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Coahuila
State of Mexico
State of Mexico
| Field | Value | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| name | Coahuila | ||
| official_name | |||
| Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza (Spanish) | |||
| settlement_type | State | ||
| image_flag | |||
| image_shield | Coat of arms of Coahuila.svg | ||
| shield_size | 80px | ||
| nickname | |||
| motto | Plus Ultra (Latin) | ||
| image_skyline | {{multiple image | ||
| border | infobox | ||
| total_width | 280 | ||
| perrow | 1/2/2/2 | ||
| caption_alignment | center | ||
| caption1 | Saltillo, the capital city of Coahuila | ||
| caption2 | Coahuila State Government Palace | ||
| caption3 | Forest of Arteaga, Saltillo metropolitan area | ||
| image4 | Las Playitas Cuatrocienegas 2.jpg | ||
| caption4 | Cuatro Ciénegas | ||
| image5 | Espiga de trigo.jpg | ||
| caption5 | Torreón | ||
| image6 | AstaBanderaMonumental.JPG | ||
| caption6 | Piedras Negras | ||
| image7 | ParroquiadeSantiagoApóstolMonclova-SolyPepe201209 016.jpg | ||
| caption7 | Monclova | ||
| anthem | |||
| image_map | Coahuila in Mexico (location map scheme).svg | ||
| map_caption | State of Coahuila within Mexico | ||
| coordinates | |||
| subdivision_type | Country | ||
| subdivision_name | Mexico | ||
| subdivision_type1 | Capital | ||
| and largest city | |||
| subdivision_name1 | Saltillo | ||
| subdivision_type2 | Largest metro | ||
| subdivision_name2 | La Laguna | ||
| subdivision_type3 | Municipalities | ||
| subdivision_name3 | 38 | ||
| established_title | Admission | ||
| established_date | May 7, 1824 | ||
| established_title2 | Order | ||
| established_date2 | 16th | ||
| leader_title | Governor | ||
| leader_name | [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg | link=Institutional Revolutionary Party | 23px]] Manolo Jiménez Salinas |
| leader_title1 | Senators | ||
| leader_name1 | [File:Morena logo (Mexico).svg | ||
| leader_title2 | [Deputies | ||
| leader_name2 | {{Collapsible list | ||
| title | Federal Deputies | ||
| frame_style | border:none; padding: 0; | ||
| title_style | |||
| list_style | text-align:left;display:none; | ||
| 1 | • [File:PT Party (Mexico).svg | ||
| 2 | • [[File:Morena logo (Mexico).svg | ||
| 3 | • [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg | ||
| 4 | • [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg | ||
| 5 | • [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg | ||
| 6 | • [[File:Morena logo (Mexico).svg | ||
| 7 | • [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg | ||
| unit_pref | Metric | ||
| area_footnotes | |||
| area_total_km2 | 151595 | ||
| area_note | [Ranked 3rd | ||
| elevation_max_footnotes | |||
| elevation_max_m | 3710 | ||
| elevation_max_point | Sierra de la Marta | ||
| population_footnotes | |||
| population_total | 3146771 | ||
| population_as_of | 2020 | ||
| population_density_km2 | auto | ||
| population_density_rank | 26th | ||
| population_demonym | Coahuilense | ||
| population_rank | 15th | ||
| demographics_type2 | GDP | ||
| demographics2_footnotes | |||
| demographics2_title1 | Total | ||
| demographics2_info1 | MXN 1.035 trillion | ||
| (US$51.5 billion) (2022) | |||
| demographics2_title2 | Per capita | ||
| demographics2_info2 | (US$15,699) (2022) | ||
| timezone1 | CST | ||
| utc_offset1 | −6 | ||
| timezone1_DST | CDT | ||
| utc_offset1_DST | −5 | ||
| postal_code_type | Postal code | ||
| postal_code | 25 - 27 | ||
| area_code_type | Area code | ||
| area_code | {{Collapsible list | ||
| title | Area codes | ||
| frame_style | border:none; padding: 0; | ||
| title_style | |||
| list_style | text-align:left;display:none; | ||
| 1 | • 842 | ||
| 2 | • 844 | ||
| 3 | • 861 | ||
| 4 | • 862 | ||
| 5 | • 864 | ||
| 6 | • 866 | ||
| 7 | • 867 | ||
| 8 | • 869 | ||
| 9 | • 871 | ||
| 10 | • 872 | ||
| 11 | • 873 | ||
| 12 | • 877 | ||
| 13 | • 878 | ||
| iso_code | MX-COA | ||
| blank_name_sec1 | HDI | ||
| blank_info_sec1 | 0.833 very high Ranked 3rd of 32 | ||
| website | |||
| footnotes | a. Joined to the federation under the name of Coahuila y Texas; also recognized as Coahuila y Tejas. | ||
| native_name |
Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza (Spanish) and largest city (US$51.5 billion) (2022)
Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza, is one of the 31 states of Mexico. The largest city and state capital is the city of Saltillo; the second largest is Torreón and the third largest is Monclova (a former state capital); the fourth largest is Piedras Negras; and the fifth largest is Ciudad Acuña.
Coahuila borders the Mexican states of Nuevo León to the east, Zacatecas to the south, and Durango and Chihuahua to the west. To the north, Coahuila accounts for a 512 km stretch of the Mexico–United States border, adjacent to the U.S. state of Texas along the course of the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte). With an area of 151563 km2, it is the nation's third-largest state. It comprises 38 municipalities (municipios). In the 2020 Census, Coahuila had a population of 3,146,771.
