Ciudad de la Costa: where Montevideo moved to
116,501 residents, 18 km of beach and the second largest city in Uruguay, created in 1994 out of seaside resorts. This is where the capital lost people to.
When we said that Montevideo lost 72,586 inhabitants between 2011 and 2023, one obvious question was left unanswered: where did those people go?
A good share of them went to a place most newcomers have never heard of and which today is the second largest city in Uruguay.
It is called Ciudad de la Costa. It has 116,501 inhabitants, eighteen kilometres of continuous beach, and it begins exactly where Montevideo ends.
A city that did not exist
The history is curious and recent.
Through the twentieth century, the coastal strip east of Montevideo was occupied by a sequence of summer seaside resorts: Barra de Carrasco, Shangrilá, San José de Carrasco, Lagomar, Solymar, Lomas de Solymar, El Pinar. Weekend houses along eighteen kilometres of sandy beach, historically called Playa de Santa Rosa.
They were places with a floating population: full in summer, empty for the rest of the year, with almost all permanent residents working in Montevideo.
From the 1980s onwards, growth was explosive. Between 1985 and 1996 the population practically doubled — from 34,483 to 66,402 inhabitants. The resorts merged until they formed, in fact, a single continuous urban area.
On 19 October 1994, Uruguay formally registered what was already reality: it declared the whole a city, under the name Ciudad de la Costa. Since 2010 it has been the seat of its own municipio, and its inhabitants are called costenses.
Since 2011, it has been the second most populous city in the country.
The growth in figures
| Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 1963 | 4,392 |
| 1985 | 34,483 |
| 1996 | 66,402 |
| 2011 | 95,178 |
| 2023 | 116,501 |
Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), the national statistics office.
In sixty years, the population multiplied twenty-six times over.
And the movement continues: according to the study by the Intendencia de Canelones on the 2023 Census, 23,001 new residents arrived over the last five years — 20% of the city’s current population.
One in every five residents arrived in the last five years. There is no way to feel like an outsider in a place like that.
It has stopped being a dormitory town
This is the figure that changes the reading, and it comes from the departmental government itself.
For decades, Ciudad de la Costa was classified as a “dormitory town”: people lived there and worked or studied in Montevideo. The 2023 Census showed that the proportion of residents working in the capital has fallen compared with 2011.
The city has grown enough to generate its own employment, its own retail and its own educational provision. It has stopped being a suburb and become a city.
Two other figures from the same study help to explain who lives there:
- 40% of the population reached university level — an educational level above the average for the department of Canelones.
- Almost 5% of residents were not born in Uruguay — a proportion above the national average of 4%.
It is a city of the educated middle class, with a significant foreign presence and accelerated growth.
The neighbourhoods, one by one
Ciudad de la Costa is, in practice, a string of former seaside resorts. Each keeps its own identity, and the difference between them matters when choosing.
| Neighbourhood | Population (2023) |
|---|---|
| El Pinar | 27,190 |
| Lomas de Solymar | 22,525 |
| Solymar | 22,340 |
| Lagomar | 8,835 |
| San José de Carrasco | 8,535 |
| Shangrilá | 3,610 |
| Colinas de Solymar | 3,349 |
| El Bosque | 1,138 |
El Pinar is the largest and the most sought after: it accounts for 30% of all rental searches in the region, according to the 2026 half-yearly report by Mercado Libre, the region’s main classifieds platform. It sits at the eastern end, is the most wooded and has the most houses with land.
Solymar and Lomas de Solymar form the geographical and commercial centre, at kilometre 24 of Avenida Giannattasio.
Lagomar, San José de Carrasco and Shangrilá are the closest to Montevideo — a few minutes from Carrasco — and for that reason the preferred choice of anyone who still keeps a routine in the capital.
Why families choose it
The profile of those who move there is fairly consistent, and it responds to four things.
