In 2025, approximately 23 million people lived in the São Paulo metropolitan area, making it the biggest in Latin America and the Caribbean and the sixth most populated in the world. The homonymous state of São Paulo was also the most populous federal entity in the country. The second place for the region was Mexico City with 22.75 million inhabitants. Brazil's cities Brazil is home to two large metropolises, only counting the population within the city limits, São Paulo had approximately 11.45 million inhabitants, and Rio de Janeiro around 6.21 million inhabitants. It also contains a number of smaller, but well known cities such as Brasília, Salvador, Belo Horizonte and many others, which report between 2 and 3 million inhabitants each. As a result, the country's population is primarily urban, with nearly 88 percent of inhabitants living in cities. Mexico City Mexico City's metropolitan area ranks sevenths in the ranking of most populated cities in the world. Founded over the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan in 1521 after the Spanish conquest as the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the city still stands as one of the most important in Latin America. Nevertheless, the preeminent economic, political, and cultural position of Mexico City has not prevented the metropolis from suffering the problems affecting the rest of the country, namely, inequality and violence. Only in 2023, the city registered a crime incidence of 52,723 reported cases for every 100,000 inhabitants and around 24 percent of the population lived under the poverty line.

As of 2024, three out of ten Latin American and Caribbean cities with the highest local purchasing power were located in Mexico. With an index score of 51.3, people in Querétaro had the highest domestic purchasing power in Mexico. In South America, the city with the highest domestic purchasing power for 2024 was Montevideo, scoring 53 index points.

As of 2023, the top five most densely populated cities in Latin America and the Caribbean were in Colombia. The capital, Bogotá, ranked first with over ****** inhabitants per square kilometer.

As of September 2019, Bogotá, the capital city of Colombia, led the ranking of best cities in Latin America based on healthcare quality. With a score of **** (out of 10), this South American city had the most efficient healthcare system among those included in the study. However, approximately ** percent of Colombians stated not to be satisfied with the country's health system.

Mexico City was the most competitive city to host business events in Latin America in 2022/2023. The Mexican capital scored 519 points on the Competitive Index, leading runner-up destination Rio de Janeiro by about 27 index points. Two Colombian cities were featured in Latin America's ranking for business conventions in 2022/2023.

Santiago, Chile's capital and largest city, was considered the smartest city in Latin America in 2019. That year, the city achieved an overall score of 59.45 points. Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina, ranked second, with 54.71 score points. Meanwhile, the Dominican Republic's Santo Domingo was the highest ranking Caribbean city, with a 40.39 score.

Port of Spain was the city with the highest restaurant prices in Latin America and the Caribbean as of mid-2024. The capital of Trinidad and Tobago scored 50.3 in the restaurant price index ranking that year.According to the calculation system used for the ranking, this means that people living in this city paid in restaurants around one third less than the inhabitants of New York City, the city used as the base for the index.

As of mid-2024, Montevideo ranked as the second Latin American and Caribbean metropolis with the highest cost of living index. The Uruguayan capital obtained an index score of ****, only second to Port of Spain, in Trinidad and Tobago, with **** points. Monterrey and Panama City were the third and fourth most expensive cities to live in Latin America and the Caribbean that year, with scores surpassing ** points each.

In 2024, six of the eight Brazilian cities with the highest homicide rates were in the Northeast. Feira da Santana led the ranking of the most violent city in Brazil, with a murder rate of ***** per 100,000 inhabitants. It was followed followed by Recife, with a homicide rate of more than ** per 100,000 inhabitants. In Latin America and the Caribbean, Feira da Santana was the **** most deadly city.

Three Brazilian, three Mexican, and one Colombian company within the category of pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical retail firms ranked among the leading 500 companies in Latin America based on revenue. Raia Drogasil, a drugstore company headquartered in São Paulo, had the highest revenue within this category, ranking ** among the 500. Also based in São Paulo, Hypera Pharma is considered the leading pharmaceutical company in the region according to the ranking, followed by Genomma Lab Internacional headquartered in Mexico City.

The Mexican city of Cancún was the top Latin American destination for foreign visitors in 2018, with approximately 6.04 million international tourist arrivals. This number was expected to increase by 1.8 percent in 2019, reaching 6.15 million foreign arrivals that year. Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, ranked second on the list of top city destinations for international tourism in Latin America, with nearly 2.7 million international tourist arrivals in 2018 and an estimate of 2.77 million arrivals for 2019. During the depicted period, the most visited city in the whole American continent was New York.

