Ciudad Juarez

Ciudad Juárez (Spanish pronunciation: [sjuˈðað ˈxwaɾes]), abbreviated Juárez and formerly known as El Paso del Norte, is a city and seat of the municipality of Juárez in theMexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez's estimated population is 1.5 million people.[2] The city lies on the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte), south of El Paso, Texas. El Paso andCiudad Juárez comprise one of the largest bi-national metropolitan areas in the world with a combined population of 2.4 million people.

Ciudad Juárez is one of the fastest growingcities in the world despite being called "the most violent zone in the world outside of declared war zones."[3] In 2001 the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas published a reportstating that in Ciudad Juárez “the average annual growth over the 10-year period 1990–2000 was 5.3%. Juárez experienced much higher population growth than the state of Chihuahua andthan Mexico as a whole.”[4]

There are four international ports of entry connecting Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, Texas, including the Bridge of the Americas, Ysleta InternationalBridge, Paso del Norte Bridge, and Stanton Street Bridge. These combined allowed 22,958,472 crossings in 2008,[5] making Ciudad Juárez a major point of entry and transportationfor all of central northern Mexico. The city has a growing industrial center which is made up in large part by more than 300 maquiladoras (assembly plants) located in and aroundthe city. According to a 2007 New York Times article, Ciudad Juárez "is now absorbing more new industrial real estate space than any other North American city."[2] In 2008, FDiMagazine designated Ciudad Juárez "The City of the Future."[6] In 2011, the State of Chihuahua renamed the City of Juarez to Heroica Ciudad Juárez for promotional purposes.