Ciudad Juárez is the second most populous city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It is commonly referred to as Juárez and was known as El Paso del Norte until 1888. Juárez is the seat of the Juárez Municipality with an estimated population of 1.5 million people. It lies on the Rio Grande river, south of El Paso, Texas, United States. Together with the surrounding areas, the cities form El Paso–Juárez, the second largest binational metropolitan area on the Mexico–U.S. border, with a combined population of over 2.7 million people.
Four international points of entry connect Ciudad Juárez and El Paso: the Bridge of the Americas, the Ysleta International Bridge, the Paso del Norte Bridge, and the Stanton Street Bridge. Combined, these bridges allowed 22,958,472 crossings in 2008, making Ciudad Juárez a major point of entry and transportation into the U.S. for all of central northern Mexico. The city has a growing industrial center, which in large part is made up by more than 300 "maquiladoras" located in and around the city. According to a 2007 New York Times article, Ciudad Juárez was "absorbing more new industrial real estate space than any other North American city".