Curicó, meaning "Black Waters" in Mapudungun (originally meaning "Land of Black Water"), is the capital city of the Curicó Province, part of the Maule Region in Chile's central valley.
The province lies between the provinces of Colchagua and Talca and extends from the Pacific to the Argentine frontier.
According to the 2012 census of the National Statistics Institute, Curicó spans an area of 1328.4 sqkm and has 147,017 inhabitants (68,768 men and 70,817 women). Of these, 130,506 (84%) lived in urban areas and 19,079 (16%) in rural areas. Between the 1992 and 2002 censuses, the population grew by 14.9% (15,472 persons).
