Territorial synthesis
Twelve cities in one
The synthesis of the series: a comparative portrait of Cancún's functional zones and subzones using twenty-one indicators of population, housing, land, activity, zoning, street and care, measured with the same yardstick.
In one sentenceCompares the city's zones with the same yardstick to see which lag behind on each issue.
Spanish original: Doce ciudades en una
How many cities are there in Cancún?
Cancún is not one city but several: an emptying core, a growing social-housing periphery, gated enclaves and a hotel island.
This atlas brings the indicators of the whole series into a single portrait to compare those cities with the same yardstick.
Key findings
An emptying core, a growing periphery
On a comparable base, core subzone 1-A loses 19% of its population while subzone 3-B grows 44%.
Subzone 7-B: the densest, with the most care needs
189,000 residents, 101 people/ha, 11% aged 0–5 and 251 of the 594 priority care blocks.
No subzone has it all
Each subzone shows a different combination: planning Cancún means planning twelve cities with a single instrument.
Approach
Step 1
Aggregate by functional subzone the indicators built in the series' atlases.
Step 2
Compare only subzones with enough population and require minimum bases for change rates.
Step 3
Show each subzone against the median, without scores or composite indices.
How to read it
- Colour shows distance from the median, not a grade.
- Subzones are large and heterogeneous; the detail is in the series' atlases.
- Change rates are only computed with minimum bases to avoid misleading percentages.
Data
Functional zones and subzones
Boundaries of the 12 zones and 21 subzones.
Atlases in the series
Emptying and land value, regulatory gap, proximity, road safety and care, aggregated by subzone.
What supports the method
- (2019)Cancún's growth trajectory, 1975–2014 (p. 81).
- INFONAVIT / ONU-Hábitat (2023)Adapts 46 indicators of the UN-Habitat urban monitoring framework to Mexican municipalities.
Paraphrased; page numbers refer to the PDF consulted. The library is in Spanish.
What you just saw
A common set of population, housing, activity, zoning, street and care indicators by subzone.
What else this method can answer
- Which zone should each policy prioritise?
- Which indicators should be monitored every year?
- Where do several gaps overlap?
In other places
Applies to any regionalisation with census and economic data.
Line of work
D · Territorial diagnosis and monitoring →Do you have a similar question in your city?
Describe the problem
Next in Urban structure and societyCentres and corridors