Metropolitan Areas of Mexico - Transnational Conurbations

Transnational Conurbations

The United States shares a 2,000-mile (3,000 km) border with Mexico. The 2,000 miles is the most frequently crossed international border in the world, with about 250 million legal crossing every year. The distribution of population and urban population in Mexico has been changed significantly by the economic interaction between settlements in its north and the United States (U.S.). The increasing population concentration in the north of Mexico is strongly associated with the development of the maquila industries there and the eventual economic effects of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Metropolitan areas located at the border with the U.S. form transnational conurbations with deep economic and demographic interaction. For example, the San Diego – Tijuana metropolitan area consists of San Diego County in the U.S. and the municipalities of Tijuana, Playas de Rosarito, and Tecate in Mexico. The total population of the region has been estimated to be just over 5 million in 2009, making it by far the largest bi-national metropolitan area shared between the U.S. and Mexico. The National Population Council (CONAPO) recognizes the existence of such metropolitan areas and defines them as the municipalities that contain a city of at least 200,000 inhabitants which share processes of conurbation with cities of the U.S.