It was founded by Hernán Cortés in 1535 and named Bay of Santa Cruz, though afterwards, the admiral Sebastián Vizcaíno baptized it as La Paz in 1596.

This city is the capital city of the state of Baja California Sur. Its name was reaffirmed in 1720 when the Jesuit priests Juan de Ugarte and Jaime Bravo founded La Paz Mission.

The total native population of the municipality is 1 865 people according to the XII General Census of Population and Housing (2000) and the native languages spoken are Mixteco and Náhuatl.

Based on the same census, the total population of the municipality is 196 907 inhabitants, it represents the 46.43%, of the total population of the state, out of them,

98 813 are men and 98 094 are women. The economically active population of the municipality is 80 018 people, while the employed one is 79 197. The population density is 9.71 inhabitants/sq. km.