The Bicycle Cities Index selected cities from around the world including traditional cycling cities, as well as some less known locations which have been recently improving their bicycle infrastructure. The ranking calculated the index by analyzing each location for several factors, including bicycle usage, weather, cycling facilities, safety, investment and infrastructure quality, among other factors. The highest possible score is 100, and the higher the score, the better the city's cycling infrastructure. According to this index, the Chilean capital of Santiago ranked 58th in the global ranking, making it the friendliest city to ride a bicycle in all the Latin American cities included in the study in 2019.

A dataset listing Georgia cities by population for 2024.

A dataset listing Virginia cities by population for 2024.

The city of Bogotá, Colombia, ranked first as the Latin American metropolis most prone to traffic jams in 2020. According to the index, the Colombian capital experienced that year an average traffic increase of 53 percent during rush hours, in comparison to the city's level of traffic in uncongested times. Peru's capital, Lima, recorded the second worst congestion level that year, meaning that a road trip during peak hours took around 42 percent longer than under low traffic conditions. Out of the top 12 Latin American cities evaluated in 2020, seven are located in Brazil.

Santa María – a Peruvian city located to the west of the Andes mountain range – was the most polluted city in Latin America in 2024, based on fine air particulate matter concentration (PM2.5). That year, the city reported an average PM2.5 concentration of 53.4 micrograms per cubic meter. This was followed by Coyhaique, located in Chile, with an estimated PM2.5 concentration of around 40.5 μg/m³. Pollution in Latin American capitals The Chilean capital, Santiago, registered an average PM2.5 concentration of 21.3 μg/m³ in 2023. Lima, the Peruvian capital, had an estimated PM2.5 concentration of around 19.7 μg/m³, while in the capital of Mexico (Mexico City), air pollution amounted to 22.3 μg/m³. The World Health Organization's air quality standards recommend a maximum annual average concentration of 10 μg/m³. The burden of pollution on health Air particulate pollution has been associated with an increase in mortality from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as development of lung cancer. This is specially concerning considering that nearly 2.8 billion people worldwide are exposed to hazardous levels of air pollution. In particular, South Asia was home to the countries with the highest exposure to hazardous concentrations of air pollution in 2022.

Guyana was the South American country 20360the highest gross national income per capita, with 20,360 U.S. dollars per person in 2023. Uruguay ranked second, registering a GNI of 19,530 U.S. dollars per person, based on current prices. Gross national income (GNI) is the aggregated sum of the value added by residents in an economy, plus net taxes (minus subsidies) and net receipts of primary income from abroad. Which are the largest Latin American economies? Based on annual gross domestic product, which is the total amount of goods and services produced in a country per year, Brazil leads the regional ranking, followed by Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. Many Caribbean countries and territories hold the highest GDP per capita in this region, measurement that reflects how GDP would be divided if it was perfectly equally distributed among the population. GNI per capita is, however, a more exact calculation of wealth than GDP per capita, as it takes into consideration taxes paid and income receipts from abroad. How much inequality is there in Latin America? In many Latin American countries, more than half the total wealth created in their economies is held by the richest 20 percent of the population. When a small share of the population concentrates most of the wealth, millions of people don't have enough to make ends meet. For instance, in Brazil, about 5.32 percent of the population lives on less than 3.2 U.S. dollars per day.

In 2024, the Mexican city of Colima was the second most deadly city in the world, with a murder rate of ****** per 100,000 inhabitants. * out of the top 10 cities with over ******* habitants and the highest homicide rates were located in Mexico.

In 2024, many of the best cities for startups in Latin America and the Caribbean were located in Brazil. Specifically, this Portuguese-speaking country had * of the top 10 cities for startups in the region. São Paulo topped the list, with a total score of ***** points. Another two cities of the list were located in Mexico, Mexico City and Monterrey.

The city of Bogotá, Colombia, ranked second as the Latin American metropolis most prone to traffic jams in 2024. According to the index, the Colombian capital experienced an average traffic increase of 44 percent during rush hours. Peru's capital, Lima, recorded the fifth-worst congestion level that year, meaning that driving in the city took around 39 percent longer at peak time than under low traffic conditions. Out of the top 10 Latin American cities evaluated in 2024, five are located in Colombia.