Guadalajara is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the state of Jalisco. The city has a population of 1,460,148, while the Guadalajara metropolitan area has a population of 5,002,466, making it the second-largest metropolitan area in the country. Guadalajara has the second highest population density in Mexico, with over 10,361 people per square kilometre. Guadalajara is an international center of business, finance, arts, and culture, as well as the economic center of the Bajío region, one of the most productive and developed regions in Latin America. It lies roughly in the centre of the state, in the Atemajac Valley near the Río Grande de Santiago, at an elevation of about 5,100 feet . It is one of the most productive and globally competitive cities in the world. The city is an important center for science, technology, finance, culture, innovation, education, business, and tourism in Mexico. It is home to numerous landmarks, including Guadalajara Cathedral, the Teatro Degollado, the Templo Expiatorio, the Hospicio Cabañas, and the San Juan de Dios Market—the largest indoor market in Latin America.Guadalajara was founded on 14 February 1542 by Cristóbal de Oñate, a Basque conquistador, as the capital of the Kingdom of Nueva Galicia, part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. After 1572, the Royal Audiencia of Guadalajara, previously subordinate to Mexico City, became the only authority in New Spain with autonomy over Nueva Galicia, owing to rapidly growing wealth in the kingdom following the discovery of silver. The city flourished during the Porfiriato, with the advent of the industrial revolution, but its growth was hampered significantly during the Mexican Revolution. In 1929, the Cristero War ended within the confines of the city, when President Plutarco Elías Calles proclaimed the Grito de Guadalajara. The city saw continuous growth throughout the rest of the 20th century, attaining a 1 million metro population in the 1960s and passing 3 million in the 1990s.Guadalajara is a global city and one of Mexico's most important cultural centers.

It is home to numerous mainstays of Mexican culture, including Mariachi, Tequila, and Birria and hosts numerous notable events, including the Guadalajara International Film Festival, the most important film festival in Latin America, and the Guadalajara International Book Fair, the largest book fair in the Americas. The city was the American Capital of Culture in 2005 and has hosted numerous global events, including the 1970 FIFA World Cup, the 1986 FIFA World Cup, the 1st Ibero-American Summit in 1991, and the 2011 Pan American Games.
 

• The colloquial term for someone or something from Guadalajara is Tapatío. The word originates from the Nahuatl word tapatiotl, a monetary unit used in pre-Colonial times
   
• Central to Guadalajara’s reputation as a cultural hub of Latin America is the fact that it hosts the International Film Festival, widely considered the most prestigious film festival in Latin America
   
• The city is home to Guadalajara Chivas, Mexico’s most popular soccer team. Known as El Rebaño Sagrado (The Sacred Herd), Chivas has a unique tradition of fielding only Mexican players, earning it a reputation as Mexico’s most patriotic club
   
• The 2014 Castrol Magnatec Stop-Start Index placed Guadalajara as one of the top ten cities with the worst traffic in the world
   
• The Global Public Transit Index says the average amount of time people spend commuting on public transport in Guadalajara on a weekday is 82 minutes
   
• Guadalajara has Latin America's largest indoor market. A vast three-storey market in the city center, San Juan de Dios has nearly 3,000 stalls
   
• Guadalajara holds the largest Spanish language book fair in the world
   

Guadalajara is one of the three main cities of Mexico and one of the more important cities in Latin America. According to the last census of population of the National Institute of Statistic and Geography of 2010, Guadalajara counts with a total of 1.5 million of inhabitants and a superficy of 151 square kilometers.

The directory of governmental innovation is developed from the premises of the open government agenda, homologated by the principles of the government approved by the administration. It aims at impulsing an agenda with a social impact, and not only with a goal of technological management within the municipality.Historically, the mayorship of the city has been a common leaping platform for the state governorship. Additionally, because of the sheer size of the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area vis-à-vis the rest of the state, the city's urban agglomeration—largely dominated and coordinated by the Guadalajara city council—captures 12 of the 20 seats in the state legislature allocated by district.

All three branches of the state government are concentrated around the historic city center, with the Palace of Government, seat of the state executive, immediately southeast of the Cathedral. North, across the Plaza de la Liberación, is the State Legislature Building, and immediately east of the latter is the Supreme Tribunal of State Justice. The legislature has the cabildo, formed by the form chosen by the candidate for mayor, made up of aldermen, who are not elected by the people by direct or indirect voting, but the return happens automatically if the mayor wins. The municipality is divided into five electoral districts for the purpose of election of representatives of the city in the federal legislature. These districts are the VIII, IX, XI, XIII and XIV of the state of Jalisco. The city and the municipality of Guadalajara are essentially coextensive with over 99% of the municipality living within the city limits and nearly all of the municipality urbanized.Urbanization centered on the city spreads out over seven other municipalities; of Zapopan, Tlaquepaque, Tonalá, Tlajomulco de Zuñiga, El Salto, Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos and Juanacatlán.These areas form the «Guadalajara Metropolitan Area» , which is the most populous in the state of Jalisco and the second most populous in the country after the Mexico City Metropolitan area.
 

Guadalajara’s economy is traditionally based on its services as a political capital and as a commercial entrepôt for the surrounding agricultural region, which is devoted primarily to corn , beans, and livestock. Since 1940 the city has also been a major manufacturer of textiles, electronics, chemicals, building materials, tobacco products, soft drinks, and other products. Handicrafts are also important.

