The municipality of El Salvador lies at an elevation between 1,800 and 2,900 metres (5,900–9,500 ft) in the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental in northeastern Zacatecas.

It borders the municipalities of Concepción del Oro in Zacatecas to the west, Saltillo in Coahuila to the north, Galeana in Nuevo León to the northeast, and Vanegas in San Luis Potosí to the southeast.

[2] The land cover in El Salvador is mostly Meseta Central matorral (81%) with small tracts of forest (11%) and grassland (8%) also present.

[8] Matías Ramos Santos [es], who was born in El Salvador in 1891, served as Governor of Zacatecas from 1932 to 1936,[9] and as Secretary of National Defence from 1952 to 1958.

[11] The municipal government of El Salvador comprises a president, a councillor (Spanish: síndico),[7] and seven trustees (regidores), four elected by relative majority and three by proportional representation.