Map of the regions of Uruguay: who each one suits
The country is moving east. Maldonado grew 23.7% and Montevideo shrank 5.3%: the map of the Uruguayan regions and the life each one delivers.
The map of Uruguay that most newcomers carry in their heads has two points on it: Montevideo and Punta del Este.
Together they take up less than 3% of the national territory. Everything else — the west coast on the River Plate, the wild beaches of Rocha, the hot springs on the Uruguay river, the productive countryside of the centre, the dry border with Brazil — simply never enters the conversation.
That matters for a practical reason: the two best-known regions of the country are also the most expensive, and a number of families end up paying a premium for a location that was not the best one for their plans.
This article opens up the whole map.
The whole country is moving — and here is where to
Before the regions, one figure that reorganises the reading. Between the censuses of 2011 and 2023, the Uruguayan population did not merely grow: it moved.
| Department | 2011 | 2023 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maldonado | 172,130 | 212,951 | +23.7% |
| Canelones | 536,761 | 608,956 | +13.5% |
| Rocha | 73,520 | 80,707 | +9.8% |
| San José | 110,323 | 119,714 | +8.5% |
| Colonia | 127,358 | 135,797 | +6.6% |
| Salto | 128,803 | 136,197 | +5.7% |
| Montevideo | 1,375,540 | 1,302,954 | −5.3% |
| Treinta y Tres | 50,611 | 47,706 | −5.7% |
| Lavalleja | 60,205 | 59,175 | −1.7% |
Source: 2023 Census, Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), the national statistics office.
The pattern is unambiguous. The capital lost 72,586 inhabitants. The east coast and the metropolitan belt gained. Maldonado alone absorbed more than 40,000 people — and INE projections indicate it will keep growing until 2045, while the rest of the country tends to shrink.
It is worth spelling this out: the decision most foreign families are weighing up — leaving the dense city, going to the coast, trading a flat for a house — is exactly the one Uruguayans themselves have been taking for twelve years. You would not be starting a movement. You would be joining one already under way.
The three bands that organise the country
Forget the nineteen departments. For the purpose of a decision about where to live, Uruguay divides into three bands — and a fourth that is a case apart.
1. The metropolitan coast — Montevideo, Canelones, San José
Who lives here: more than 2 million people, almost 60% of the country.
This is the band that concentrates the heavy infrastructure: high-complexity medicine, international schools, universities, offices, the main airport and the port. It also concentrates the rental market — according to INE, 75.9% of all rental contracts in the country are in Montevideo, followed by Canelones with 11.8% and San José with 2.2%.
Within it there are two distinct lives. The city — the neighbourhoods of Montevideo, which we map in Living in Montevideo. And the coastal belt of Canelones — Ciudad de la Costa, El Pinar, Atlántida, Parque del Plata —, where you buy a house with a garden thirty or forty minutes from the centre. That is where a good part of the 72,000 Montevideans went, and the portrait of that city is in Ciudad de la Costa: where Montevideo moved to.
Suits: anyone who needs the city — work, a specific school, continuing medical treatment — but wants space. Does not suit: anyone who changed country precisely to escape traffic and density. Ciudad de la Costa is comfortable, but the daily commute exists.
2. The east coast — Maldonado and Rocha
Who lives here: around 294,000 people, and growing faster than any other region.
It is the band of greatest desire and of greatest seasonal distortion.
Maldonado is far more than Punta del Este. Maldonado city has 102,000 inhabitants and works all year round; San Carlos has 30,293; Piriápolis, 12,150. Punta del Este, despite its fame, has only 18,193 permanent residents — and 65.6% of its dwellings sit empty or in temporary use. We open up that contradiction in Punta del Este as a permanent address, and the coast to the east in La Barra and Manantiales and José Ignacio.
Rocha is the next step out: wilder beaches, La Paloma, La Pedrera, Punta del Diablo, Cabo Polonio. It grew 9.8% in twelve years, but from a small base — 80,707 inhabitants in the whole department — and it has a high proportion of houses in temporary use. It is the most beautiful stretch of the coast and the least equipped for everyday life — and it is precisely the density of 7.6 inhabitants per km² that guarantees it stays that way. We open up the department in Rocha: the Atlantic coast Uruguay did not urbanise.
Suits: anyone with income independent of the local market, anyone working remotely, anyone who wants sea and space, anyone who accepts driving to solve what the region does not solve. Does not suit: anyone who depends on local employment outside tourism, anyone who needs specialist medicine frequently, anyone who plans their life on the basis of the January experience.
3. The west coast and the River Plate — Colonia, Carmelo, Nueva Palmira
Who lives here: 135,797 people in the department of Colonia.
It is the most underestimated region of the country among newcomers — and the most obvious one for Argentines, for a simple geographical reason: Colonia del Sacramento is around 1 hour 15 minutes from Buenos Aires by fast ferry, according to the operators’ timetables. Montevideo, by the same route, is approximately 3 hours 25 minutes away.
Colonia is a World Heritage site, with a Portuguese-Spanish historic centre, cobbled streets, a river instead of a sea and the scale of a small town that works all year round — and it grew from 26,231 to 32,174 inhabitants between 2011 and 2023, while Montevideo was shrinking. The full portrait is in Colonia del Sacramento. Carmelo, an hour away, is the region of vineyards and smallholdings — and the oldest historic wine-growing area in the country, with 19,915 inhabitants. Nueva Palmira concentrates port activity.
Suits: anyone who wants a small town with real services, anyone with ties or business in Buenos Aires, anyone who wants countryside and vineyards without isolation, retired people who put calm and walkability first. Does not suit: anyone who wants open sea and a wide sandy beach, anyone who needs a broad choice of international schools.
