Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, the province that beats in the heart of the pampa. The most populous in the country, from La Plata, the city of diagonals, to the Atlantic coast, led by Mar del Plata. The hills of Tandil and La Ventana, the Delta facing Tigre and endless fields where the gaucho is still alive in San Antonio de Areco. Faith in Luján, asado, dulce de leche and the birthplace of Maradona and Fangio. Buenos Aires is not toured: it is inhabited. Buenos Aires is the pampa that feeds the world.
- Capital
- La Plata
- Region
- Pampas and Greater Buenos Aires
- Area
- 307,571 km²
- Population · 2022 Census
- 17,523,996 inhabitants · 57.0 hab/km²
- Women · Men
- 51.7 % · 48.3 %
- Median age
- 33 years
- By age
- 0 to 14 years: 21.9 % · 15 to 64 years: 65.8 % · 65 years and over: 12.3 %
- Climate
- Humid temperate in the north and east; subhumid to semi-arid towards the southwest; oceanic on the Atlantic coast.
- Demonym
- bonaerense
- Founding of the capital
- 19 November 1882
- World Heritage (UNESCO)
- La obra arquitectónica de Le Corbusier — Casa Curutchet, La Plata (2016)
Sources: INDEC, 2022 National Census (final results) · INDEC / IGN (area). World Heritage: UNESCO, World Heritage List.
Natural wealth
The territory that defines it
Buenos Aires is the most populous province in the country and the largest in the Pampas region: an immense plain of grasslands and lagoons, among the most fertile farmland on the planet. It is broken by two hill systems: Tandilia, with Tandil and Balcarce, and Ventania, with Sierra de la Ventana and Cerro Tres Picos, the roof of the province. To the north, the Paraná Delta opens into islands and channels facing Tigre; to the east, Samborombón Bay and Campos del Tuyú National Park protect the pampas deer, and the Mar Chiquita coastal lagoon is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Its Atlantic coast stretches from Cabo San Antonio to Bahía Blanca.
- Parque Nacional Campos del Tuyú (2009)
- Parque Nacional Ciervo de los Pantanos (2018)
Source: Argentine National Parks Administration (SIB-APN).
- Bahía Samborombón (1997) · 243,965 ha
- Parque Nacional Ciervo de los Pantanos (2008; extended in 2021) · 5,561 ha
Source: Argentine Undersecretariat of Environment, Ramsar Sites Network. Official year of designation and area.
Founded on 19 November 1882 by Governor Dardo Rocha to be the provincial capital, after the federalization of Buenos Aires, it was designed from scratch by the engineer Pedro Benoit: a perfect grid crossed by diagonals, with a square every six blocks. It is the "city of diagonals", one of the first in Latin America with electric street lighting. It is home to the neo-Gothic Cathedral, the La Plata Museum, from 1888, with one of the great natural science collections in the Americas, the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, the República de los Niños and the Curutchet House, Le Corbusier's only work in Latin America and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Sources: Municipality of La Plata · Universidad Nacional de La Plata · UNESCO.
- Mar del Plata · "La Feliz", the country's great seaside city, host of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival, the only category A festival in Latin America, and Argentina's main fishing port
- Partido de la Costa, Pinamar, Cariló and Villa Gesell · beach resorts among dunes and woods, the destination of millions of summer visitors
- Necochea and Monte Hermoso · wide beaches in the south of the province; Monte Hermoso is one of the few in the country where the sun rises and sets over the sea
- Mar Chiquita · a coastal lagoon and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, a refuge for birds
Sources: Government of the Province of Buenos Aires · Mar del Plata International Film Festival · UNESCO.
Human wealth
The living figures
The province of Buenos Aires is home to four in ten Argentines: from the Greater Buenos Aires suburbs, which beat alongside the Capital, to the country towns where the gaucho culture of branding, horse-taming and asado is still alive. It is a land of tradition, faith and summer holidays. At the table, asado, dulce de leche, Tandil cheeses and salamis, Mar del Plata alfajores and fresh fish from the coast.
