Greater Buenos Aires

Greater Buenos Aires (, GBA), also known as the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (, AMBA), refers to the urban agglomeration comprising the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA), and the adjacent 24 partidos (counties) in the Province of Buenos Aires (together known as "Conurbano"). 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.

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).

Colloquially, Argentines refer to the Conurbano Bonaerense as the set of 30 counties that surround the City of Buenos Aires and which are mostly populated by working-class or middle-class communities.

History The term Gran Buenos Aires ("Greater Buenos Aires") was first officially used in 1948, when Domingo Mercante, the Governor of Buenos Aires Province, signed a bill delineating as such an area covering 14 municipalities surrounding the City of Buenos Aires.

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

While annual growth for the suburban area slowed to 0.8% between 2010 and 2022, the 12 million inhabitants in the entire 30-county area - plus the City of Buenos Aires (3 million) - account for a third of the total population of Argentina and generate nearly half (48%) of the country's GDP.

As urbanization progressed and the metro area grew in both area and density, six additional partially urbanized partidos (totaling 1,062,991 population as of the 2022 census) were added to the metropolitan area in 2006 by Law 13473 - which also adds neighboring Greater La Plata's 938,287 to the total.

Definition

The National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) has defined Greater Buenos Aires.

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 The six additional partially urbanized partidos added to the metropolitan area in 2006 by Law 13473 (which also adds Greater La Plata's 938,287 to the total) are:

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

The 2022 Census later included, for statistical purposes, these six outlying partidos (totaling 497,700):

Brandsen (33,026) Campana (110,726) Cañuelas (71,149) Exaltación de la Cruz (39,347) Luján (111,365) Zárate (132,087)

List of partidos

Rank Partido Seat *Buenos Aires 2,890,1514.13,120,6128.0 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

Rank City District Partido Novedades , Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas y Censos1Buenos 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 120,67817 Avellaneda Avellaneda 112,980Includes Dock Sud, Piñeiro and Crucecita18 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 QuilmesAlmirante 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 MorónTres 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 AvellanedaLanús 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 ArgentinasJosé 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

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References

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.