Buenos Aires (”Good Airs” in Spanish, originally meaning “Fair Winds”) is the capital of Argentina and its largest city and port, as well as one of the largest cities in Latin America.

Buenos Aires is located on the southern shore of the Rio de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent, opposite Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. Buenos Aires is located at 34°40′S 58°24′W (-34.667, -58.40).

After the internal conflicts of the 19th century, Buenos Aires was federalised and removed from Buenos Aires Province; its city limits were enlarged to include the former towns of Belgrano and Flores (both are now neighbourhoods in the city).

Argentines sometimes refer to the city as Capital Federal to differentiate the city from the province of the same name. In the 1994 constitution, it was declared an Autonomous City (hence the formal name: Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires).

Population

The people of Buenos Aires are known as porteños (”people of the port”), acknowledging the major historical importance of the port in the development of the city and the whole nation.

The population of Buenos Aires consists primarily of Argentines of Spanish and Italian descent. The vast majority of these originate from the Galician, Asturian, and Basque regions of Spain, and the Calabrian, Ligurian and Neapolitan regions of Italy.

There are also sizable communities of people with Arab, Jewish, Armenian, British, Irish, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean origins (see also: Asian-Argentines). Also, there is a mixed Spanish-aboriginal (mestizo/criollo) minority, including immigrants from Bolivia and Paraguay.

Most inhabitants are Roman Catholic. Sizable Jewish and Muslim communities have existed for over 100 years, and Evangelic churches have steadily increased their ranks since the 1980s.

The city proper has a population of 2,776,138 according to the 2001 census [INDEC], while the Greater Buenos Aires conuerbation has more than 11.4 million inhabitants. Suburbanites are called porteños and also bonaerenses; only the last term applies to the rest of the province.

Economy
Buenos Aires is the financial, industrial, commercial, and cultural hub of Argentina. Its port is one of the busiest in the world; navigable rivers connect it to north-east Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. As a result, it serves as the distribution hub for a vast area of the south-eastern region of the continent.

To the west of Buenos Aires is the Pampa Humeda, the most productive agricultural region of Argentina (as opposed to the dry southern pampa, mostly used for cattle farms). Meat, dairy, grain, tobacco, wool and hide products are processed or manufactured in the Buenos Aires area. Other leading industries are automobile manufacturing, oil refining, metalworking, machine building, and the production of textiles, chemicals, clothing, and beverages.