Geography
Nuevo León covers 64,156 km², thirteenth among the states, but holds 5,784,442 people, seventh in the country — and about nine in ten of them live in the Monterrey metropolitan area. The state is long and narrow, running some 500 km from the Río Bravo in the north to the plateau edge in the south, and its shape follows the Sierra Madre Oriental, which enters from Tamaulipas and swings west across the middle of the state.
Monterrey sits at about 540 m in a gap in that range, hemmed in by the Cerro de la Silla to the east and the Sierra Madre wall to the south; the Cumbres de Monterrey National Park begins within the city limits and covers more than 1,700 km² of limestone ridges, including the Huasteca canyon, the Cola de Caballo waterfall and the Grutas de García caves. South of the range the land rises onto the Altiplano around Galeana and Doctor Arroyo, where Cerro El Potosí reaches 3,721 m, the highest point in the state and among the highest in north-eastern Mexico.
North and east of Monterrey the state flattens into semi-arid plain and then into the Río Bravo lowlands. Water is the constraint: the Río Santa Catarina runs dry through Monterrey for most of the year and fills only after storms, and the city depends on the El Cuchillo, Cerro Prieto and La Boca reservoirs, which fell to critical levels in the 2022 drought. The citrus belt south of Monterrey — Allende, Montemorelos, General Terán and Linares — is the main agricultural district and one of Mexico's largest orange-growing areas.
Monterrey was founded in 1596 and stayed a small frontier town until the railway reached it from Laredo in 1882 and turned it into the transfer point between Texas and central Mexico. The Fundidora steel works opened in 1900 — the first integrated mill in Latin America — and the brewery, glassworks and cement plants that grew around it are the ancestors of companies still headquartered here. The Fundidora site closed in 1986 and is now a public park beside the Paseo Santa Lucía canal.
Main cities
Municipal populations, INEGI census of 2020. The first nine entries are all part of the Monterrey metropolitan area, which totals about 5.3 million and is the second- or third-largest in Mexico.
| City | Population (2020) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Monterrey | 1,142,994 | Capital; metro about 5.3 million |
| Apodaca | 656,464 | Airport and industrial parks |
| Guadalupe | 643,143 | East of the centre |
| General Escobedo | 481,157 | North-west metro |
| Juárez | 442,438 | Fastest-growing metro municipality |
| San Nicolás de los Garza | 412,199 | University and steel district |
| Santa Catarina | 306,322 | Huasteca canyon |
| García | 247,370 | West metro, García caves |
| San Pedro Garza García | 132,169 | Highest income per head in Mexico |
| Linares | about 82,000 | Citrus belt, Highway 85 south |
Neighbouring states
Four states border Nuevo León. Coahuila lies west and north-west, the two capitals 85 km apart; Tamaulipas runs the whole eastern side and cuts the state off from the Gulf; San Luis Potosí adjoins the far south; and Zacatecas touches the south-western corner near Concepción del Oro. In the north the state reaches the Río Bravo for about 15 km at Colombia in Anáhuac municipality, where the Solidarity Bridge crosses to Laredo, Texas — the shortest stretch of the US–Mexico border held by any border state.
Getting there
Monterrey's General Mariano Escobedo International (MTY), 24 km north-east of the centre in Apodaca, is among the three or four busiest airports in Mexico and has direct flights to a dozen US cities as well as Europe. Del Norte (NTR) handles general and some regional aviation. The airports map shows where they sit.
By road, Federal Highway 85 is the historic Pan-American route north from Monterrey to Nuevo Laredo and south through Montemorelos and Linares towards Ciudad Victoria. Highway 40 and its toll road 40D run west to Saltillo in an hour and east to Reynosa and the McAllen crossings in about three. Highway 57 carries traffic south towards Matehuala, San Luis Potosí and the Bajío. From Mexico City the drive to Monterrey is about 900 km, ten hours on 57D. See the road map.
Questions about Nuevo León
Where is Nuevo León on the map of Mexico?
In the north-east, wrapped around the Sierra Madre Oriental between Coahuila and Tamaulipas. A narrow northern arm reaches the Río Bravo, giving the state about 15 km of Texas border at Colombia — the shortest international frontier of any Mexican border state.
How far is Monterrey from the US border?
About 220 km to Nuevo Laredo on Highway 85, roughly two and a half hours, and about 140 km to the state's own Colombia crossing north of Anáhuac. Reynosa and the McAllen crossings are about 220 km east on Highway 40D.
What is Nuevo León known for?
Industry. Monterrey is Mexico's second economy and the base of its steel, cement, glass and brewing companies, and the state usually records the highest output per head in the country. It is also known for the Sierra Madre scenery on the city's doorstep and for grilled meat, or carne asada.
What is Cerro de la Silla?
The saddle-shaped mountain east of Monterrey, about 1,820 m, and the city's emblem. The state's true high point is Cerro El Potosí near Galeana, 3,721 m, in the southern sierra.
Is Nuevo León safe to visit?
Monterrey's business and university districts, San Pedro Garza García and the national park south of the city are used daily by visitors, and the state has generally carried a middle-level US State Department advisory in recent years, with warnings for outlying roads after dark. Check the current advisory.