History
The name Coahuila derives from native terms for the region, and has been known by variations such as Cuagüila and Cuauila. Some historians believe that this means "flying serpent", "place of many trees", or "place where serpents creep". The official name of the state is Coahuila de Zaragoza, in honor of General Ignacio Zaragoza.
The Spanish explored the north of Mexico some decades after their victory in Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztecs. Such exploration was delayed because the northern climate was harsher and there was no gold. The first Spanish settlement in the region now called Coahuila was at Minas de la Trinidad in 1577. Saltillo was settled in 1586, to form part of the province of Nueva Vizcaya of the Vice-royalty of New Spain. Later it became one of the first provinces of Nueva Extremadura to be explored by Europeans. Among the 16th century settlers of Saltillo and other communities in Nueva Vizcaya were Tlaxcalans, who founded an independent community bordering Saltillo, called San Esteban de Nueva Tlaxcala.
Coahuila y Tejas was one of the constituent states of the newly independent United Mexican States under their 1824 Constitution, and included Texas, Coahuila and Nuevo León. Later in the same year Nuevo León was detached, but Texas remained a part of the state until 1836, when it seceded to form the Republic of Texas. Monclova was the capital of the state from 1833 to 1835.
In 1840, Coahuila briefly became a member of the short lived Republic of the Rio Grande. In the mid-19th century, the Sánchez Navarro family owned a ranch of 16500000 acre mostly in Coahuila. It was the largest privately owned property in the Americas.
In the 1840s and 1850s, Coahuila was the target of frequent Comanche raids.
On February 19, 1856, Santiago Vidaurri annexed Coahuila to his state, Nuevo León, but it regained its separate status in 1868.
During the Mexican Revolution, Francisco Villa attacked the city of Torreón.
On April 4, 2004, the border city of Piedras Negras was flooded. More than 30 people died and more than 4,000 lost their homes.
In 2007 Coahuila became the first state in Mexico to offer civil unions (Pacto Civil de Solidaridad) to same-sex couples.
Archaeological finds
In July 2025, archaeologists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and CONANP discovered a pre-Hispanic mortuary cave in the desert mountains of Coahuila. Accessed via a narrow 50‑cm vertical shaft, the cave contained the remains of around 17 individuals, including men, women, and children, who were interred in bundled form on baskets or mats. The semi-circular chamber preserved 12 complete skulls (five of which belonged to children), and while evidence of modern looting was present, the burials share significant similarities with those at Coahuila’s Candelaria Cave. The finds are being preserved at the Regional Museum of La Laguna in Torreón.
Geography
The Sierra Madre Oriental runs northwest to southeast through the State, and the higher elevations are home to the Sierra Madre Oriental pine-oak forests. The northernmost fingers of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the Sierra del Burro and the Sierra del Carmen, reach to the border with the United States at the Rio Grande.
East of the range, the land slopes gently toward the Rio Grande, and is drained by several rivers, including the Salado and its tributary, the Sabinas River. The Tamaulipan mezquital, a dry shrubland ecoregion, occupies the eastern portion of the State, and extends across the Rio Grande into southern Texas.
The portion of the State west of the Sierra Madre Oriental lies on the Mexican Plateau, and is part of the Chihuahuan Desert. The Bolsón de Mapimí is a large endorheic basin which covers much of the western portion of the State and extends into adjacent portions of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. The Nazas River, which flows east from Durango, and the Aguanaval River, which flows north from Zacatecas, empty into lakes in the Bolsón. Torreón, the most populous city in the State, lies on the Nazas in the irrigated Laguna Region, the (Comarca Lagunera), which straddles the border of Coahuila and Durango.
Coahuila contains two biosphere reserves. Maderas del Carmen lies on the northern border of the State, and includes sections of the Chihuahuan desert and sky islands of pine-oak forest in the Sierra del Carmen. The springs, lakes, and wetlands of the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin lie west of Monclova on the west slope of the Sierra Madre.
Coahuila is largely arid or semi-arid, but the rivers of the State support extensive irrigated agriculture, particularly cotton. The Parras district in the southern part of the State produces wines and brandies. The pine-oak forests of the Sierra Madre produce timber.
Flora and fauna
Demographics
|1787 | 15,287 |1815 | 50,600 |1895 | 242021 |1900 | 296938 |1910 | 362092 |1921 | 393480 |1930 | 436425 |1940 | 550717 |1950 | 720619 |1960 | 907734 |1970 | 1114956 |1980 | 1557265 |1990 | 1972340 |1995 | 2173775 |2000 | 2298070 |2005 | 2495200 |2010 | 2748391 |2015 | 2954915 |2020 | 3146771
The last population census run across Mexico in the year 2020, reports Coahuila de Zaragoza as having 3,146,771 inhabitants, which, considering its size, means that the state has a very low density, in fact as low as only 15 persons per square kilometer.
Coahuila's population is mainly made up of Mestizos. Fewer than 7,500 natives reside in Coahuila, or merely 0.3% of the total population. According to the 2020 Census, 1.46% of Coahuila's population identified as Black, Afro-Mexican, or of African descent.
The rest of the demographic particulars in the state are very similar to national averages, such as a high life expectancy (reaching 75 years of age) and a Catholic majority.
Education
-
Basic education Basic public education in Coahuila is mainly managed by the state's Secretary of Education, but federal-sustained schools are also very common. There are also a lot of private schools in the main cities of the state.
-
Higher education :Some of the most recognized universities in Coahuila include:
- Iberoamerican University of Torreón|Iberoamerican University (Universidad Iberoamericana)
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