Metropolitan Area of San Salvador

Birds eye view of the Americas plaza or now the El Salvador del mundo plaza

San Salvador was founded in the year 1525, it was the second city in Central America made by the Spanish. By the Year 1821 the year of Independence for El Salvador, San Salvador had a population of 10,000 inhabitants, four years later in 1825 the city grew to 25,000 Inhabitants, this was the result of internal migration to the capital city, this process happens twice in the history of San Salvador. Santa Tecla, El Salvador was founded as "Nueva San Salvador" on August 8, 1854 by the president José María San Martín after the capital city was destroyed by an earthquake. It served as capital of the republic from 1855 to 1859 and became departmental capital in 1865. The continued development of the city was spurred by the success of the local coffee industry, becoming a very productive commercial city. By the year 1890 San Salvador had 94,580 Inhabitants, in 1901 San Salvador was composed of the Urban Center (80,167), Vista Hermosa(13,123), y Planes de Rendero(1,560). In the following years San Salvador kept on growing from Downtown towards the outskirts of the volcano. It was not untile the 70's when the city took a great leap in population from 430,500 to 700,000 as San Salvador grew it joined other cities and The AMSS was created. The Metropolitan Area of San Salvador (AMSS) is a conglomerate formed by 14 municipalities. It was instituted in 1993, through Legislative Decree No. 732 of the Law on Territorial Development and the Metropolitan Area of San Salvador and neighboring municipalities. The Act defines that, depending on its urban development, these cities form a single urban unit.

Since 1990, it was felt that urban development in the Municipality of San Salvador and neighboring municipalities was having a remarkable growth, and even be defined as a big city. This situation required the planning and control of urban development in these municipalities and their conformation as a metropolitan area.

Currently, the AMSS constitutes the directional center of the country in political, financial, economic and cultural life and where he also accounts for 27% of the population and 70% of the public and private investment in 3% of the national territory. Together the fourteen municipalities give the AMSS a total population of 2,177,432 inhabitants (2009 census). The Government expects a total population of 2.5 million by the beginning of the year 2011.

List of Municipalities:

• San Savaldor - west
• Antiguo Cuscatlan - 4 kilometers southwest of San Salvador Highest HDI in El Salvador and Central America
• Santa Tecla - 9 kilometers southwest of San Salvador
• San Marcos - 6 kilometers south of San Salvador
• Soyapango - 6 kilometers east of San Salvador
• Ilopango - 8 kilometers east
• San Martin - 15 kilometers east
• Tonacatepeque - 12 kilometers north east
• Ciudad Delgado - 4 kilometers north east
• Cuscatancingo - 4 kilometers north
• Mejicanos- 5 kilometers north
• Apopa - 11 kilometers north
• Nejapa-13 kilometers north
• Ayutuxtepeque - 7 kilometers north