1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Mexico
Compare this sourced profile of Cancun, Mexico before planning. Stable fields identify the place; confirm current transport, access and opening details with official sources.
01What the data says — and does not say
This page separates the checked GeoNames row for Cancun—888,797, America/Cancun, and source coordinates—from live travel claims. Those fields identify and compare the record; they do not prove current transport, accessibility, census totals, or a City Atlas Club visit.
Wikidata's localized description: municipal seat of Juárez, State of Quintana Roo, Mexico.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Cancun is GeoNames ID 3531673. Its recorded administrative path is Benito Juarez → Quintana Roo → Mexico, and GeoNames classifies the place as a populated place. Cancún occurs once as a primary city label in this atlas sample; the numeric ID remains the durable source key if names change. The city row itself was updated 2025-10-23; that date belongs to the source record, not to every transport or visitor detail in the real destination.
Within the fixed 1,206-record atlas, Cancun ranks 626 by recorded population. Inside the 39 selected Mexico entries it ranks 17; inside the 198 entries in its broad region it ranks 89. Its 888,797 population value is 1.10 times the 808,416 median for the country cohort and 1.09 times the 816,326 regional median. Cancun sits in the second quarter of this atlas's Mexico population cohort. Cancun's recorded value stays within one quarter of the country-cohort median used here. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Cancun's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Mérida at 289.019 km with 1,201,000 recorded people; Havana at 508.623 km with 2,163,824 recorded people; San Pedro Sula at 642.462 km with 801,259 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 353.443 km. Compared with Mérida, Cancun's recorded population is 0.74 times as large. Against Cancun, Mérida follows Merida → Yucatan → Mexico in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected Mexico cohort, uses America/Merida instead of America/Cancun, and carries first-order administrative seat rather than populated place. Its recorded population is above Cancun's. Against Cancun, Havana follows Havana → Cuba in the source. Its point has higher latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the selected Cuba cohort rather than Mexico, uses America/Havana instead of America/Cancun, and carries capital of a political entity rather than populated place. Its recorded population is above Cancun's. Against Cancun, San Pedro Sula follows San Pedro Sula → Cortes Department → Honduras in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the selected Honduras cohort rather than Mexico, uses America/Tegucigalpa instead of America/Cancun, and carries first-order administrative seat rather than populated place. Its recorded population is below Cancun's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 1,103 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Cancun's nearest-coordinate gap belongs to the wider half of atlas distances. This pattern can reveal whether other catalog references are geographically close, but it cannot establish whether a border crossing is possible or practical, or whether rail, road, fare, or journey-time connections exist. Read as one record signature, GeoNames 3531673, the coordinate pair 21.1743 / 86.8466, country rank 17 of 39, and neighbor GeoNames 3523349 at 289.019 km bind Cancun to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Cancun's reference point is 21.1743° north and 86.8466° west. The IANA identifier America/Cancun is shared by 1 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPL is shared by 243 rows. Cancun's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Cancun's point falls in the lower-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Cancun's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Cancun, so the profile preserves that missing value instead of guessing terrain. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
Cancun's closest other entries in this atlas are Mérida (289.019 km), Havana (508.623 km), San Pedro Sula (642.462 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Cancun, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2025-10-23; the atlas checked the dataset 2026-08-04. Available Wikidata fields were verified in the same run.
GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0. Wikidata labels and descriptions: CC0 1.0.