The Arequipa city is located at an altitude of 2,328 meters above sea level, the lowest part of the city is at an altitude of 2,041 meters above sea level in Huayco, Uchumayo and the highest is located at 2,810 meters above sea level crossed by the Chili River from north to southwest that its path forms a valley. The location above the valley plays an important role; the valley of Arequipa, protected to the north and east by the Andean mountain range and to the south and west by the low ranges of hills.
It limits to the south with Moquegua, to the east with Cusco, to the southeast with Puno, to the northeast with Apurimac, to the north with Ayacucho and to the northwest with Ica.
It has an area of 10,430.12 km2 and is divided into twenty-nine districts:
- Alto Selva Alegre
- Arequipa
- Cayma
- Cerro Colorado
- Characato
- Chiguata
- Jacobo Hunter
- José Luis Bustamante y Rivero
- La Joya
- Mariano Melgar
- Miraflores
- Mollebaya
- Paucarpata
- Pocsi
- Polobaya
- Quequeña
- Sabandía
- Sachaca
- San Juan de Siguas
- San Juan de Tarucani
- Santa Isabel de Siguas
- Santa Rita de Siguas
- Socabaya
- Tiabaya
- Uchumayo
- Vítor
- Yanahuara
- Yarabamba
- Yura
Arequipa is among the regions with the highest population growth rate, after Lima, Piura and La Libertad, with a record of 1 million 382 thousand 730 inhabitants, according to the last census.
Of the eight provinces that make up the department of Arequipa (Arequipa, Camaná, Caravelí, Castilla, Caylloma, Condesuyos, Islay and La Unión), the province of Arequipa concentrates 75.3% of the population (991 thousand 218 inhabitants); while La Unión is only home to 14,246 people, being the one with the lowest population in the department, according to the 2017 Census carried out by the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI).
Likewise, the INEI reported that in 2016, the Gross Domestic Product of Arequipa increased by 26.3%, a figure higher than the national growth (3.9%): This result is explained by the positive behavior of the activities of Extraction of Oil, Gas and Minerals (98.4%), Electricity Gas and Water (12.9%), Telecommunications and Other Information Services (7.5%) and Construction (6.1%), among others.
On the other hand, according to the information provided by the Ministries of Agriculture and Irrigation and Energy and Mines, in 2016, the department of Arequipa was the first producer of the following products at the national level: garlic (72.6%), onion (64.4%), alfalfa (44.0%), carrot (36.8%), pumpkin (28.7%), molybdenum (37.2%) and copper (22.3%).
It should be noted that as of 2016, 76.5% of homes in the department of Arequipa have property titles, a result 21.5 percentage points higher than the national average (55.0%). While the percentage of households that have access to water and electricity services through the public network reached 93.2% and 97.2%, respectively; meanwhile, 76.9% have public sewage. In addition, 73.8% of households use only gas for cooking.