexico The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is ...
on December 22, 2005. As per the agreement, most urban planning projects were to be administered by Metropolitan Commissions. As a result of the Political Reforms enacted in 2016, Mexico City is no longer designated as a Federal District and became a city, a member entity of the Mexican federation, seat of the Powers of the Union and the capital of Mexico. Mexico City is divided in 16 boroughs, officially called ''demarcaciones territoriales'', substituting the old ''delegaciones''.


Subdivisions

According to the latest definition by the National Population Council (CONAPO) in 2018, the Metropolitan area of the Valley of Mexico is formed by the following subdivisions:


Mexico City


Hidalgo


State of Mexico


Geography and environment

Greater Mexico City spreads over the
valley of Mexico The Valley of Mexico ( es, Valle de México) is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with present-day Mexico City and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico w ...
, also called the valley of Anáhuac, a 9,560 km2 (3,691 sq mi) valley that lies at an average of 2,240 m (7,349 ft) above sea level. Originally, a system of interconnected lakes occupied a large area of the valley, of which Lake Texcoco was the largest. Mexico City was built on the island of Tenochtitlan in the middle of the lake. During conquest of the Aztec Empire the dikes that protected the city from recurrent floods were destroyed and colonial authorities preferred to drain the water of the lake, which was, for the most part, shallow. In 1900 president
Porfirio Díaz José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori ( or ; ; 15 September 1830 – 2 July 1915), known as Porfirio Díaz, was a Mexican general and politician who served seven terms as President of Mexico, a total of 31 years, from 28 November 1876 to 6 Decem ...
inaugurated the Valley's System of Drainage that hinders the growth of water bodies in the valley (and prevents floods). The basin of the valley of Mexico was thus integrated artificially to the Moctezuma river basin which connects to the
Pánuco River The Pánuco River ( es, Río Pánuco, ), also known as the ''Río de Canoas'', is a river in Mexico fed by several tributaries including the Moctezuma River and emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. The river is approximately long and passes throu ...
. The last remnants of the system of lakes are found in the boroughs of Xochimilco and Tláhuac, and in the municipality of
Atenco San Salvador Atenco is the municipal seat of Atenco, in the Mexican state of Mexico. The name "Atenco" comes from a Nahuatl phrase meaning "place on the edge of water". The town Fifteen excavations have been done in this area, uncovering mammot ...
. The valley of Mexico is surrounded by mountains on all four sides creating a basin with only one small opening at the north, trapping all exhaust emissions of the city. At the southern part of the basin the mountain range reaches an altitude of 3,952 m (12,965 ft) above sea level; and to the east, the volcanoes reach an altitude of more than 5,000 m (16,000 ft). The region receives anti-cyclonic systems, producing weak winds that do not allow for the dispersion of accumulated air pollutants, produced by the 50,000 industries operating in Greater Mexico City and the 4 million vehicles circulating in its roads and highways. There are several environmental programs in operation in all municipalities of Greater Mexico City. One of them is
Hoy No Circula Hoy No Circula (literally in Spanish: "today our cardoes not circulate", known as No-drive days) is the name of an environmental program intended to improve the air quality of Mexico City. A similar coordinated program operates within the State ...
(known in English as "One Day without a Car"), whereby some vehicles with certain ending numbers on their license plates are not allowed to circulate on certain days in an attempt to cut down on pollution and traffic congestion. The program groups vehicles by their ending license plate digits and every weekday vehicles having any of the day's two ''Hoy no circula'' digits are banned from circulating. For instance, on Fridays, vehicles with plates ending in 9 or 0 may not drive. This program is controversial since it has resulted in households buying additional vehicles: new cars for higher-income families, or very old and cheap —and thus more polluting— vehicles. Moreover, newer vehicles are exempt from complying with the program—in that they are manufactured with stricter pollution-reduction equipment—a move said to have been pushed by automakers to boost sales of new vehicles. Other environmental programs include the IMECA (''Índice Metropolitano de la Calidad del Aire'', "Metropolitan Index of Air Quality") a real-time monitoring of the concentrations of several pollutants on the atmosphere of the valley of Mexico. If the IMECA values reach a critical level, an environmental contingency is declared whereby ''Hoy No Circula'' is extended to two days per week, industrial activities are reduced, certain gas power plants shut down, and elementary school entry hours are changed. There has been a decrease in the number of environmental contingencies since the 1990s from more than 5 to only one or zero a year. This is due, among other reasons, to the development of one of the most developed air quality surveillance systems in the region, and to the implementation of industrial controls and to the relocation of some factories.


