States of Mexico, matched to countries
Natural Earth’s file divides Mexico into 32 states. Below, each is drawn at true scale and matched to the country closest to it in area and in population.
Mexico City is a federal entity, not a state, and is counted among the 32; it was the Federal District until 2016. Natural Earth still labels it with the old code, so no ISO code is shown for it.
Population: the 2015 figures Wikidata holds, for 24 of the 32 states. The only figure it has for Coahuila (2010), Baja California Sur (2010), Campeche (2020), Quintana Roo (2020), Yucatán (2020), Tabasco (2020), Colima (2020) and Morelos (2020) is a different year, and it is shown with that year. Every population on these pages carries its year; they are not one count taken on one day.
At a glance
- Chihuahua, the largest, is 180× the size of Mexico City, the smallest.
- The five largest, Chihuahua, Sonora, Coahuila, Durango, Oaxaca, cover 40% of Mexico.
- 1 of the 32 is larger than the United Kingdom (244,000 km²).
- None of the 32 is larger than France (548,000 km²).
- Mexico City, the most crowded, has 6,486 people per km²: 734× Baja California Sur, the least crowded (8.8).
- Half of the people counted live in the 8 most populous (State of Mexico, Mexico City, Veracruz, Jalisco and 4 more), which cover 19% of the area; the years of the figures differ.
- 4 of the 32 have more people than the median of the 38 European countries listed here (6.6 million).
- 24 of the 32 are within 10% in area of a European country, among them Nuevo León and Lithuania (1.00×), Guerrero and Latvia (1.00×), San Luis Potosí and Latvia (1.01×).
Every state matched to a country
Largest first. The matches are the countries closest in area and in population from Natural Earth’s country list; contested places and dependencies are never used as matches. Population is the newest figure Wikidata holds, with its year.
- Chihuahua248,000 km² · 3.6 million (2015)Size ofGuinea1.02× · 244,000 km²People ofEritrea1.02× · 3.5 million
- Sonora179,000 km² · 2.9 million (2015)Size ofUruguay1.01× · 177,000 km²People ofLithuania1.00× · 2.9 million
- Coahuila151,000 km² · 3.0 million (2010)Size ofNepal1.03× · 147,000 km²People ofArmenia1.01× · 2.9 million
- Durango121,000 km² · 1.8 million (2015)Size ofNorth Korea0.99× · 122,000 km²People ofNorth Macedonia0.96× · 1.8 million
- Oaxaca92,200 km² · 4.0 million (2015)Size ofPortugal1.01× · 91,400 km²People ofGeorgia1.01× · 3.9 million
- Jalisco80,000 km² · 7.8 million (2015)Size ofCzechia1.02× · 78,800 km²People ofTogo1.01× · 7.8 million
- Tamaulipas79,600 km² · 3.4 million (2015)Size ofCzechia1.01× · 78,800 km²People ofUruguay1.00× · 3.4 million
- Zacatecas74,700 km² · 1.7 million (2015)Size ofPanama1.00× · 74,500 km²People ofNorth Macedonia0.92× · 1.8 million
- Chiapas73,400 km² · 5.2 million (2015)Size ofPanama0.98× · 74,500 km²People ofLiberia1.00× · 5.2 million
- Baja California72,900 km² · 3.3 million (2015)Size ofSierra Leone1.02× · 71,600 km²People ofMongolia0.97× · 3.4 million
- Baja California Sur72,100 km² · 637,000 (2010)Size ofSierra Leone1.01× · 71,600 km²People ofMontenegro1.03× · 617,000
- Veracruz71,000 km² · 8.1 million (2015)Size ofUnited Arab Emirates1.00× · 71,100 km²People ofHonduras0.98× · 8.3 million
- Nuevo León65,000 km² · 5.2 million (2015)Size ofLithuania1.00× · 64,900 km²People ofLiberia1.00× · 5.2 million
- Guerrero64,700 km² · 3.5 million (2015)Size ofLatvia1.00× · 64,600 km²People ofEritrea1.01× · 3.5 million
