Northern Mexico

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Northern Mexico El Norte
Cultural region of Mexico
Left-right from top: Monterrey, Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, Torreón, Chihuahua, Hermosillo, Durango and Mazatlán.
Etymology: La tierra al norte del trópico (in Spanish); The land above the tropic (in English).
Nickname(s):  Aridoamerica, el Norti (local pronunciation)
States	Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, Sinaloa, Sonora and Tamaulipas
Area
• Total	1,054,549 km2 (407,164 sq mi)
Population
• Total	27,056,627
• Density	26/km2 (66/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Norteño, norteña

Northern Mexico (Spanish: el Norte de México IPA: [el ˈnoɾte ðe ˈmexiko] ^ⓘ), commonly referred as El Norte, is an informal term for the northern cultural and geographical area in Mexico. Depending on the source, it contains some or all of the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, Sinaloa, Sonora and Tamaulipas.

There is no specific border that separates the northern states from the southern states in Mexico. For some authors, only states that have a border with the United States are considered as northern Mexico, i.e. Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Sonora and Tamaulipas.^[1] Others also include Durango, Sinaloa and Baja California Sur.^[2] Other people consider that the north starts above the Tropic of Cancer,^[3] but this description would include some parts of Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí that are not considered northern states.