Political administration

Like it is the case with all trans-municipal metropolitan areas in Mexico, there is no elected government institution in charge of administering the entire metropolitan area. Each municipality is autonomous to administer its local affairs, regulated by the government of the states they belong to. However, unlike some other large metropolitan areas that are entirely contained in one state, like
Greater Guadalajara The Guadalajara metropolitan area (officially, in es, Zona Metropolitana de Guadalajara) is the most populous metropolitan area of the Mexican state of Jalisco and the third largest in the country after Greater Mexico City and Monterrey Mon ...
and Greater Monterrey in which the state government coordinates metropolitan activities, Greater Mexico City spreads over three federal entities—two states and the Federal District—and therefore most of the metropolitan projects have to be agreed upon by government officials of each federal entity and/or overseen by the federal government—since the budget of the Federal District is approved by the
Congress of the Union The Congress of the Union ( es, Congreso de la Unión, ), formally known as the General Congress of the United Mexican States (''Congreso General de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos''), is the legislature of the federal government of Mexico con ...
, being the capital of the federation—or through metropolitan commissions.


Economy

From 1940 and until 1980, Greater Mexico City experienced an intense rate of demographic growth concurrent with the economic policy of import substitution. Mexican industrial production was heavily centralized in Greater Mexico City during this period which produced intense immigration to the city. Close to 52% of the economically active population of Greater Mexico City worked in the industry sector in 1970.Expansión y Reconversión Económica de la Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México, Una Mirada de 1970 a 2000
by Rodolfo Montaño Salazar, UNAM
This situation changed drastically during the period of 1980 to 2000, in which the economic based shifted to the service sector which in 2000 employed close to 70% of the economically active population in the conurbation. The annual rate of growth decreased sharply as well as the regional and national patterns of immigration: residents are moving out of the core city to the suburbs or to nearby cities, whereas the northern states now receive a larger number of immigrants as new hubs of industrial production. Greater Mexico City's main industries are now related to trade, financial services, insurance companies, telecommunications, informatics and transportation. In spite of the recent shifts in economic production and the decentralization of the economic activity promoted by the government, Greater Mexico City's share of total economic activity in the country is still high, though decreasing. Mexico City proper alone produces $170 billion or 17% of the nation's
Gross Domestic Product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is of ...
, larger than any of the states.Producto Interno Bruto por entidad federativa
, INEGI


Demographics

Greater Mexico City is the largest metropolitan area in Mexico and the area with the highest population density. According to the 2020 Population Census, 21,804,515 persons lived in this metropolitan area, of which 9,209,944 live in Mexico City proper. Approximately 72% (12.2 million) of the State of México's population live in municipalities that are part of Greater Mexico City's conurbation. Greater Mexico City was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country until the late 1980s. Since then, and through a policy of decentralization in order to reduce the environmental pollutants of the growing conurbation, the annual rate of growth of the agglomeration has decreased, and it is among the lowest of all metropolitan areas in Mexico. The
net migration rate Net or net may refer to: Mathematics and physics * Net (mathematics), a filter-like topological generalization of a sequence * Net, a linear system of divisors of dimension 2 * Net (polyhedron), an arrangement of polygons that can be folded up ...
of Mexico City proper from 1995 to 2000, however, was negative, which implies that residents are moving to the outer suburbs of the metropolitan area, or to other states of Mexico. In addition, some inner-city suburbs in Mexico City are losing population to outer city suburbs, indicating a continual expansion of Greater Mexico City.


