Greater Buenos Aires

Not to be confused with the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the core city of Greater Buenos Aires.

Greater Buenos Aires (Spanish: Gran Buenos Aires, GBA), also known as the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (Spanish: Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires, AMBA),^[3] refers to the urban agglomeration comprising the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the adjacent 24 partidos (districts) in the Province of Buenos Aires. Thus, it does not constitute a single administrative unit. The conurbation spreads south, west and north of Buenos Aires city. To the east, the River Plate serves as a natural boundary.

Gran Buenos Aires
Greater Buenos Aires
Satellite image of Greater Buenos Aires at night
Country	Argentina
Core city	Buenos Aires
Area
• Metro	3,833 km2 (1,480 sq mi)
Population  (INDEC 2022 Census[1])	10,865,182 (24 partidos)[1]
• Metro	13,985,794 (including the Federal District and 24 partidos)[1]
• Metro density	3,926.1/km2 (10,169/sq mi)
GDP (PPP, constant 2015 values)
• Year	2023
• Total	$356.8 billion[2]
• Per capita	$23,000

Urban sprawl, especially between 1945 and 1980, created a vast metropolitan area of over 3,800 km² (1,500 mi²)^[4] - or 19 times the area of Buenos Aires proper. The 24 suburban partidos (counties) grew more than six-fold in population between the 1947 and 2022 censuses - or nearly 2.5% annually, compared to 1.4% for the nation as a whole.^[5][1]

While annual growth for the suburban area slowed to 0.8% between 2010 and 2022, the 14 million inhabitants in the entire 30-county area plus the City of Buenos Aires account for a third of the total population of Argentina and generate nearly half (48%) of the country's GDP.^[4]

History

Population pyramid of Greater Buenos Aires in 2022.

The term Gran Buenos Aires ("Greater Buenos Aires") was first officially used in 1948, when Governor of Buenos Aires Province Domingo Mercante signed a bill delineating as such an area covering 14 municipalities surrounding the City of Buenos Aires.^[6] The term is also related to other expressions that are not necessarily well-defined: the "Buenos Aires' conurbation" (Conurbano Bonaerense), the "Greater Buenos Aires Agglomeration" (Aglomerado Gran Buenos Aires), and the "Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires" (Área Metropolitana Buenos Aires, AMBA). In colloquial speech, people refer to the "Buenos Aires' conurbation" as the set of municipalities that surround the City of Buenos Aires, and which are mostly populated by working-class or middle-class communities.

Definition

Map of Greater Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires, city, and vicinities, Landsat 8 satellite image

The National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) has defined Greater Buenos Aires.^[7] There are three main groups within the Buenos Aires conurbation. The first two groups (24 partidos) comprise the traditional conurbation, or the "conurbation proper", while the third group of six partidos is in the process of becoming fully integrated with the rest.

Fourteen fully urbanized partidos

• Avellaneda
• General San Martín
• Hurlingham
• Ituzaingó
• José C. Paz
• Lanús
• Lomas de Zamora
• Malvinas Argentinas
• Morón
• Quilmes
• San Isidro
• San Miguel
• Tres de Febrero
• Vicente López

Ten partidos partially urbanized

• Almirante Brown
• Berazategui
• Esteban Echeverría
• Ezeiza
• Florencio Varela
• La Matanza
• Merlo
• Moreno
• San Fernando
• Tigre

Six partidos not yet conurbated

As urbanization continues and the conurbation grows, six additional partially urbanized partidos (totaling 1,062,991 population of as the 2022 census)^[1] are now fully connected with the conurbation:

• Escobar (256,449)
• General Rodríguez (143,211)
• Marcos Paz (67,154)
• Pilar (395,072)
• Presidente Perón (102,128)
• San Vicente (98,977)

