Acaponeta is both a municipality and a town in the northern part of the Mexican state of Nayarit.

The population of the municipal seat was 18,066, the fifth-largest community in the state (after Tepic, Xalisco, Ixtlán del Río, and Tuxpan).

The main crops are corn (maize), beans, sorghum, tobacco, chile, mangos and avocados.

The municipality has one of the oldest processing plants for corn flour as well as packing houses for mangos.

Due to the agricultural nature of the economy there is high sub-employment and subsequent immigration to the United States of America.