Human development index

The Mexico City boroughs are among the subdivisions with the highest human development in Mexico. Benito Juárez has the highest index (0.944), similar to Australia or Netherlands, while 4 other boroughs are in the national Top 10. Most metropolitan municipalities in the State of Mexico have a high human development index.
Huixquilucan Huixquilucan Municipality is one of the municipalities in State of Mexico, Mexico. It lies adjacent to the west side of the Federal District (Distrito Federal) and is part of Greater Mexico City but independent of Mexico City itself. The name " ...
has the highest value with a 0.842 index, the highest in the whole state. Other municipalities with a high index are Coacalco, Cuautitlán Izcalli, Cuautitlán, Texcoco, Tlalnepantla de Baz and
Atizapán de Zaragoza Atizapán de Zaragoza is a municipality, in State of Mexico in Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 91.07 km². In 2010, the municipality had a total population of 489,937. At the west side of the city is the Zona Esmeralda district (t ...
. Even though some of these municipalities have some of the wealthiest neighborhoods of the metropolitan area, there is a huge contrast with peripheric low-income suburbs known as "marginal zones" or "lost cities". Some examples are the wealthy suburb of Tecamachalco next to El Molinito shanty town, both in
Naucalpan Naucalpan, officially Naucalpan de Juárez, is one of 125 municipalities located just northwest of Mexico City in the adjoining State of Mexico. The municipal seat is the city of Naucalpan de Juárez, which extends into the neighboring municipa ...
, or Chamapa next to Bosque Real Country Club in Huixquilucan. Municipalities to the east of Mexico City, such as Nezahualcóyotl, Ecatepec,
Valle de Chalco 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 o ...
or Chimalhuacán have lower indexes than those located to the west, but also present high HDI values. The bottom municipalities in terms of HDI are Ecatzingo and Villa del Carbón. However, they are located far away from Mexico City's urban area and are considered eminently rural.
Tizayuca Tizayuca is one of the 84 municipalities of Hidalgo, in central-eastern Mexico. The city of Tizayuca is the municipal seat. The population of the city is 60,265 and the municipality has 168,302 inhabitants. Geography The municipality covers an are ...
has one of the highest HDIs in Hidalgo, although the index is below Greater Mexico City's average.


Transportation


Roads

Greater Mexico City is connected through a private network of toll
expressways Expressway may refer to: * Controlled-access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane markings, etc., for high-speed traffic. *Limited-access road A limited-access road, known by various terms worldwide, including limi ...
to the nearby cities of
Querétaro Querétaro (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Querétaro, links=no; Otomi: ''Hyodi Ndämxei''), is one of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities. Its cap ...
,
Toluca Toluca , officially Toluca de Lerdo , is the state capital of the State of Mexico as well as the seat of the Municipality of Toluca. With a population of 910,608 as of the 2020 census, Toluca is the fifth most populous city in Mexico. The city ...
, Cuernavaca,
Pachuca Pachuca (; ote, Nju̱nthe), formally known as Pachuca de Soto, is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Hidalgo. It is located in the south-central part of the state. Pachuca de Soto is also the name of the municipality of wh ...
and
Puebla Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...
. Ring roads are the
Circuito Interior The Circuito Interior Bicentenario ("Bicentennial Inner Loop") or more commonly, Circuito Interior or even more simply Circuito, is a 42-km-long (26 mi) urban freeway (in parts) and at-grade boulevard (in others), forming a loop around the centra ...
(inner ring),
Anillo Periférico The Anillo Periférico (Spanish for ''peripheral ring'') is the outer beltway of Mexico City. The ''Periferico'' was originally planned by architect Carlos Contreras as early as 1925, together with other major roads such as the Viaducto Mig ...
; the Circuito Exterior Mexiquense ("State of Mexico outer loop") toll road skirting the northeastern and eastern edges of the metropolitan area, the Chamapa-La Venta toll road skirting the northwestern edge, and the Arco Norte completely bypassing the metropolitan area in an arc from west (Toluca) to north (Tula) to east (Puebla). A second level (where tolls are charged) of the Periférico, colloquially called the ''segundo piso'' ("second floor"), was officially opened in 2012, with sections still being completed. The Viaducto Miguel Alemán crosses the city east–west from Observatorio to the airport. In 2013 the
Supervía Poniente The Supervía Poniente (literally "Western Super-Way") is a tollway linking the business district of Santa Fe, Mexico City with the Anillo Periférico beltway in southwestern Mexico City. The final portion opened on June 15, 2013. From Paseo de l ...
opened, a toll road linking the new Santa Fe business district with southwestern Mexico City. Inside the city, '' ejes viales''; high-volume, mostly one-way roads, cross the city from side to side in a vast numbered system.