Rank	Partido	Seat	2010 Census[8]	% growth from 2001 Census[8]	2022 Census[1]	% growth from 2010 Census[1]
*	Buenos Aires		2,890,151	4.1	3,120,612	8.0
1	La Matanza	San Justo	1,775,816	41.5	1,837,774	3.5
2	Lomas de Zamora	Lomas de Zamora	616,279	4.2	694,330	12.7
3	Quilmes	Quilmes	582,943	12.4	636,026	9.1
4	Almirante Brown	Adrogué	552,902	7.2	585,852	6.0
5	Merlo	Merlo	528,494	12.4	580,806	9.9
6	Moreno	Moreno	452,505	18.9	574,374	26.9
7	Florencio Varela	Florencio Varela	426,005	22.1	497,818	16.9
8	Lanús	Lanús	459,263	1.4	462,051	0.6
9	General San Martín	San Martín	414,196	2.8	450,335	8.7
10	Tigre	Tigre	376,381	25.0	447,785	19.0
11	Avellaneda	Avellaneda	342,677	4.2	370,939	8.2
12	Tres de Febrero	Caseros	340,071	1.1	366,377	7.7
13	Berazategui	Berazategui	324,344	12.6	360,582	11.2
14	Malvinas Argentinas	Los Polvorines	322,375	10.9	351,788	9.1
15	Esteban Echeverría	Monte Grande	300,959	23.4	339,030	12.6
16	Morón	Morón	321,109	3.8	334,178	4.1
17	San Miguel	San Miguel	276,190	9.1	326,215	18.1
18	José C. Paz	José C. Paz	265,981	15.5	323,918	21.8
19	San Isidro	San Isidro	292,878	0.5	298,777	2.0
20	Vicente López	Olivos	269,420	-1.7	283,510	5.2
21	Ezeiza	Ezeiza	163,722	37.8	203,283	24.2
22	Hurlingham	Hurlingham	181,241	5.2	187,122	3.2
23	Ituzaingó	Ituzaingó	167,824	6.1	179,788	7.1
24	San Fernando	San Fernando	163,240	8.0	172,524	5.7

List of cities in Greater Buenos Aires

Greater Buenos Aires Metropolitan Rail Network

Rank	City	District	Partido	2001 Census[9]
1	Buenos Aires			2,776,138
2	Merlo		Merlo	244,168
3	Quilmes		Quilmes	230,810
4	Banfield		Lomas de Zamora	223,898
5	José Clemente Paz		José Clemente Paz	216,637
6	Lanús		Lanús	212,152
7	Gregorio de Laferrère		La Matanza	175,670
8	Hurlingham		Hurlingham	174,165
9	Berazategui		Berazategui	167,498
10	González Catán		La Matanza	163,815
11	San Miguel		San Miguel	157,532
12	Moreno		Moreno	148,290
13	San Fernando		San Fernando	145,165
14	Isidro Casanova		La Matanza	131,981
15	Bernal		Quilmes	130,790
16	Florencio Varela		Florencio Varela	120,678
17	Avellaneda		Avellaneda	112,980[10]
18	Lomas de Zamora		Lomas de Zamora	111,897
19	Temperley		Lomas de Zamora	111,160
20	Monte Grande		Esteban Echeverría	109,644
21	San Justo		La Matanza	105,274
22	Ituzaingó		Ituzaingó	104,712
23	Castelar		Morón	104,019
24	Rafael Castillo		La Matanza	103,992
25	Libertad		Merlo	100,324
26	Ramos Mejía		La Matanza	97,076
27	Ezeiza		Ezeiza	93,246
28	Morón		Morón	92,725
29	Caseros		Tres de Febrero	90,313
30	Parque San Martín		Merlo	89,073
31	Burzaco		Almirante Brown	86,113
32	Grand Bourg		Malvinas Argentinas	85,189
33	Monte Chingolo		Lanús	85,060
34	San Francisco Solano		Quilmes Almirante Brown	81,707
35	Remedios de Escalada		Lanús	81,465
36	La Tablada		La Matanza	80,389
37	Ciudad Madero		La Matanza	75,582
38	Olivos		Vicente López	75,527
39	El Palomar		Morón Tres de Febrero	74,757
40	Boulogne Sur Mer		San Isidro	73,496
41	Ciudadela		Tres de Febrero	73,155
42	Ezpeleta		Quilmes	72,557
43	Ciudad Evita		La Matanza	68,650
44	Bella Vista		San Miguel	67,936
45	Wilde		Avellaneda	65,881
46	Martínez		San Isidro	65,859
47	Don Torcuato		Tigre	64,867
48	Gerli		Avellaneda Lanús	64,640
49	Ciudad Jardín		Tres de Febrero	61,780
50	Sarandí		Avellaneda	60,752
51	Villa Tesei		Hurlingham	60,165
52	Florida		Vicente López	59,844
53	Villa Domínico		Avellaneda	58,824
54	Béccar		San Isidro	58,811
55	Glew		Almirante Brown	57,878
56	Rafael Calzada		Almirante Brown	56,419
57	Mariano Acosta		Merlo	54,081
58	Los Polvorines		Malvinas Argentinas	53,354
59	Lomas del Mirador		La Matanza	51,488
60	Villa Centenario		Lomas de Zamora	49,737
61	William Morris		Hurlingham	48,916
62	Longchamps		Almirante Brown	47,622
63	San Isidro		San Isidro	45,190
64	Villa Adelina		Vicente López	44,587
65	San José		Lomas de Zamora	44,437
66	Villa de Mayo		Malvinas Argentinas	43,405
67	General Pacheco		Tigre	43,287
68	Villa Fiorito		Lomas de Zamora	42,904
69	Paso del Rey		Moreno	41,775
70	Llavallol		Lomas de Zamora	41,463
71	Tortuguitas		Malvinas Argentinas José C. Paz	41,310
72	Claypole		Almirante Brown	41,176
73	Valentín Alsina		Lanús	41,155
74	Virreyes		San Fernando	39,507
75	Victoria		San Fernando	39,447
76	Pablo Nogués		Malvinas Argentinas	38,470
77	Haedo		Morón	38,068
78	San Antonio de Padua		Merlo	37,775
79	Munro		Vicente López	35,844
80	Villa Ballester		San Martín	35,301
81	Pontevedra		Merlo	33,515
82	Villa Udaondo		Ituzaingó	31,490
83	Villa La Florida		Quilmes	31,268
84	Tigre		Tigre	31,106
85	San Martín		San Martín	28,339
86	Adrogué		Almirante Brown	28,265
87	Tristán Suárez		Ezeiza	27,746
88	Muñiz		San Miguel	26,221
89	Villa Martelli		Vicente López	26,059
90	Villa Bosch		Tres de Febrero	24,702
91	Villa Maipú		San Martín	24,447
92	Vicente López		Vicente López	24,078
93	Don Bosco		Quilmes	20,876
94	Billinghurst		San Martín	19,138
95	Martín Coronado		Tres de Febrero	19,121
96	Villa Sarmiento		Morón	17,737
97	Ranelagh		Berazategui	15,262
98	Tapiales		La Matanza	15,148
99	Aldo Bonzi		La Matanza	13,410