4. The productive interior — Florida, Durazno, Tacuarembó, Salto, Paysandú
This is the Uruguay almost no foreigner visits and which sustains the economy: livestock, agriculture, forestry, rice. Salto and Paysandú, on the Uruguay river, together hold more than 258,000 inhabitants and have the best-known hot springs in the country — water from the Guarani Aquifer at up to 44.5 °C, mapped scientifically for the first time in 2026. The portrait is in The hot springs of Uruguay.
Here the cost of living falls sharply and so does the supply of services. It is the region that makes sense for anyone with a productive project — a farm, agribusiness, agro-industry —, a subject we deal with in Farmland in Uruguay. As a lifestyle choice without that link, it rarely pays off: the distance to specialist services is real and does not disappear.
There is an important counterpoint, and it is recent: Antel, the state telecom, expects to complete the rollout of fibre optics to every locality with more than 500 inhabitants by the end of 2026. The gap in connectivity between the capital and the interior, which in other countries of the region is enormous, is ceasing to exist in Uruguay.
5. The border — Rivera, Chuy, Artigas
A case apart, and a relevant one for anyone with ties to southern Brazil.
Rivera (109,300 inhabitants) is a city pressed against Santana do Livramento, in Rio Grande do Sul — no river, no fence, no checkpoint. You cross the avenue. That creates a unique reality: life in two countries at the same time, with school on one side and shopping on the other. Chuy repeats the logic in the east, next to Chuí. We open up the city and what it demands in Rivera: the city that shares a square with Brazil.
Suits: families with strong ties in southern Brazil, anyone who wants a gradual transition rather than a clean break. Does not suit: anyone looking for distance from their country of origin, or anyone who imagines that an open border simplifies tax questions — it does not simplify them, and it frequently complicates them.
What actually changes between the regions
| Metropolitan | East coast | Colonia / west | Interior | Border | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| International schools | Wide choice | Limited | Very limited | No | No |
| High-complexity healthcare | Complete | Partial | Partial | Referral to Montevideo | Partial |
| Life all year round | Yes | Seasonal | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Housing cost | High | High in season | Medium | Low | Low |
| Labour market | Largest in the country | Tourism and construction | Small | Agriculture | Retail |
| Population growth | Negative in the capital | The highest in the country | Moderate | Stable | Stable |
Disclosure note: the population data come from the 2023 Census of the INE; those on rental contracts, from the Indicadores de Actividad Inmobiliaria of the same institute; the fibre coverage target is the one announced by the Ministerio de Industria, Energía y Minería and by Antel; the river crossing times reflect timetables published by private operators and are not official statistics. Population projections are estimates subject to revision.
The factor that decides more than the landscape
After following this kind of decision, one pattern imposes itself: for families with school-age children, the school chooses the region — not the other way round.
The supply of international and bilingual schools is concentrated in Montevideo and, on a much smaller scale, in Maldonado. A family that decides first on the landscape and then discovers that the school they wanted is fifty minutes away ends up making a second move within two years — the most expensive of all, because it now involves a broken contract, an adaptation undone and a child who has just made friends.
For couples without school-age children, the order reverses and the whole country opens up. That is why the same question — “where should we live in Uruguay?” — has completely different answers for people who, on paper, appear to have the same profile.
Frequently asked questions
Which is the best city to live in in Uruguay?
There is no single one. For families with children in international schools, the metropolitan region of Montevideo. For anyone with independent income who wants the sea, Maldonado outside Punta del Este. For anyone who wants a small town working all year round, Colonia. For a productive project, the interior.
Where do foreigners live in Uruguay?
Mostly along the coastal band: the eastern neighbourhoods of Montevideo, the Canelones belt and the department of Maldonado. In Maldonado there are 12,225 people born abroad, of whom 51.4% are Argentine and 4.1% Brazilian.
Is it cheaper to live in the interior of Uruguay?
Yes, and the difference in housing is large. But the interior transfers cost to travel and reduces access to private schools and specialist medicine. It is a trade-off, not an automatic saving.
Is it worth living in Canelones instead of Montevideo?
For many families, yes — that is where a good part of the 72,000 inhabitants the capital lost went. Ciudad de la Costa, El Pinar and Atlántida offer a house with a garden and a beach thirty or forty minutes from the centre, at a much lower price.
Does the internet work in the interior of Uruguay?
Increasingly so. Antel expects to complete fibre optic coverage in every locality with more than 500 inhabitants by the end of 2026 — which makes remote work viable across practically the whole territory.
Which region of Uruguay is safest?
Lethal violence in the country is heavily concentrated in Montevideo and Canelones. In the first half of 2026, Durazno recorded three homicides and Rivera one. We set out the distribution in Is Uruguay safe?.
The starting point
There is an inversion worth making before looking at any property listing.
The common question is “where is it good to live in Uruguay”. The useful question is: what are the three or four non-negotiables of our life — school, medical care, commuting time, type of housing, distance from an airport — and which regions manage to deliver all of them at the same time?
Asked in that order, the list of options shrinks from nineteen departments to two or three within minutes. And the decision stops being about landscape, which is what almost always leads to the wrong choice.
If the portrait of the country as a whole is still missing, start with What living in Uruguay is like. If the arithmetic is what worries you, the place to go is Cost of living in Uruguay in 2026. And if the list of non-negotiables is already clear and what is missing is translating it into a region, a neighbourhood and a school, that is exactly the work we do in Relocation and Living.
Informational content. It does not constitute real estate, legal, tax or investment advice. Data verified on 21 August 2026 with the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (2023 Census and Indicadores de Actividad Inmobiliaria), the Ministerio del Interior, the Ministerio de Industria, Energía y Minería and Antel. River crossing times reflect the timetables of private operators. Each situation is analysed individually.