Localities of Mexico

Localities (Spanish: Localidades) are the basic level of administrative divisions of Mexico that correspond to distinct settlements. In the Mexican administrative hierarchy, localities are under the municipalities and boroughs. As of December 2024, there are in total 296,814 localities under the 2,478 municipalities in Mexico.[1]

## Administration

[edit]

Main article: Settlement classification in Mexico

The Constitution of Mexico has defined Mexico a federal republic of 32 federative entities (31 states and Mexico City), it also outlines that the federative entities to be divided into municipalities (Spanish: municipios) and boroughs (Spanish: demarcaciones territoriales). The divisions of municipalities and boroughs are regulated solely by constitutions and laws of the respective federative entities.

Among the states, settlement classification schemes vary. Common types of localities include:

* City (Spanish: Ciudad) — for more populous places,
* Town (Spanish: Villa) — for middle populous places, and
* Village (Spanish: Pueblo or Poblado) — for less populous places.

Other classifications include ranchería, congregación (población), or ejido.

Mexico City further divides its boroughs into neighborhoods (Spanish: colonias).

The federal government has established the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Spanish: Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, INEGI) to maintain the statistics and encoding of the administrative divisions across the country. The INEGI uses the term localities (Spanish: localidades) to collectively refer to these types of division. The INEGI's definition of localities is: "All places with one or more dwellings, who may be inhabited or not, and can be classed as urban or rural."[2]

## Statistics

[edit]

According to INEGI's data, there are in total 296,814 localities under the 2,478 municipalities in Mexico as of December 2024. [3]

Federative entity | Municipalities
and boroughs | Localities

|
|

Code | Name | Urban | Rural | Total
01 |  Aguascalientes | 11  | 40 | 2,962 | 3,002
02 |  Baja California | 7  | 44 | 7,703 | 7,747
03 |  Baja California Sur | 5  | 16 | 4,148 | 4,164
04 |  Campeche | 13  | 33 | 4,981 | 5,014
05 |  Coahuila | 38  | 59 | 10,308 | 1,0367
06 |  Colima | 10  | 21 | 2,885 | 2,906
07 |  Chiapas | 124  | 206 | 27,372 | 27,578
08 |  Chihuahua | 67  | 89 | 23,327 | 23,416
09 |  Mexico City | 16  | 33 | 687 | 720
10 |  Durango | 39  | 61 | 9,961 | 10,022
11 |  Guanajuato | 46  | 175 | 10,947 | 11,122
12 |  Guerrero | 85  | 151 | 9,195 | 9,346
13 |  Hidalgo | 84  | 263 | 5,028 | 5,291
14 |  Jalisco | 125  | 285 | 18,911 | 19,196
15 |  México | 125  | 571 | 4,584 | 5,155
16 |  Michoacán | 113  | 229 | 10,895 | 11,124
17 |  Morelos | 36  | 95 | 1,763 | 1,858
18 |  Nayarit | 20  | 55 | 4,743 | 4,798
19 |  Nuevo León | 51  | 104 | 10,702 | 10,806
20 |  Oaxaca | 570  | 612 | 12,520 | 13,132
21 |  Puebla | 217  | 433 | 7,389 | 7,822
22 |  Querétaro | 18  | 113 | 2,703 | 2,816
23 |  Quintana Roo | 11  | 28 | 4,247 | 4,275
24 |  San Luis Potosí | 59  | 83 | 8,823 | 8,906
25 |  Sinaloa | 20  | 88 | 8,740 | 8,828
26 |  Sonora | 72  | 104 | 16,250 | 16,354
27 |  Tabasco | 17  | 104 | 2,598 | 2,702
28 |  Tamaulipas | 43  | 63 | 13,920 | 13,983
29 |  Tlaxcala | 60  | 137 | 1,610 | 1,747
30 |  Veracruz | 212  | 390 | 26,193 | 26,583
31 |  Yucatán | 106  | 133 | 9,757 | 9,890
32 |  Zacatecas | 58  | 86 | 6,058 | 6,144
Total | 2,478 | 4,904 | 291,910 | 296,814

## City

[edit]

Main article: List of cities in Mexico

Cities (Spanish: Ciudades) are usually the most populous localities within the state. Each city elects its own city mayor (Spanish: alcalde de la ciudad). Note that the term city mayor should not be confused with municipal president (Spanish: presidente municipal), leader of a municipality, the city's upper-level division.

Some larger cities are consolidated with its own municipality and form a single level of governance. Some of these cities are further divided into boroughs (Spanish: delegaciones) or neighborhoods (Spanish: colonias) in locality level.

## See also

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* Administrative divisions of Mexico
* Settlement classification in Mexico

## Refs

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1. ^ Catálogo Único de Claves de Áreas Geoestadísticas Estatales, Municipales y Localidades
2. ^ Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía. "Manual de cartografía geoestadística" (PDF). Retrieved 15 November 2015.
3. ^ Catálogo Único de Claves de Áreas Geoestadísticas Estatales, Municipales y Localidades