Guide to Mexico Introduction Background: The site of advanced Amerindian civilizations, Mexico came under Spanish rule for three centuries before achieving independence early in the 19th century. A devaluation of the peso in late 1994 threw Mexico into economic turmoil, triggering the worst recession in over half a century. The nation continues to make an impressive recovery. Ongoing economic and social concerns include low real wages, underemployment for a large segment of the population, inequitable income distribution, and few advancement opportunities for the largely Amerindian population in the impoverished southern states. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time since the 1910 Mexican Revolution that the opposition defeated the party in government, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Vicente FOX of the National Action Party (PAN) was sworn in on 1 December 2000 as the first chief executive elected in free and fair elections.
Geography Location: Middle America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, between Belize and the US and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Guatemala and the US
Geographic coordinates: 23 00 N, 102 00 W
Map references: North America
Area: total
Area - comparative: slightly less than three times the size of Texas
Land boundaries: total
Coastline: 9,330 km
Maritime claims: territorial sea
Climate: varies from tropical to desert
Terrain: high, rugged mountains; low coastal plains; high plateaus; desert
Elevation extremes: lowest point
Natural resources: petroleum, silver, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas, timber
Land use: arable land
Irrigated land: 65,000 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards: tsunamis along the Pacific coast, volcanoes and destructive earthquakes in the center and south, and hurricanes on the Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean coasts
Environment - current issues: scarcity of hazardous waste disposal facilities; rural to urban migration; natural fresh water resources scarce and polluted in north, inaccessible and poor quality in center and extreme southeast; raw sewage and industrial effluents polluting rivers in urban areas; deforestation; widespread erosion; desertification; deteriorating agricultural lands; serious air and water pollution in the national capital and urban centers along US-Mexico border; land subsidence in Valley of Mexico caused by groundwater depletion note
Environment - international agreements: party to
Geography - note: strategic location on southern border of US; corn (maize), one of the world's major grain crops, is thought to have originated in Mexico
People Population: 106,202,903 (July 2005 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years
Median age: total
Population growth rate: 1.17% (2005 est.)
Birth rate: 21.01 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Death rate: 4.73 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Net migration rate: -4.57 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Sex ratio: at birth
Infant mortality rate: total
Life expectancy at birth: total population
Total fertility rate: 2.45 children born/woman (2005 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.3% (2003 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 160,000 (2003 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths: 5,000 (2003 est.)
Nationality: noun
Ethnic groups: mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 60%, Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian 30%, white 9%, other 1%
Religions: nominally Roman Catholic 89%, Protestant 6%, other 5%
Languages: Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regional indigenous languages
Literacy: definition
Government Country name: conventional long form
Government type: federal republic
Capital: Mexico (Distrito Federal)
Administrative divisions: 31 states (estados, singular - estado) and 1 federal district* (distrito federal); Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Colima, Distrito Federal*, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacan de Ocampo, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro de Arteaga, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz-Llave, Yucatan, Zacatecas
Independence: 16 September 1810 (from Spain)
National holiday: Independence Day, 16 September (1810)
Constitution: 5 February 1917
Legal system: mixture of US constitutional theory and civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal and compulsory (but not enforced)
Executive branch: chief of state
Legislative branch: bicameral National Congress or Congreso de la Union consists of the Senate or Camara de Senadores (128 seats; 96 are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms, and 32 are allocated on the basis of each party's popular vote) and the Federal Chamber of Deputies or Camara Federal de Diputados (500 seats; 300 members are directly elected by popular vote to serve three-year terms; remaining 200 members are allocated on the basis of each party's popular vote, also for three-year terms) elections
Judicial branch: Supreme Court of Justice or Suprema Corte de Justicia Nacional (justices or ministros are appointed by the president with consent of the Senate)
Political parties and leaders: Convergence for Democracy or CD [Dante DELGADO Ranauro]; Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI [Roberto MADRAZO Pintado]; Mexican Green Ecological Party or PVEM [Jorge Emilio GONZALEZ Martinez]; National Action Party or PAN [Luis Felipe BRAVO Mena]; Party of the Democratic Revolution or PRD [Leonel GODOY]; Workers Party or PT [Alberto ANAYA Gutierrez]
Political pressure groups and leaders: Confederation of Employers of the Mexican Republic or COPARMEX; Confederation of Industrial Chambers or CONCAMIN; Confederation of Mexican Workers or CTM; Confederation of National Chambers of Commerce or CONCANACO; Coordinator for Foreign Trade Business Organizations or COECE; Federation of Unions Providing Goods and Services or FESEBES; National Chamber of Transformation Industries or CANACINTRA; National Peasant Confederation or CNC; National Union of Workers or UNT; Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers or CROM; Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Peasants or CROC; Roman Catholic Church
International organization participation: APEC, BCIE, BIS, CDB, CE (observer), EBRD, FAO, G-3, G-6, G-15, G-19, G-24, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, NAM (observer), NEA, OAS, OECD, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMOVIC, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO
Diplomatic representation in the US: chief of mission
Diplomatic representation from the US: chief of mission
Flag description: three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and red; the coat of arms (an eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in its beak) is centered in the white band
Economy Economy - overview: Mexico has a free market economy that recently entered the trillion dollar class. It contains a mixture of modern and outmoded industry and agriculture, increasingly dominated by the private sector. Recent administrations have expanded competition in seaports, railroads, telecommunications, electricity generation, natural gas distribution, and airports. Per capita income is one-fourth that of the US; income distribution remains highly unequal. Trade with the US and Canada has tripled since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994. Mexico has 12 free trade agreements with over 40 countries including, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, the European Free Trade Area, and Japan, putting more than 90% of trade under free trade agreements. The government is cognizant of the need to upgrade infrastructure, modernize the tax system and labor laws, and provide incentives to invest in the energy sector, but progress is slow.