Guadalajara has the third-largest economy and industrial infrastructure in Mexico and contributes 37% of the state of Jalisco's total gross production. Its economic base is strong and well diversified, mainly based on commerce and services, although the manufacturing sector plays a defining role. It is ranked in the top ten in Latin America in gross domestic product and the third highest ranking in Mexico. In its 2007 survey entitled «Cities of the Future», FDi magazine ranked Guadalajara highest among major Mexican cities and designated Guadalajara as having the second strongest economic potential of any major North American city behind Chicago. FDI ranked it as the most business-friendly Latin American city in 2007.

In 2009 Moody's Investors Service assigned ratings of Ba1 and A1.mx . During the prior five years, the municipality's financial performance had been mixed but had begun to stabilize in the later two years. Guadalajara manages one of the largest budgets among Mexican municipalities and its revenue per capita indicator places it above the average for Moody's-rated municipalities in Mexico.The city's economy has two main sectors. Commerce and tourism employ most: about 60% of the population. Sixty percent of manufactured products are sold domestically, while forty percent are exported, mostly to the United States. This makes Guadalajara's economic fortunes dependent on those of the U.S., both as a source of investment and as a market for its goods.In 2007, fDi magazine stated that Guadalajara has the second strongest economic potential of any major North American city, behind only Chicago.The same research noted Guadalajara as a «city of the future» due to its youthful population, low unemployment and large number of recent foreign investment deals; it was found to be the third most business-friendly city in North America.The city has to compete with China, especially for electronics industries which rely on high volume and low wages. This has caused it to move toward high-mix, mid-volume and value-added services, such as automotives. However, its traditional advantage of proximity to the U.S. market is one reason Guadalajara stays competitive.Mexico ranked third in 2009 in Latin America for the export of information technology services, behind Brazil and Argentina. This kind of service is mostly related to online and telephone technical support. The major challenge this sector has is the lack of university graduates who speak English.

Most of the economy revolves around commerce, employing 60% of the population. This activity has mainly focused on the purchase and sale of the following products: food and beverages, textiles, electronic appliances, tobacco, cosmetics, sport articles, construction materials and others. Guadalajara's commercial activity is second only to Mexico City.Globalization and neoliberal reforms have affected the form and distribution of commerce in Guadalajara since the early 1990s. This has led to tensions between traditional markets, such as the Mercardo Libertad, and retailers such as department stores and supermarkets. Local governments in the metropolitan area used to invest in and heavily regulate traditional markets but this is no longer the case. It hosts art exhibits and fashion shows, and has an area for cultural workshops. Anchor stores include Liverpool and Sears and specialty stores such as Hugo Boss, Max Mara and Lacoste, Tesla MotorsCostco.

Best Buy opened its first Guadalajara store here. It has an additional private entrance on the top floor of the adjacent parking lot. Another Best Buy store was inaugurated in Ciudadela Lifestyle Center mall, which was the chain's third-largest in the world, according to the company. Andares is another important commercial center in Zapopan. This $530 million mixed-use complex opened in 2008, designed by renowned Mexican Sordo Madaleno architecture firm features luxury residences and a high-level mall anchored by two large department stores, Liverpool and El Palacio de Hierro. The 133,000 m2 mall offers hundreds of stores, a big food court located on the second floor and several restaurants at the Paseo Andares.

A large segment of the commercial sector caters to tourists and other visitors. Recreational tourism is mainly concentrated in the historic downtown. In addition to being a cultural and recreational attraction and thanks to its privileged geographical location, the city serves as an axis to nearby popular beach destinations such as Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo and Mazatlán.Other types of visitors include those who travel to attend seminars, conventions and other events in fields such as academic, entertainment, sports and business.

Guadalajara is well connected by modern highways to Mexico City, to the northwest and to the major beach resorts of Manzanillo, Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta. The main highways are Fed 15, which connects the city northwestward to Nogales, Sonora, via Tepic, Nayarit and eastwards to Mexico City via Morelia. Fed 80D leads northwest toward Aguascalientes, and Fed 54D leads southward to the coast via Colima.

The city is served by the Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Guadalajara International Airport, also known as Guadalajara International Airport opened in 1966. It is 16 km south of downtown Guadalajara, and it was built on the Tlajomulco de Zuñiga city, way down to Chapala. The Guadalajara light rail/metro system, named SITEUR , Spanish for Urban Electrical Train System, provides rapid transit service within Guadalajara and the neighboring municipalities of Zapopan and Tlaquepaque. It consists of two lines: line 1, running from north to south, with 19 stations, and line 2, running from downtown to the east, with 10 stations. The trains are electric and have a top speed of 70 km/h . Currently there are 48 articulated cars in service,[ built in Mexico by Concarril/Bombardier. Construction of a third line began in 2014. Line 3 will run from Zapopan, in the northwest, to Tlaquepaque and Tonalá, in the southeast, via the city center.The Guadalajara Macrobus is a public transportation system based on the concept of Bus Rapid Transit, where buses run in lanes specifically for them and have stations for boarding. The Guadalajara trolleybus system has been operating since the 1970s, and there are private companies operating regular city buses. It also has a bustling network of pedestrianised streets.

Mi Bici Pública, PBSC Urban Solutions-based public bike share system, was launched in 2014. In 2016, the city implemented 242 docking stations and 2116 bikes. As of September 2018 Mi Bici has 19,664 annual subscribed users.The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Guadalajara, such as to and from work, on weekdays is 82 min. 23% of public transit riders ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 15 min, while 22% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day.

The city is home to the University of Guadalajara (1925), one of the largest institutions of higher education in Mexico, and the Autonomous University of Guadalajara (1935). The military schools of aviation (1915), air force specialists (1934), supply and maintenance (1942), and signals (1920) are in suburban Zapopan.