Barrios and Communes of Buenos Aires

The city of Buenos Aires is formally divided in 48 barrios (neighbourhoods or districts), grouped into 15 comunas (communes), which are defined as "units of decentralized political and administrative management governed by designated residents" [1]

The city proper (excluding the outskirts that form Greater Buenos Aires), had about 2,700,000 inhabitants as of 2001.

List of neighbourhoods

Largest barrios in Buenos Aires Palermo Recoleta Caballito Balvanera Flores Almagro Belgrano Villa Lugano Villa Crespo

In alphabetical order, with the corresponding population (according to 2001 Census)

Name	Area in km²	Inhabitants	Comuna
Agronomía	4,0	34.580	15
Almagro	4,1	139.262	5
Balvanera	4,4	152.198	3
Barracas	7,6	77.474	4
Belgrano	6,8	138.942	13
Boedo	2,6	48.520	5
Caballito	7,1	183.396	6
Chacarita	2,8	27.440	15
Coghlan	1,3	19.177	12
Colegiales	2,6	56.998	13
Constitución	2,1	45.860	1
Flores	8,1	150.484	7
Floresta	2,4	39.473	10
La Boca	3,3	46.494	4
La Paternal	2,4	20.053	15
Liniers	5,4	44.234	9
Mataderos	7,6	64.932	9
Monte Castro	2,9	34.594	10
Montserrat	2,2	43.560	1
Nueva Pompeya	6,1	63.276	4
Núñez	3,9	53.005	13
Palermo	17,4	252.312	14
Parque Avellaneda	5,2	54.191	9
Parque Chacabuco	2,4	39.473	7
Parque Chas	1,4	19.000	15
Parque Patricios	3,8	40.885	4
Puerto Madero	2,1	7.000	1
Recoleta	5,4	188.780	2
Retiro	2,9	45.002	1
Saavedra	5,9	51.723	12
San Cristóbal	2,1	49.986	3
San Nicolás	2,4	33.305	1
San Telmo	1,3	25.969	1
Vélez Sársfield	2,4	35.963	10
Versalles	1,5	14.178	10
Villa Crespo	3,8	89.859	15
Villa del Parque	3,6	58.573	11
Villa Devoto	6,6	71.013	11
Villa Mitre	2,2	36.090	11
Villa Lugano	9,2	114.253	8
Villa Luro	2,6	33.058	10
Villa Ortúzar	1,2	22.591	15
Villa Pueyrredón	3,7	40.235	12
Villa Real	1,5	14.278	10
Villa Riachuelo	4,4	14.960	8
Villa Santa Rita	2,3	33.850	11
Villa Soldati	8,7	41.228	8
Villa Urquiza	5,6	89.360	12

Communes

Each comuna (commune) encompasses one or more barrios, which are represented in the respective community centres for administrative purposes.

Communes are serially numbered. The list below lists all communes and their constituent neighbourhoods in numerical order:

Coloured Comunas with neighbourhood divisions.

1. Puerto Madero, San Nicolás, Retiro, Monserrat, San Telmo, and Constitución
2. Recoleta
3. Balvanera and San Cristóbal
4. La Boca, Barracas, Parque Patricios, and Nueva Pompeya
5. Almagro and Boedo
6. Caballito
7. Flores and Parque Chacabuco
8. Villa Soldati, Villa Lugano, and Villa Riachuelo
9. Parque Avellaneda, Mataderos, and Liniers
10. Villa Luro, Vélez Sársfield, Floresta, Monte Castro, Villa Real, and Versalles
11. Villa Devoto, Villa del Parque, Villa Santa Rita, and Villa General Mitre
12. Villa Pueyrredón, Villa Urquiza, Coghlan, and Saavedra
13. Núñez, Belgrano, and Colegiales
14. Palermo
15. Villa Ortúzar, Chacarita, Villa Crespo, La Paternal, Agronomía and Parque Chas.

Informal barrio names

The name Barrio Norte refers to the area around Santa Fe avenue, encompassing parts of Retiro, Recoleta, and Palermo.

The name Barrio Sur was used in the past to encompass the southern neighborhoods. This name has mostly fallen out of use, but survives in the lyrics of the tango Sur, which refer to specific places in Nueva Pompeya and Boedo, and in the short story "The South" by Jorge Luis Borges, where the conventional wisdom is recalled that "the South begins when crossing Rivadavia Avenue".

Abasto is sometimes used to refer to the zone around the Abasto market (now a shopping mall), many times in association with the life of Carlos Gardel. It encompasses north-western Balvanera and north-eastern Almagro.

Congreso is the area around Congress square, encompassing southeastern Balvanera, northern San Cristóbal and western Montserrat.

Catalinas Norte is the high-rise district next to Retiro transportation center and to the financial district, while Catalinas Sur is used (quite rarely) for the lowlands south of San Telmo (notably the area around Cosme Argerich hospital and at the bottom of Parque Lezama).

Palermo is the largest barrio by area and has several informal subdivisions; Palermo Viejo is the name usually given to the area between Coronel Diaz, Cordoba, Scalabrini Ortiz and Güemes; Palermo Soho, the city's fashion district, refers to Plaza Julio Cortázar and its surroundings; Palermo Hollywood is a distinctive quarter located in the northern edge of the barrio where radio and TV stations, movie producers and workshops have settled in the late 1990s. Las Cañitas refers to a few blocks around the Campo Argentino de Polo, crowded with trendy bars, fancy restaurants and nightclubs. "Palermo Queens" is used sometimes to refer to the parts of Villa Crespo close to Palermo Viejo. Other than Palermo Viejo, these names are of recent vintage (1990s and later) and are related to the gentrification process that Palermo and its peripheral areas are undergoing.

Parque Centenario is sometimes used to refer to the area around Centenario park, at the limit of Almagro, Caballito, and Villa Crespo.

The southern parts of Flores were reclaimed from swampland, and the names Bajo Flores and Bañado de Flores are used for these areas.

Within Belgrano, there are Belgrano "C" and "R" (widely and incorrectly believed to signify "commercial" and "residential", respectively) and Bajo Belgrano ("Belgrano lowlands"), which since the late 1990s includes a small Chinatown.

A tango song named "Cien barrios porteños" (The 100 barrios of Buenos Aires), sung by Alberto Castillo, is sometimes invoked (informally) to support the claim that there are indeed a hundred neighbourhoods in the city. This number may be reached by including some suburbs in the tally.

External links

Buenos Aires portal

• Buenos Aires Barrios Maps (Spanish)
• Barrios History Government of the Buenos Aires city (Spanish)
• Division into Comunas