Cundinamarca Department

Cundinamarca
Department
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Cundinamarca Corazón de Colombia (Spanish: Cundinamarca, Heart of Colombia)
Anthem: Himno de Cundinamarca
Cundinamarca and Bogotá are shown in red
Topography of the department
Coordinates: 4°36′N 74°5′W / 4.600°N 74.083°WCoordinates: 4°36′N 74°5′W / 4.600°N 74.083°W
Country	Colombia
Region	Andean Region
Established	June 15, 1857
Capital	Bogotá
Government
• Governor	Jorge Emilio Rey Angel (2016-2019)
Area[1][2]
• Total	22,623 km^2 (8,735 sq mi)
Area rank	17th
Population (2013)[3]
• Total	2,680,041
• Rank	4th
• Density	120/km^2 (310/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC-05
ISO 3166 code	CO-CUN
Provinces	15
Website	Official website

Department of Cundinamarca (Departamento de Cundinamarca, Spanish pronunciation: [kundinaˈmarka]) is one of the departments of Colombia. Its area covers 22,623 square kilometres (8,735 sq mi) (not including the Capital District) and it has a population of 2,598,245 as of 2013. It was created on August 5, 1886 under the constitutional terms presented on the same year. Cundinamarca is located in the center of Colombia.

Cundinamarca's capital city is Bogotá, the capital of Colombia. This is a special case among Colombian departments, since Bogotá is not legally a part of Cundinamarca, yet it is the only department that has its capital designated by the Constitution (if the capital were to be ever moved, it would take a constitutional reform to do so, instead of a simple ordinance passed by the Cundinamarca Assembly). In censuses, the populations for Bogotá and Cundinamarca are tabulated separately; otherwise, Cundinamarca's population would total over 10 million.

Entity	Population	Area (km²)	Area (square miles)	Density (per km²)	Density (per sq.mi.)
Cundinamarca (without Bogotá)	2,349,578	22,623	8,735	104	269
Bogotá	7,881,156	1,587	613	4,966	12,857
Cundinamarca and Bogotá	10,230,734	24,210	9,348	423	1,094

Etymology

The name of Cundinamarca comes from kundur marqa, an indigenous expression, probably derived from Quechua and means "condor's nest", it was used in pre-Columbian times by the natives of the Magdalena Valley to refer to the nearby highlands.^[4]

Geography

Most of Cundinamarca is on the Eastern Cordillera (Cordillera Oriental), just south of Boyacá, bordered by the Magdalena River on the west, reaching down into the Orinoco River basin on the east, and bordering on Tolima to the south. The capital district of Bogotá is nearly completely surrounded by Cundinamarca territory and was formed by carving up Cundinamarca. Because of this and other border changes, the present department of Cundinamarca is much smaller than the original state.

Demography and ethnography

Municipalities with over 50,000 inhabitants

Municipal population position

Rank	City or municipality	Inhabitants (1985)	Inhabitants (1993)	Inhabitants (2005)	Inhabitants (2015)*	Inhabitants (2020)*
1	Soacha	132,758	254,625	401,996	511,262	567,546
2	Fusagasugá	63,886	82,003	108,949	134,523	147,631
3	Facatativá	55,324	75,711	107,463	132,106	144,149
4	Zipaquirá	60,202	75,166	101,562	122,347	132,419
5	Chía	38,862	55,742	97,907	126,647	141,917
6	Girardot	81,019	90,904	97,889	105,085	107,796
7	Mosquera	16,505	22,250	63,237	82,750	93,461
8	Madrid	33,795	42,584	62,436	77,627	85,090
9	Funza	31,366	41,119	61,391	75,350	82,321
10	Cajicá	23,618	31,316	45,391	56,875	62,713
Source: DANE *projection[5]

According to the latest census conducted in 2005, 2,280,037 people live in Cundinamarca, excluding 6,776,009 of the capital, Bogotá. The racial makeup is:

• Whites and mestizos (96.28%): Mestizos are mixed European-Amerindian blood. The Bogotá metropolitan area has a history of European (not limited to Spanish) and other Latin American immigration.
• Blacks or Afro-Colombians (3.33-3.37%)
• Indigenous/Amerindians (0.31-0.34%)
• Roma (Gitanos or Gypsies) (0.01%)
• East Asians (0.01%), often of Chinese descent. About 25,000 Chinese-Colombians live in the department.

The city of Bogotá and the municipalities of Soacha, La Calera, Cota, Chía, Madrid, Funza, Mosquera, Fusagasugá, Facatativá and Zipaquirá form a single metropolitan area.

Important cities

Cundinamarca is made up of 116 municipalities, six of which recorded a population of over 100,000 and could be considered as cities: Soacha, Fusagasugá, Girardot, Facatativá, Zipaquirá and Chia, while Bogotá District is in the category of capital.

Chisaca Lake on the Sumapaz Paramo

• Bogotá Metropolitan Area: Comprises the towns of Soacha, Facatativá, Chia, Madrid, Funza, and Mosquera, among others. Its activities are centered in the industrial sector. Estate activity is important especially in the suburbs closer to Bogotá: Chía, La Calera and Tocancipá.
• Girardot: In the far southwest and bordering Department of Tolima, is the capital of the Province of Alto Magdalena. Its main economic activity is trade, as a result of a major tourist dynamics and its proximity to major agricultural areas of Tolima. It has a college and important trade fairs and events.
• Fusagasugá is located between Bogotá and Girardot, and it is an hour of each city. The capital city of the Province of Sumapaz, it is an important focus of agricultural marketing and regional services, standing out as an educational city with a large university and an increasing population trend. Its economy is mainly focused on trade and agricultural marketing, with a significant production of ornamental plants and flowers for export, for which it is known as the garden city of Colombia.
• Zipaquirá: Despite being part of the metropolitan area of Bogotá, it has managed to position itself as one of the most important centers of Colombia's salt mining industry. Its economy is focused on commerce and services.

Other major towns are Ubaté due to high livestock and dairy production. Guaduas, is an important cultural center. Chocontá and Fred are agricultural centers.

Provinces

Cundinamarca has 15 provinces and the Capital District (Bogotá), which simultaneously acts as capital of the Republic, capital of the Department and a separately administered District (or Department) in itself.

1. Almeidas
2. Upper Magdalena (Alto Magdalena)
3. Lower Magdalena (Bajo Magdalena)
4. Gualivá
5. Guavio
6. Central Magdalena (Magdalena Centro)
7. Medina
8. Eastern (Oriente)
9. Rionegro
10. Central Savanna (Sabana Centro)
11. Western Savanna (Sabana Occidente)
12. Soacha
13. Sumapaz
14. Tequendama
15. Ubaté

Sports

The department is home to the basketball team Cóndores de Cundinamarca, which plays its home games in the Coliseo de la Luna in Chía.

See also

• Postage stamps of Cundinamarca
• Altiplano Cundiboyacense

References

1. "Departamento: Datos generales: Límites" (in Spanish). Gobernación del Cundinamarca. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013.
2. Kline, Harvey F. (2012). "Cundinamarca, Department of". Historical Dictionary of Colombia. Scarecrow Press. p. 157. ISBN 978-0-8108-7813-6.
3. "DANE". Retrieved February 13, 2013.
4. (Spanish) Cundinamarca comes from Quechua - El Tiempo
5. Projections 1985-2020. Bogotá: DANE. 12 May 2011. Retrieved 30 July 2015.

External links

• "Gobernación de Cundinamarca: Perfiles (Cundinamarca Government Profiles)" (in Spanish). Gobernación del Cundinamarca.