Sinaloa, officially Free and Sovereign State of Sinaloa (Spanish: Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa), is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, compose the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 18 municipalities and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales.
It is located in Northwestern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Sonora to the north, Chihuahua and Durango to the east (separated from them by the Sierra Madre Occidental) and Nayarit to the south. To the west, Sinaloa has a significant share of coastline on the Gulf of California.