Greater Mexico City - Demographics

Demographics

Greater Mexico City is the largest metropolitan area in Mexico and the area with the highest population density. As of 2009, 21,163,226 persons live in this urban agglomeration, of which 8,841,916 live in Mexico City proper. In terms of population, the biggest municipalities that are part of Greater Mexico City (excluding Mexico City proper) are:

• Ecatepec de Morelos (pop. 1,658,904).
• Nezahualcóyotl (pop. 1,109,363).
• Naucalpan (pop. 833,782).
• Tlalnepantla de Baz (pop. 664,160).
• Chimalhuacán (pop. 602,079).
• Ixtapaluca (pop. 467,630).
• Cuautitlán Izcalli (pop. 532,973).
• Atizapan de Zaragoza (pop. 489,775)

The above municipalities are located in the state of Mexico; in fact, approximately 75% (10 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 lower than that of the other four largest metropolitan areas (namely Greater Guadalajara, Greater Monterrey, Greater Puebla and Greater Toluca) even though it is still positive. The net migration rate of Mexico City proper from 1995 to 2000, however, was negative, which implies that residents are moving to the suburbs of the metropolitan area, or to other states of Mexico. In addition, some inner city suburbs are losing population to outer city suburbs, indicating continual expansion of Greater Mexico City.