- Before the conquest · the Querandí and other Pampas peoples roam the plains
- 18th and 19th centuries · the frontier with the Indigenous world, the estancias and the gaucho shape the identity of the pampa
- 1872 · José Hernández publishes Martín Fierro, Argentina's national poem
- 1880-1882 · with the federalization of the city of Buenos Aires, the province founds La Plata as its new capital
- Late 19th century · European immigration populates colonies and towns in the interior of the province
Sources: Government of the Province of Buenos Aires · National Library.
- San Antonio de Areco · the capital of gaucho tradition, land of Ricardo Güiraldes and Don Segundo Sombra; every November it celebrates the Tradition Festival
- Luján · its basilica keeps the Virgin of Luján, patron saint of Argentina, the destination of the great annual youth pilgrimage
- Tandil · hills, and artisanal cheeses and salamis of great tradition
Sources: Government of the Province of Buenos Aires · Basilica of Luján.
- Diego Armando Maradona · football · born in Lanús (1960-2020), world champion in 1986
- Juan Manuel Fangio · motor racing · born in Balcarce (1911-1995), five-time Formula 1 world champion
- Manu Ginóbili · basketball · born in Bahía Blanca, four-time NBA champion and Olympic gold medalist in 2004
- Juan Martín del Potro · tennis · born in Tandil, 2009 US Open champion
- Emiliano "Dibu" Martínez · football · born in Mar del Plata, world champion in 2022
- Astor Piazzolla · music · born in Mar del Plata (1921-1992), the renewer of tango
- Ernesto Sabato · literature · born in Rojas (1911-2011)
- César Milstein · science · born in Bahía Blanca, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1984
Sources: careers published in national and international press · Nobel Foundation.
371,830 people identify as Indigenous or as descendants of Indigenous or native peoples: 2.1 % of the province's population. They belong to 55 different peoples, and 94,618 (25.4 %) speak or understand the language of their people. The five largest peoples are:
- Guaraní · 49,845
- Mapuche · 29,677
- Quechua · 25,770
- Qom/Toba · 16,503
- Diaguita · 15,949
Source: INDEC, 2022 National Population, Household and Housing Census, final results. Population in private dwellings.
Productive wealth
What it produces and exports
Buenos Aires is the country's leading exporting province, with more than a third of the national total. Its pampa produces wheat, corn, soybeans and sunflower and holds Argentina's largest cattle herd; its industry ranges from automobiles to steel, petrochemicals and refining; its ports —Bahía Blanca, Quequén, Mar del Plata, La Plata and those of the Paraná— carry its production to the world. Brazil is today its main export destination.
USD 31,684 million, 7.3 % more than in 2024: 36.4 % of the national total and 50.9 % of the Pampas region.
- Manufactures of industrial origin · USD 11,664 M
- Manufactures of agricultural origin · USD 9,867 M
- Primary products · USD 6,920 M
- Fuels and energy · USD 3,233 M
Main destinations: Brazil (USD 7,780 M, 24.6 %), China (USD 3,254 M), European Union (USD 2,434 M) and Middle East (USD 1,818 M). Main products: land transport equipment (USD 6,801 M), cereals (USD 4,617 M), fats and oils (USD 2,980 M) and food industry residues and waste (USD 2,509 M).
Source: INDEC, Provincial origin of exports. Goods. Year 2025 (provisional data) and annex tables.
19,419,096 head as of 31 December 2024: 37.6 % of the national cattle stock, the country's leading cattle province.
Source: SENASA, stock as of 31/12/2024, in Secretariat of Agriculture, Provincial cattle profile 2024.
Land transport equipment —cars and light commercial vehicles— was its leading export product in 2025, with USD 6,801 M. To that are added the Bahía Blanca petrochemical hub, the Ensenada refinery, the San Nicolás steelworks and the Atucha I and II nuclear power plants, in Lima.
Sources: INDEC, Provincial origin of exports 2025 · Nucleoeléctrica Argentina.
Mar del Plata is the country's main fishing port, base of the fleet that catches hake, squid and shrimp in the Argentine Sea.
Source: Argentine Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.
With 75 CONICET research units, the province is the country's second scientific hub, together with universities such as the Nacional de La Plata, del Sur, de Mar del Plata and del Centro.
Source: CONICET, 2025 Management Report.
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