Asunción is the capital and the most populous city of the Republic of Paraguay. Since 1993, it is an autonomous municipality administered as a capital district and is not formally integrated into any department, but for censuses and statistics, it is considered as such. It is located in the center-west of the Eastern Region of the country, limiting to the north with the Paraguay River that separates it from the department of Presidente Hayes, and in turn of the Western Region. To the east and south with the Central Department, and to the west also with the Paraguay River, near the Pilcomayo River, which separates it from the Argentine Republic.
Founded on August 15,1537 - first as a military fort, and four years later with the status of "city" - it is one of the oldest cities in South America. According to estimates for the year 2019 of the General Directorate of Statistics, Surveys and Censuses of Paraguay, the Paraguayan capital has 522,287 inhabitants, making it the most populated city in the country, and the only Paraguayan city with more than 500,000 inhabitants. While its Metropolitan Region, called "Greater Asunción", increases its population to around 3,000,000 inhabitants, making it one of the largest urban agglomerations in South America. The area of the district itself is 117 km², and 807 km² in the Metropolitan Area -Conurbano Asunceno-. While the Metropolitan Region expands to 3 146 km², which already covers all the districts of the Central Department, and some districts conlindantes part of the department of Cordillera, Paraguarí and Presidente Hayes.
Asunción would be the fifth most "jurisdiction" or "political division" of the country, behind the departments of Central, Alto Paraná, Itapúa and Caaguazú. Asunción is the seat of the three powers of the nation, and of the main river port, it also constitutes the cultural center of the country. Despite some variations in the course of time, from its foundation and up to the present, Asunción is still the center of national activity. From the capital, the main resolutions and projects of the powers of the State are taught, and banking, economic, cultural, diplomatic, social, professional and industrial entities of the country are centralized, taking into account that the Republic of Paraguay is a unitary state, as stated in the National Constitution of 1992. From Asunción they provide most of the country's main routes to the main cities of the country.
It is the seat of the Permanent Mercosur Review Court. Also near the Paraguayan capital, precisely in the city of Luque, is the headquarters of the South American Football Confederation. Asunción is located in a strategic area for Mercosur, due to its location in the "center / middle" of the Southern Cone, and its relative proximity to Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Cordoba, Curitiba, São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and other important cities in the region. It is located about 1 300 km from the Pacific Ocean and about 1 000 km from the Atlantic Ocean, distances between the oceans relatively equisdistantes. What, added to the economic growth of the city, makes Asunción is directed to become a kind of "Hub" for the region.
Asunción is considered a global city of category "gamma -" by the GaWC Study of the year 2012. The city is located among the cheapest capitals in the world, and lately as one of the best cities for investment, both in construction and services, being one of the cities in the region with the most economic growth at present.