^[11][12]

Gallery

• 
  Berazategui
• 
  Ciudad Evita (La Matanza Partido)
• 
  Florencio Varela
• 
  General San Martín
• 
  Monte Grande (Esteban Echeverría Partido)
• 
  Olivos (Vicente López Partido)
• 
  Quilmes
• 
  Tigre
• 
  Pan-American Expressway, north of Buenos Aires

References

1. "Censo Nacional de Población, Hogares y Viviendas 2022: Resultados provisionales" (PDF). INDEC.
2. "TelluBase—Argentina Fact Sheet (Tellusant Public Service Series)" (PDF). Tellusant. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
3. "¿Qué significa AMBA, el área más estricta con la cuarentena en Argentina?". La Nación (in Spanish). June 18, 2020. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
4. Tallarico, Valeria (2017). "Caracterización del AMBA" (in Spanish).
5. "Argentina: población total por regiones y provincias. Censos Nacionales de 1914 - 2001" (PDF). INDEC.
6. Alicia Novick & Horacio Caride (12 March 2020). "Ciudad versus área metropolitana. Notas para una historia del gran Buenos Aires".
7. "¿Qué es el Gran Buenos Aires?" (PDF) (Press release) (in Spanish). National Institute of Statistics and Censuses. 2003-08-01. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-09-11. Retrieved 2008-06-28.
8. "Provincia de Buenos Aires, 24 partidos del Gran Buenos Aires. Población total y variación intercensal absoluta y relativa por partido. Años 2001-2010" (PDF). INDEC.
9. Novedades Archived 2007-04-06 at the Wayback Machine, Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas y Censos
10. Includes Dock Sud, Piñeiro and Crucecita
11. INDEC eph Archived 2011-09-04 at the Wayback Machine
12. INDEC est Archived 2014-04-09 at the Wayback Machine

Further reading

• Buzai, G.D. and Marcos, M. (2012). "The social map of Greater Buenos Aires as empirical evidence of urban models". Journal of Latin American Geography. Volume 11 Number 1, pp. 67–78, DOI 10.1353/lag.2012.0012
• Keeling, D. (1996). Buenos Aires: Global Dreams, Local Crisis. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.