A house with a garden. This is reason number one. What in Montevideo would mean Carrasco and a high price means here a house with land, trees and space for the children, thirty or forty minutes from the centre.
The beach in front. Eighteen continuous kilometres of sand, with a rambla, without competing for space.
A manageable distance. Carrasco is a few minutes away; the centre of Montevideo, between thirty and forty-five. The two axes are Avenida Giannattasio and the Ruta Interbalnearia.
Cost. Canelones accounts for around 11.8% of rental contracts in the country, according to the INE — the second largest rental market after Montevideo — with prices well below those of the capital’s coastal strip.
Schools, and what there is nearby
Contrary to what one might assume of a former seaside resort, educational provision is established and long-standing.
There have been state secondary schools in Solymar since 1971, technical schools in Solymar Norte (1999) and in El Pinar (2022), as well as a network of private and bilingual schools spread between Lagomar, Solymar and El Pinar.
And there is one factor that weighs heavily for foreign families: the international schools in Carrasco are a few minutes from Lagomar and San José de Carrasco along the Giannattasio. Many families live on the coast and study in Carrasco — the reverse of the traditional arrangement.
The subject, in its broader dimension, is covered in Raising children in Uruguay.
A note on responsibility: the population data come from the 2023 Census of the Instituto Nacional de Estadística and from the study by the Centro de Estudios Estratégicos Canarios of the Intendencia de Canelones on that census; there is a small difference between the total for the municipio (114,633) and that for the city (116,501) depending on the boundary adopted. The rental contract data come from the Indicadores de Actividad Inmobiliaria of the INE; the demand figures, from a private platform report.
Frequently asked questions
What is Ciudad de la Costa?
It is the second most populous city in Uruguay, in the department of Canelones, formed by the merger of former coastal seaside resorts east of Montevideo. It was declared a city on 19 October 1994 and has 116,501 inhabitants.
Is Ciudad de la Costa far from Montevideo?
No. It begins where Montevideo ends, at the boundary with Carrasco. The closest neighbourhoods are a few minutes from Carrasco, and the centre of the capital is between thirty and forty-five minutes away along Avenida Giannattasio or the Interbalnearia.
Which is the best neighbourhood in Ciudad de la Costa?
It depends on the profile. El Pinar is the largest, the most wooded and the most sought after for renting; Solymar and Lomas de Solymar concentrate the retail; Lagomar, San José de Carrasco and Shangrilá are the closest to Montevideo.
Is Ciudad de la Costa still a dormitory town?
Less and less. The 2023 Census showed a fall in the proportion of residents working in Montevideo, with growth in employment, retail and educational provision within the municipio itself.
How many foreigners live in Ciudad de la Costa?
Almost 5% of the population was not born in Uruguay, a proportion above the national average of 4% recorded in the 2023 Census.
Is it worth living in Ciudad de la Costa instead of Montevideo?
For families who want a house with a garden, a beach and a lower cost without giving up access to the capital and to the schools in Carrasco, it tends to be the best combination in the metropolitan area.
The starting point
There is one sentence that sums up Ciudad de la Costa: it is the Uruguayan answer to the question almost every foreign family asks — how to have a house, a garden, a beach and a city all at once.
Uruguayans themselves answered it with their feet. In sixty years, they turned a row of summer houses into the second largest city in the country, and they keep arriving at a rate of 23,000 people every five years.
Anyone moving there today is not moving to the outskirts of Montevideo. They are moving to where the country is going.
The full map of the regions is in The map of Uruguay by region, and the alternative within the capital in Living in Montevideo — with Carrasco just across the boundary. The arithmetic is in Cost of living in Uruguay in 2026.
And when the choice turns into a move, that is the path we walk alongside the family in Relocation and Living.
Informational content. It does not constitute property, legal, tax or investment advice. Data verified on 21 August 2026 with the Instituto Nacional de Estadística and the Intendencia de Canelones. Each situation is analysed individually.