ABSTRACT
This chapter elucidates the macrodynamics and patterns that characterise Mexico’s metropolitan areas by focusing on their territorial and demographic shifts. By reviewing the origins of urban expansion and metropolisation process in Mexico and the key features of its metropolitan areas, the chapter gives a clear picture of how the Mexican case relates to other countries’ processes and politics driving suburbanisation, urban sprawl and metropolisation. Problematic urban planning, illegality, irregularity, speculative land and housing markets and local and national politics are common elements in Latin America’s urban expansion. However, a specific land tenure regime has contributed to the particular shape and size of Mexican cities. In 2015, 74 metropolitan areas were identified in Mexico, with a total of 75 million inhabitants, representing 63 per cent of the country’s total population. A significant concentration of Mexico’s population lives in Mexico City and the ‘millionaire’ metropolitan areas. Important urban growth has occurred in medium-sized metropolises, and new patterns of migration indicate that inter-metropolitan flows have increased. Yet substantial asymmetries across metropolitan areas persist, and the rank-size rule is confirmed, indicating a significant primacy in the urban system.
