The following is a list of the most populous Peruvian metropolitan areas with over 300,000 inhabitants.
Note that the populations of metropolitan areas are not city populations but rather a combination of a main large city and many other smaller satellite cities.In Peru, cities with a population of more than 500,000 and with a metropolitan development plan are considered metropolises. As of the 2007 census, these cities are Lima, Arequipa, and Trujillo.
Lima is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of the country, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The city is considered the political, cultural, financial and commercial center of Peru. Due to its geostrategic importance, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network has categorized it as a "beta" tier city. Jurisdictionally, the metropolis extends mainly within the province of Lima and in a smaller portion, to the west, within the Constitutional Province of Callao, where the seaport and the Jorge Chávez Airport are located. Both provinces have had regional autonomy since 2002.
The 2023 census projection indicates that the city of Lima has an estimated population of 10,092,000 inhabitants, making it the second-most populous city in South America and the largest Spanish-speaking city in the world in terms of city proper population. The Lima Metropolitan Area, which forms a contiguous urban area with the seaside city of Callao, has a population of 10,151,200 inhabitants. When considering the additional 6 districts contained in the Constitutional Province of Callao, the total agglomeration reaches a population of 11,342,100 inhabitants, one of the most populated urban agglomerations in the world. The city is marked by severe urban segregation between the poor pueblos jóvenes, populated in large part by immigrants from the Andean highlands, and wealthy neighborhoods.
The Lima Metropolitan Area (Spanish: Área Metropolitana de Lima, also known as Lima Metropolitana) is an area formed by the conurbation of the Peruvian provinces of Lima (the nation's capital) and Callao. It is the largest of the metropolitan areas of Peru, the seventh largest in the Americas, the fourth largest in Latin America, and among the thirty largest in the world. The conurbation process started to be evident in the 1980s.
The metropolitan area is composed of five subregions. These are Lima Norte, Lima Sur, Lima Este, Central Lima, and Callao. Its estimated 2020 population is over 11 million according to the INEI.
This is a list of cities in Peru by population. For metropolitan areas see List of metropolitan areas of Peru.
The Iquitos Metropolitan Area is the name used to refer to the Peruvian metropolitan area whose principal city is Iquitos, according to Municipality of Iquitos. According to population statistics of INEI It is the sixth most populous metropolitan area of Peru in year 2015.
Trujillo (Spanish: [tɾuˈxiʝo]; Quechua: Truhillu; Mochica: Cɥimor ) is a city in coastal northwestern Peru and the capital of the Department of La Libertad. It is the third most populous city and center of the third most populous metropolitan area of Peru. It is located on the banks of the Moche River, near its mouth at the Pacific Ocean, in the Moche Valley. This was a site of the great prehistoric Moche and Chimu cultures before the Inca conquest and subsequent expansion.
The Independence of Trujillo from Spain was proclaimed in the Historic Centre of Trujillo on December 29, 1820, and the city was honored in 1822 by the Congress of the Republic of Peru with the title "Meritorious City and Faithful to the Fatherland", for its role in the fight for Peruvian independence. Trujillo is the birthplace of Peru's judiciary.