Cities and municipios of Mexico

Acapulco

Acapulco (Acapulco de Juárez) is a Pacific resort city and port in Guerrero, Mexico, famed for its bay, La Quebrada cliff divers, and the Manila galleon route; devastated by Category 5 Hurricane Otis in 2023 and rebuilding through the Acapulco se Transforma Contigo program.

Cabo San Lucas

Cabo San Lucas (Yenekamú to the Pericú) is a resort city at Baja California Sur's southern tip, Mexico. Renamed by Bolaños in 1541, a tuna cannery town from 1925, now a Los Cabos tourism hub.

Cancún

Cancún is a resort city on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Quintana Roo, Mexico, built by the government as a tourist destination starting in 1970.

Celaya

Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico; founded 1 January 1571 as Nuestra Señora de la Concepción de Zalaya by order of Viceroy Martín Enríquez de Almanza; Bajío city of about 511,000, known for colonial history and cartel violence.

Oct 22, 2026

Champoton

Champoton (Chakán Putum in Maya) is a town on the Gulf coast of Campeche, Mexico, where Maya forces defeated the first Spanish expedition to Yucatán in 1517.

Chicoloapan

Chicoloapan (San Vicente Chicoloapan) is a municipality in the State of Mexico east of Mexico City, seat Chicoloapan de Juárez; 53.91 km2, 200,750 people (2020), Epiclassic settlement, municipality since 1822 or 1825.

Chihuahua City

Chihuahua City, capital of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, founded 1709 as San Francisco de Cuéllar; a manufacturing and aerospace hub with about 925,000 people, a 14.7 billion dollar GDP, and water supplied from the overexploited Chihuahua-Sacramento aquifer.

Chilpancingo

Chilpancingo de los Bravo, capital of Guerrero state, Mexico; site of the 1813 Congress of Anáhuac. State capital since 1871, about 170,000 municipal residents, low prosperity and security rankings.

Ciudad Apodaca

Ciudad Apodaca, a city and municipality in Nuevo León, Mexico, on the eastern edge of the Monterrey metropolitan area. Named for Bishop Salvador de Apodaca y Loreto; founded as a villa in 1851, a city in 1982; 656,464 residents in 2020; industrial capital of Nuevo León.

Ciudad Benito Juárez

Ciudad Benito Juárez is the municipal seat of Juárez municipality, Nuevo León, in the Monterrey metropolitan area. Villa from 1868, city since 1988 (Decreto 171); 308,285 inhabitants in 2020.

Ciudad del Carmen

Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche, Mexico: island city on Isla del Carmen at the Laguna de Términos, shore base for the Sonda de Campeche offshore oil fields, once a shrimping and fishing port.

Ciudad General Escobedo

Ciudad General Escobedo, seat of the municipality of General Escobedo, Nuevo León, in the Monterrey metropolitan area; named for General Mariano Escobedo; 481,213 residents in 2020, industrial corridor with six industrial parks.

Ciudad Juárez

Ciudad Juárez, formerly El Paso del Norte, is a major Chihuahua border city across from El Paso, Texas, defined by its maquiladora export industry (97% of goods to the US), border water politics, and history of violence and migration.

Ciudad Lázaro Cárdenas

Ciudad Lázaro Cárdenas is a Pacific port city in Michoacán, Mexico, on the Balsas River; 83,637 residents in 2020, Mexico's second container port (2.4 million TEU, 2024) with direct CPKC rail links.

Ciudad López Mateos

Ciudad López Mateos, formerly Ciudad Adolfo López Mateos, is the municipal seat of Atizapán de Zaragoza, State of Mexico, with 523,065 inhabitants (2020), 99.98% of the municipality, named for President Adolfo López Mateos, born there in 1910.

Ciudad Madero

Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas, Mexico: oil city founded 1921 around the Árbol Grande refinery, erected as Villa Cecilia in 1924, renamed Ciudad Madero in 1930; 209,175 inhabitants (2020), part of the Tampico conurbation.

Ciudad Obregón

Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico; formerly Ciudad Cajeme and Estación Cajeme; second-largest city of Sonora and seat of Cajeme municipality, a planned 1925 grid agro-city serving the irrigated Yaqui Valley, facing high water scarcity.

Ciudad Victoria

Ciudad Victoria, capital of Tamaulipas, Mexico; founded 1750 as Villa de Santa María de Aguayo, renamed 1825 for Guadalupe Victoria. About 332,100 residents (2020); citrus exports; second aqueduct under construction.

Coacalco

Coacalco de Berriozábal, a municipality in the State of Mexico within the Mexico City metropolitan area; seat San Francisco Coacalco; 293,444 inhabitants (2020), founded 1862, name means House of the Serpent.

Coatzacoalcos (city)

Coatzacoalcos, a city and major Gulf port in southern Veracruz, Mexico, founded as Villa del Espíritu Santo in 1522; renamed Puerto México 1900–1936; Atlantic terminus of the Interoceanic Corridor and Pemex petrochemical hub.

Córdoba, Veracruz

Córdoba, Veracruz (Heroica Córdoba de Hernández y Hernández): city and municipality in central Veracruz, Mexico, founded 1618 on the Lomas de Huilango and named for viceroy Diego Fernández de Córdoba; site of the 1821 Treaties of Córdoba recognizing Mexican independence; 204,721 inhabitants in 2020.

Cuatro Ciénegas

Cuatro Ciénegas (Cuatrociénegas) is a Ramsar wetland oasis in Coahuila's Chihuahuan Desert with 200+ spring-fed pozas, over 70 endemic species, stromatolites, gypsum dunes, and marine-affinity microbes, now threatened by aquifer depletion.

Cuautitlán, México

Cuautitlán (Romero Rubio), a municipality in northern State of Mexico within the Valley of Mexico metro area; 178,847 residents (2020), founded as a municipality 2 March 1824, distinct from Cuautitlán Izcalli.

Cuernavaca

Cuernavaca (Cuauhnahuac) is the capital of Morelos, Mexico, 85 km south of Mexico City, known as the City of Eternal Spring at about 21 degrees C; founded by the Tlahuicas, remade by Cortés, state capital since 1869.

Culiacán

Culiacán (Culiacán Rosales), capital of Sinaloa, Mexico; founded as San Miguel de Culiacán in 1531; city of three rivers with about 1 million municipal residents and Sinaloa's dominant economy, now contested by Sinaloa Cartel factions.

Ecatepec de Morelos

Ecatepec de Morelos, Estado de México municipality on former Lake Texcoco; Mexico's most populous municipality (1,645,352 in 2020), home of the colonial Albarradón dike, Mexicable cable car, and rapid irregular urbanization.

Ensenada

Ensenada (Ensenada de Todos Santos) is a port city and municipality in Baja California, Mexico, founded as territorial capital May 15, 1882. About 444,000 residents; home to the Baja peninsula's only deep-water port, Mexico's 3rd-busiest cruise port, and the Valle de Guadalupe wine region producing about 70% of Mexican wine.