GDP (purchasing power parity): $1.006 trillion (2004 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 4.1% (2004 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $9,600 (2004 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture
Labor force: 34.73 million (2004 est.)
Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 18%, industry 24%, services 58% (2003)
Unemployment rate: 3.2% plus underemployment of perhaps 25% (2004 est.)
Population below poverty line: 40% (2003 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%
Distribution of family income - Gini index: 53.1 (1998)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 5.4% (2004 est.)
Investment (gross fixed): 19.4% of GDP (2004 est.)
Budget: revenues
Public debt: 23.5% of GDP (2004 est.)
Agriculture - products: corn, wheat, soybeans, rice, beans, cotton, coffee, fruit, tomatoes; beef, poultry, dairy products; wood products
Industries: food and beverages, tobacco, chemicals, iron and steel, petroleum, mining, textiles, clothing, motor vehicles, consumer durables, tourism
Industrial production growth rate: 3.8% (2004 est.)
Electricity - production: 203.6 billion kWh (2002)
Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel
Electricity - consumption: 189.7 billion kWh (2002)
Electricity - exports: 98.65 million kWh (2002)
Electricity - imports: 367.7 million kWh (2002)
Oil - production: 3.46 million bbl/day (2004 est.)
Oil - consumption: 1.752 million bbl/day (2004 est.)
Oil - exports: 1.863 million bbl/day (2004)
Oil - imports: 205,000 bbl/day (2004)
Oil - proved reserves: 18 billion bbl (2004 est.)
Natural gas - production: 47.3 billion cu m (2004 est.)
Natural gas - consumption: 55.1 billion cu m (2004 est.)
Natural gas - exports: 0 cu m (2004 est.)
Natural gas - imports: 7.85 billion cu m (2004 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves: 420 billion cu m (2004)
Current account balance: $-4.113 billion (2004 est.)
Exports: $182.4 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
Exports - commodities: manufactured goods, oil and oil products, silver, fruits, vegetables, coffee, cotton
Exports - partners: US 87.6%, Canada 1.8%, Spain 1.1% (2004)
Imports: $190.8 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
Imports - commodities: metalworking machines, steel mill products, agricultural machinery, electrical equipment, car parts for assembly, repair parts for motor vehicles, aircraft, and aircraft parts
Imports - partners: US 53.7%, China 7%, Japan 5.1% (2004)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $60.67 billion (2004 est.)
Debt - external: $149.9 billion (2004 est.)
Economic aid - recipient: $1.166 billion (1995)
Currency (code): Mexican peso (MXN)
Currency code: MXN
Exchange rates: Mexican pesos per US dollar - 11.286 (2004), 10.789 (2003), 9.656 (2002), 9.342 (2001), 9.456 (2000)
Fiscal year: calendar year
Communications Telephones - main lines in use: 15,958,700 (2003)
Telephones - mobile cellular: 28.125 million (2003)
Telephone system: general assessment
Radio broadcast stations: AM 850, FM 545, shortwave 15 (2003)
Radios: 31 million (1997)
Television broadcast stations: 236 (plus repeaters) (1997)
Televisions: 25.6 million (1997)
Internet country code: .mx
Internet hosts: 1,333,406 (2003)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 51 (2000)
Internet users: 10.033 million (2002)
Transportation Railways: total
Highways: total
Waterways: 2,900 km note
Pipelines: crude oil 28,200 km; petroleum products 10,150 km; natural gas 13,254 km; petrochemical 1,400 km (2003)
Ports and harbors: Altamira, Manzanillo, Morro Redondo, Salina Cruz, Tampico, Topolobampo, Veracruz
Merchant marine: total
Airports: 1,833 (2004 est.)
Airports - with paved runways: total
Airports - with unpaved runways: total
Heliports: 2 (2004 est.)
Military Military branches: Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena)
Military service age and obligation: 18 years of age for compulsory military service, conscript service obligation - 12 months; 16 years of age with consent for voluntary enlistment (2004)
Manpower available for military service: males age 18-49
Manpower fit for military service: males age 18-49
Manpower reaching military service age annually: males
Military expenditures - dollar figure: $6.043 billion (2004)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 0.9% (2004)
Transnational Issues Disputes - international: prolonged drought, population growth, and outmoded practices and infrastructure in the border region have strained water-sharing arrangements with the US; the US has stepped up efforts to stem nationals from Mexico, Central America, and other parts of the world from illegally crossing the border with Mexico
Refugees and internally displaced persons: IDPs
Illicit drugs: illicit cultivation of opium poppy (cultivation in 2001 - 4,400 hectares; potential heroin production - 7 metric tons) and of cannabis (in 2001 - 4,100 hectares); government eradication efforts have been key in keeping illicit crop levels low; major supplier of heroin and largest foreign supplier of marijuana and methamphetamine to the US market; continues as the primary transshipment country for US-bound cocaine from South America, accounting for about 70 percent of estimated annual cocaine movement to the US; major drug syndicates control majority of drug trafficking throughout the country; producer and distributor of ecstasy; significant money-laundering center
Last updated: 20 October, 2005
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