- San Luis Potosí64,200 km² · 2.7 million (2015)Size ofLatvia0.99× · 64,600 km²People ofJamaica1.01× · 2.7 million
- Michoacán58,900 km² · 4.6 million (2015)Size ofTogo1.04× · 56,900 km²People ofPanama1.00× · 4.6 million
- Sinaloa57,700 km² · 3.0 million (2015)Size ofTogo1.01× · 56,900 km²People ofArmenia1.01× · 2.9 million
- Campeche57,100 km² · 928,000 (2020)Size ofTogo1.00× · 56,900 km²People ofFiji1.00× · 926,000
- Quintana Roo43,900 km² · 1.9 million (2020)Size ofDenmark1.03× · 42,700 km²People ofGuinea-Bissau1.00× · 1.9 million
- Yucatán38,400 km² · 2.3 million (2020)Size ofNetherlands1.03× · 37,100 km²People ofMoldova0.96× · 2.4 million
- Puebla34,600 km² · 6.2 million (2015)Size ofMoldova1.04× · 33,200 km²People ofRepublic of the Congo1.00× · 6.1 million
- Guanajuato30,400 km² · 5.9 million (2015)Size ofBelgium0.99× · 30,700 km²People ofDenmark1.01× · 5.8 million
- Nayarit27,200 km² · 1.2 million (2015)Size ofSolomon Islands1.00× · 27,200 km²People ofEswatini0.99× · 1.2 million
- Tabasco24,100 km² · 2.4 million (2020)Size ofRwanda0.95× · 25,300 km²People ofMoldova1.00× · 2.4 million
- State of Mexico21,800 km² · 16.2 million (2015)Size ofDjibouti1.00× · 21,800 km²People ofSenegal0.96× · 16.9 million
- Hidalgo21,300 km² · 2.9 million (2015)Size ofDjibouti0.98× · 21,800 km²People ofLithuania1.00× · 2.9 million
- Querétaro11,700 km² · 2.0 million (2015)Size ofQatar1.05× · 11,200 km²People ofGabon1.01× · 2.0 million
- Colima5,880 km² · 731,000 (2020)Size ofBrunei1.03× · 5,720 km²People ofLuxembourg1.06× · 691,000
- Aguascalientes5,550 km² · 1.3 million (2015)Size ofCyprus1.03× · 5,400 km²People ofCyprus0.98× · 1.3 million
- Morelos5,080 km² · 2.0 million (2020)Size ofTrinidad and Tobago0.99× · 5,120 km²People ofLesotho0.98× · 2.0 million
- Tlaxcala3,870 km² · 1.3 million (2015)Size ofCape Verde0.99× · 3,930 km²People ofMauritius1.01× · 1.3 million
- Mexico City1,380 km² · 8.9 million (2015)Size ofComoros82% · 1,670 km²People ofPapua New Guinea1.00× · 8.9 million
Too small to see on the map
At the scale of the map this unit is a few pixels wide or less, so it is ringed on the map and drawn here as discs of true relative area. Each is matched to the small countries and island nations, not to the countries of 1,000 km² and more.
- Mexico City1,380 km² · official 1,49082% Comoros1,670 km²
The closest matches in size
How crowded they are
Mexico CityBaja California Sur
Beside the regions of other countries
Every state also has a closest match, by area and by people, among the 363 regions of the other 12 countries. All the matches, in both directions, are on one page.
Sources and method
- Outlines
- Natural Earth, 1:10m Admin 1 - States, Provinces, public domain. The 32 listed are all of the features Natural Earth has for Mexico, except an unnamed minor island.
- Boundary
- De facto, as drawn by Natural Earth.
- Area
- Measured on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outlines, shown rounded. The 32 areas add up to 1,958,000 km², within 0.1% of the country’s measured area.
- Official figures
- Area, population and capital from Wikidata (CC0), fetched 2026-11-12. Population is the 2015 figure where Wikidata has it, otherwise its newest; the year is shown.
- Labels checked
- Natural Earth’s labels were compared with Wikidata’s. Natural Earth gives Mexico City another type than Wikidata does; the page follows Wikidata. 1 ISO 3166-2 code differs (Mexico City); no code is shown for it.
- Data built
- 2026-11-12