Autonomous City of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, the city that never sleeps. From the Obelisk to Plaza de Mayo, from the Teatro Colón to its historic cafés, its palaces earned it the name of the Paris of South America. San Telmo, La Boca, Palermo and Recoleta: each neighborhood is a world of its own. This is where tango was born, where football is lived with passion at La Bombonera and El Monumental, and where the night goes on along Corrientes Street. Cosmopolitan, cultured and passionate. Buenos Aires is not visited: it is felt beating. Buenos Aires is the pulse of Argentina.
- Capital
- Autonomous City of Buenos Aires — capital of the Republic
- Region
- Greater Buenos Aires
- Area
- 200 km²
- Population · 2022 Census
- 3,121,707 inhabitants · 15,608.5 hab/km²
- Women · Men
- 53.9 % · 46.1 %
- Median age
- 39 years
- By age
- 0 to 14 years: 14.8 % · 15 to 64 years: 67.5 % · 65 years and over: 17.7 %
- Climate
- Humid temperate, with no dry season.
- Demonym
- porteño/a
- Founding of the capital
- 11 June 1580 (second founding; the first was in 1536)
- World Heritage (UNESCO)
- Museo y Sitio de Memoria ESMA (2023)
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 looks out onto the Río de la Plata, the widest estuary in the world. A city of the plains, its green lungs are the Palermo Woods, the Botanical Garden, the Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve —a Ramsar site steps from downtown— and thousands of jacarandas, tipas and silk floss trees that bloom along its avenues. Its architecture, with French- and Italian-style palaces, domes and boulevards, earned it the nickname of the Paris of South America: a drop of Europe in South America, open to the world like few cities on the continent.
- Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur (2005) · 353 ha
Source: Argentine Undersecretariat of Environment, Ramsar Sites Network. Official year of designation and area.
- Plaza de Mayo · the stage of Argentine history since the Revolution of 1810; since 1977 the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo have marched there for their disappeared children
- Cabildo · seat of the colonial government and of the May Revolution, a National Historic Monument
- Casa Rosada · seat of the National Executive Branch, facing Plaza de Mayo
- Metropolitan Cathedral · where Jorge Mario Bergoglio, born in the Flores neighborhood, served as Archbishop of Buenos Aires from 1998 to 2013, before becoming Pope Francis, the first pope from the Americas; the remains of General San Martín rest there
- Avenida de Mayo · links the Casa Rosada with the Congress; it is home to the Café Tortoni, opened in 1858, and the Palacio Barolo
Sources: Government of the City of Buenos Aires · National Monuments Commission · Archdiocese of Buenos Aires.
- Obelisk · erected in 1936 for the fourth centenary of the first founding, on Avenida 9 de Julio
- Avenida 9 de Julio · one of the widest avenues in the world, about 140 meters from side to side
- Corrientes Street · the street that never sleeps: theaters, bookstores, pizzerias and cafés open until dawn
- Puerto Madero · the old port turned into the city's newest neighborhood, with the Puente de la Mujer by Santiago Calatrava (2001)
Source: Government of the City of Buenos Aires.
- San Telmo · the oldest neighborhood, of colonial houses, antique shops and the Sunday fair in Plaza Dorrego
- La Boca · Caminito, its painted corrugated-iron tenements and the legacy of Benito Quinquela Martín
- Recoleta · palaces, museums and the Recoleta Cemetery (1822), where Eva Perón, Domingo F. Sarmiento and figures of national history rest
- Chacarita · its cemetery holds the tomb of Carlos Gardel, a place of pilgrimage for tango lovers from all over the world
- Palermo · woods, squares, bars and the city's nightlife
- Flores, Belgrano, Caballito and Almagro · neighborhoods with their own identity, tango, cafés and clubs
Source: Government of the City of Buenos Aires.
- Teatro Colón · opened in 1908, considered one of the opera houses with the best acoustics in the world
- Luna Park · the Sports Palace, opened in 1932, a stage for boxing, music and great Buenos Aires nights
- Corrientes Street and its theater circuit · one of the largest theater listings in the Spanish-speaking world
- Estadio Monumental · home of River Plate, in Núñez, opened in 1938, the largest stadium in the country
- La Bombonera · home of Boca Juniors, in La Boca, opened in 1940, famous worldwide for the passion of its stands
Sources: Teatro Colón · Government of the City of Buenos Aires · River Plate and Boca Juniors clubs.
Human wealth
The living figures
Buenos Aires is cosmopolitan like few others: a daughter of immigration, it brings together communities from all over the world and a cultural life that never stops. It is a city that never sleeps: late dinners, theaters, bookstores and cafés open until dawn. Its historic bars, its milongas and its passion for football define the porteño character. At the table, deep-dish pizza and fugazzeta, the parrilla grill, coffee with medialunas and artisanal ice cream, legacies of Italian and Spanish immigration.
- Before the conquest · the Querandí roam the plains by the river
- 1536 · Pedro de Mendoza first founds Santa María del Buen Ayre, abandoned a few years later
- 1580 · Juan de Garay founds it for the second and definitive time
- 1810 · the May Revolution, the first national government, is born at the Cabildo and Plaza de Mayo
- 1880 · Buenos Aires is federalized as the capital of the Republic
- Late 19th and early 20th centuries · the great immigration, mainly Italian and Spanish, transforms the city and its way of speaking, eating and dancing
- 1996 · the City enacts its Constitution and elects its head of government for the first time
Sources: Government of the City of Buenos Aires · Buenos Aires City Legislature.
Tango, born in the outskirts of the Río de la Plata, has been Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2009, in a joint nomination with Uruguay. Porteño filete, the decorative art of buses, signs and shop windows, has been since 2015. Milongas, historic bars and the Tango Festival and World Cup keep both traditions alive.
Source: UNESCO, Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
- Pope Francis · Jorge Mario Bergoglio, born in Flores (1936-2025), the first pope from the Americas
- Jorge Luis Borges · literature · born in Buenos Aires (1899-1986)
- Bernardo Houssay · science · born in Buenos Aires, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1947, Latin America's first Nobel laureate in the sciences
- Benito Quinquela Martín · painting · the painter of La Boca (1890-1977)
- Charly García · music · born in Buenos Aires
- Gustavo Cerati · music · born in Buenos Aires (1959-2014)
- Gabriela Sabatini · tennis · born in Buenos Aires, 1990 US Open champion
Sources: careers published in national and international press · Nobel Foundation.
74,724 people identify as Indigenous or as descendants of Indigenous or native peoples: 2.4 % of the city's population. They belong to 53 different peoples, and 20,989 (28.1 %) speak or understand the language of their people. The five largest peoples are:
- Guaraní · 9,465
- Quechua · 8,374
- Aymara · 6,449
- Diaguita · 4,154
- Mapuche · 3,632
Source: INDEC, 2022 National Population, Household and Housing Census, final results. Population in private dwellings.
Productive wealth
What it produces and exports
The City is the country's main services center: finance, trade, tourism, health, education and the knowledge economy —software, professional services, creative industries, film and publishing— account for its activity. A large share of Argentina's container trade passes through its port. Its goods exports are small compared with its services; the European Union is today its main destination.
USD 409 million, 12.5 % more than in 2024: 0.5 % of the national total and 0.7 % of the Pampas region.
- Manufactures of industrial origin · USD 373 M
- Manufactures of agricultural origin · USD 36 M
Main destinations: European Union (USD 226 M, 55.3 %), Uruguay (USD 61 M), Paraguay (USD 34 M) and China (USD 7 M). Main products: chemicals and related products (USD 343 M), hides and skins (amount withheld for statistical confidentiality), machinery and electrical equipment (USD 14 M) and meat and meat preparations (amount withheld for statistical confidentiality).
Source: INDEC, Provincial origin of exports. Goods. Year 2025 (provisional data) and annex tables.
With 76 CONICET research units, the City is the country's leading scientific hub, together with the Universidad de Buenos Aires, the largest in Argentina.
Sources: CONICET, 2025 Management Report · Universidad de Buenos Aires.
Space to embed one or more 45s–1min capsules about the province.
To experience it on the ground — restaurants, hotels, events, geolocation — the app.
Open the Argentina al Mundo app