According to the 2001 census, the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA)
is made up of a population of approximately 12 million people. This makes
the AMBA one of the largest urban agglomerations in the world and the third
largest agglomeration in Latin America, following Mexico City and Sao Paulo.
One third of Argentina’s total population lives in the agglomeration.
This makes the AMBA much larger than the second largest area, the city of
Córdoba, which had only 1.37 million inhabitants, that is, just over
a tenth of the AMBA’s population.
This large difference between the largest and second-largest urban agglomerations
in a country is typical in many Latin American countries, such as Uruguay,
Chile, Peru, and Venezuela. Moreover, there are geographic, historical,
economic and political factors involved which determine the population distribution
structure in each of these countries.
In the case of the city of Buenos Aires (CBA), which is the political and
economic capital of Argentina and a port for import and export of all kinds
of products, the key factors that gave rise to that situation include the
advantages of being surrounded by a fertile region of great agricultural
productivity, the climate, and the plains surrounding it, which allows easy
urban expansion.
The AMBA, like any big city, is truly heterogeneous as regards its population.
Generally speaking, its form is that of a crowded center with many branches.
In other words, many transport lines branch out from the center the (CBA)
giving rise to settlements that in turn cause those axes to grow.
Moreover, population density varies, and though it generally decreases
from the CBA towards its borders, this is not a uniform situation due to
the presence of high-density centers along the different axis which make
up the city. Even areas with high population densities, such as certain
neighborhoods of the CBA, still contain areas with low-rise housing.
However, most of the agglomeration of Buenos Aires still has great capacity
for expansion in terms of population density (as opposed to surface area).
There is considerable tension between the growth of population density and
that of surface area---both occur at the same time: while on the one hand
there are densely populated areas, on the other hand there is a continuous
push towards new urban areas on the outskirts of the city.
The AMBA population is also heterogeneous as regards its composition. In
general, in the areas which have been inhabited longest, there is a higher
proportion of old people, whereas a younger population presides on the edges
of the city. This has to do with the population’s reproductive behavior,
which causes higher birth rates on the edge of the city than in the central
area, and also with constant migratory movement which modifies the age and
sex distribution of the population.
Population mobility is one of the most interesting aspects of the AMBA.
People born there live in the same areas as immigrants who arrived at different
times, be it the European immigrants that arrived first, or the more recent
immigrants from other provinces in Argentina. However, the AMBA is currently
only growing because of natural increases in size, as the amount of people
arriving is cancelled out by other inhabitants choosing to live in other
places in Argentina or in a foreign country.