Public transport

The most important public transportation is the metro, one of the largest in the world with 226 km and 195 stations, that services Mexico City proper, with some service in Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl and Ecatepec. It is further extended by the Xochimilco Light Rail and the lines A and B. A commuter train, the ''
Tren Suburbano The Tren Suburbano () is an electric suburban rail system in Mexico City. It is operated by Ferrocarriles Suburbanos with concessioned trains from Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF). It was designed to complement the extensive M ...
'', serve several municipalities of the metropolitan area since it started operating by mid-2007, with new lines planned. Bus and trolleybus transportation is provided by multiple agencies.
Bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...
(BRT) services operate since 2005 Metrobús in Mexico City and since 2010 Mexibús in the State of Mexico.


Air

Greater Mexico City hosts
Mexico City International Airport Mexico City International Airport ( es, link=yes, Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México, AICM); officially ''Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez'' (Benito Juárez International Airport) is the main international airport serving ...
, the busiest airport in Latin America. The first stage of Felipe Ángeles International Airport opened March 21, 2022. Further construction is underway, e.g. the rail connection with the
Tren Suburbano The Tren Suburbano () is an electric suburban rail system in Mexico City. It is operated by Ferrocarriles Suburbanos with concessioned trains from Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF). It was designed to complement the extensive M ...
. As of 2022, Toluca International Airport has lost a lot of traffic. For the affluent western
Santa Fe District Santa Fe is a district (''distrito'') of Veraguas Province in Panama. The population according to the 2000 census was 12,890; the latest official estimate (for 2019) is 17,341.Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo, Panama. The district, whi ...
, the Toluca airport is the closest. The Toluca–Mexico City commuter rail would shorten transit times between Toluca and Santa Fe. It is slated for opening in 2023. General aviation airports include
Cuernavaca Airport General Mariano Matamoros Airport , also known as Cuernavaca Airport, is an airport located in Temixco, Morelos, Mexico, near Cuernavaca. It handles only national air traffic for the city of Cuernavaca. It is part of the Mexico City Metropolitan ...
and Ingeniero Juan Guillermo Villasana National Airport in Pachuca. The Pachuca airport also hosts an aviation school. Cuernavaca is about 90 minutes by road from the southern
Coyoacán Coyoacán ( , ) is a borough (''demarcación territorial'') in Mexico City. The former village is now the borough's "historic center". The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means "place of coyotes", when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispani ...
district.
Pachuca Pachuca (; ote, Nju̱nthe), formally known as Pachuca de Soto, is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Hidalgo. It is located in the south-central part of the state. Pachuca de Soto is also the name of the municipality of wh ...
is about 90 minutes by road from the northern Villa de Guadalupe district.


Landmarks

Important landmarks of Greater Mexico City include the Historic Center of Mexico City, the floating gardens of Xochimilco, the Pre-Hispanic city ruins
Teotihuacan Teotihuacan ( Spanish: ''Teotihuacán'') (; ) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is known today as ...
, located at the municipality of the same name, all three declared World Heritage sites by
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
in 1987. The National Parks at the southern portion of the Federal District (over the mountainous range of
Ajusco Ajusco is a lava dome volcano located just south of Mexico City, Mexico, in the Tlalpan borough of the city. It is the highest point in the city. Etymology Ajusco is a Náhuatl word variously translated as "source of waters" or "watered grov ...
), the Parks of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl and the National Reserve of Lake Texcoco are some environmental landmarks of the valley as well.


See also

* Mexico City megalopolis *
Metropolitan areas of Mexico The metropolitan areas of Mexico have been traditionally defined as the group of municipalities that heavily interact with each other, usually around a core city. The phenomenon of metropolization in Mexico is relatively recent, starting in the 19 ...
* List of metropolitan areas by population * List of metropolitan areas in the Americas by population * List of urban agglomerations by population *
List of cities in Mexico This is a list of the Top 100 cities in Mexico by fixed population, according to the 2020 Mexican National Census. According to Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), a locality is "any place settled with one or more ...
* Demographics of Mexico


References


External links


Escenarios Demográficos y Urbanos de la Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México
published by the Consejo Nacional de Población (CONAPO). {{Coord, 19, 25, 57.07, N, 99, 7, 59.37, W, region:MX, display=title * .
Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
Geography of Mexico City Geography of the State of Mexico Geography of Hidalgo (state) Geography of Puebla Geography of Tlaxcala Mexican Plateau Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt