Quito

Quito (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkito]), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city of Ecuador, and at an elevation of 2,850 metres (9,350 ft) above sea level, it is the highest official capital city in the world. It is located in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha, an active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains. With a population of 2,671,191 according to the last census (2014), Quito is the second most populous city in Ecuador, after Guayaquil. It is also the capital of the Pichincha province and the seat of the Metropolitan District of Quito. The canton recorded a population of 2,239,191 residents in the 2010 national census. In 2008, the city was designated as the headquarters of the Union of South American Nations.

The historic center of Quito has one of the largest, least-altered and best-preserved historic centers in the Americas. Quito, along with Kraków, were the first World Cultural Heritage Sites declared by UNESCO in 1978. The central square of Quito is located about 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of the equator; the city itself extends to within about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) of zero latitude. A monument and museum marking the general location of the equator is known locally as la mitad del mundo (the middle of the world), to avoid confusion, as the word ecuador is Spanish for equator.

Quito (disambiguation)

Quito may refer to:

Ecuador

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Quito Canton

Quito, officially the Metropolitan District of Quito (Spanish: Distrito Metropolitano de Quito), is a canton in the province of Pichincha, Ecuador.

Governance

The canton is governed by the same mayor and city council that govern the city of Quito.

Population figures

According to the 2001 census, the total population of Quito (not the city itself) is 1,839,853, with 892,570 men and 947,283 women. According to the 2007 estimates, it is 1,840,000. Of this, the population of the urban parishes (the city of Quito itself) was 1,399,378, and the population of the rural parishes (outside of the city of Quito, but still within the canton) was 440,475. The total population density of the canton is 439.8 inhabitants per km² (1139.1/mi²). The total number of households in the cantón is 555,928, with 419,845 in the urban area (= city) and 136,083 in the rural area. Of the 1,407,526 inhabitants of the canton over the age of 12, 639,068 are married, 541,758 are single, 33,116 are divorced, 30,898 are separated, and 47,930 are widowed.