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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.
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Common Name: Mexico
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Local Official Name: Mexico
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Abbreviated Name: United Mexican States
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Official Name: Estados Unidos Mexicanos
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Official Script Name: Mexico
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Local Common Name: Mexico
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Former Name: Mexico
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Territory of: NA
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Head of State: President Felipe de Jesus CALDERON Hinojosa
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Government Type: federal republic
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Independence: 1810 September 16 (from Spain)
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Constitution: 1917 February 5
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National Holiday: Independence Day, 16 September
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International Organization Participation: APEC, BCIE, BIS, CAN (observer), CDB, CE (observer), CSN (observer), EBRD, FAO, G-3, G-6, G-15, G-24, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, NAFTA, 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
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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
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Dependent Areas: NA
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Legal System: mixture of US constitutional theory and civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations
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Suffrage: 18 years
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Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches: Executive Branch:
chief of state: President Felipe de Jesus CALDERON Hinojosa (since 1 December 2006); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government
head of government: President Felipe de Jesus CALDERON Hinojosa (since 1 December 2006)
cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president; note - appointment of attorney general requires consent of the Senate
elections: president elected by popular vote for a single six-year term; election last held 2 July 2006 (next to be held 1 July 2012)
election results: Felipe CALDERON elected president; percent of vote - Felipe CALDERON (PAN) 35.89%, Andres Manuel Lopez OBRADOR (PRD) 35.31%, Roberto MADRAZO (PRI) 22.26%, other 6.54%
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: Senate - last held 2 July 2006 for all of the seats (next to be held 1 July 2012); Chamber of Deputies - last held 2 July 2006 (next to be held 5 July 2009)
election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - PAN 52, PRI 33, PRD 29, PVEM 6, CD 5, PT 2, PNA 1; Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - PAN 206, PRD 127, PRI 103, PVEM 18, CD 17, PT 16, other 13; note - election results pending certification
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)
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Party Leaders: Convergence for Democracy or CD [Dante DELGADO Ranauro]; Institutional Revolutionary Party (Institutional Revolutionary Party) or PRI [leader NA]; Mexican Green Ecological Party or PVEM [Jorge Emilio GONZALEZ Martinez]; National Action Party (Partido Accion Nacional) or PAN [Manuel ESPINO Barrientos]; New Alliance Party (Partido Nueva Alianza) or PNA [Miguel Angel JIMENEZ Godines]; Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolucion Democratica) or PRD [Leonel COTA Montano]; Workers Party or PT [Alberto ANAYA Gutierrez]
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International Disputes: 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
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Illicit Drugs: major drug-producing nation; cultivation of opium poppy in 2004 amounted to 3,500 hectares, but opium cultivation stayed within the range - between 3,500 and 5,500 hectares - observed in nine of the last 12 years; potential production of 9 metric tons of pure heroin, or 23 metric tons of "black tar" heroin, the dominant form of Mexican heroin in the western United States; marijuana cultivation decreased 23% to 5,800 hectares in 2004 after decade-high cultivation peak in 2003; potential production of 10,400 metric tons of marijuana in 2004; government conducts the largest independent illicit-crop eradication program in the world; 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 90% 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
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Location of Mexico: 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
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Continent: North America
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Land Area Total: 1,972,550 sq km
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Region: Northern American |
Land Area Land: 1,923,040 sq km
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Capitol City: Mexico (Distrito Federal)
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Land Area Water: 49,510 sq km
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Current: -8 to -6
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Latitude: 023 00 N
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Border Boundary Land: 4,353 km
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Longitude: 102 00 W
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Border Boundary Coastline: 9,330 km
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Arable Land: 12.66 %
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Pastures: 0.00 %
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Crops: 1.28 %
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Woodlands and Forests: 0.00
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Highest Elevation: 5,700 m
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Location: Volcan Pico de Orizaba
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Lowest Elevation: -10 m
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Location: Laguna Salada
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Largest City in Mexico: Mexico City
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Mexico City Largest City Population: 17,900,000
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Threatened Species: 542
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Environmental 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: the government considers the lack of clean water and deforestation national security issues
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Environmental Agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
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Irrigated Land: 63,200
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Bordering Countries: Belize 250 km, Guatemala 962 km, US 3,141 km
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Natural Resources: petroleum, silver, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas, timber
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Geographical Terrain: high, rugged mountains; low coastal plains; high plateaus; desert
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Comparative Area of Mexico: slightly less than three times the size of Texas
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Mexico's Geography: strategic location on southern border of US; corn (maize), one of the world's major grain crops, is thought to have originated in Mexico
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Click Here for detailed information about the weather conditions in Mexico.
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General Climate: varies from tropical to desert
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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
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Economic 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 FOX administration is cognizant of the need to upgrade infrastructure, modernize the tax system and labor laws, and allow private investment in the energy sector, but has been unable to win the support of the opposition-led Congress. The next government that takes office in December 2006 will confront the same challenges of boosting economic growth, improving Mexico's international competitiveness, and reducing poverty.
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GDP: $1,064,000,000,000 USD
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Currency: Mexican peso
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GDP per Capita: $10,000 USD
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Currency Code: MXN
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GDP Growth Rate: 3.00 %
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One $USD Equals: %fincurrencyequals% MXN
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Currency Exchange Rate History: Mexican pesos per US dollar - 10.898 (2005), 11.286 (2004), 10.789 (2003), 9.656 (2002), 9.342 (2001)
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GDP of Agriculture: 3.80 %
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GDP of Industry: 25.90 %
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GDP of Services: 70.20 % |
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Inflation Rate: 4.00 % |
Population in Poverty: 40.00 %
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Unemployment Rate: 3.60 %
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Tourism: 19,043,000.00 visitors each year
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Consumption by lowest 10%: 1.60 %
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Budget Revenue in USD: $181,000,000,000 USD
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Consumption by upper 10%: 35.60 %
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Budget Expenditures in USD: $184,000,000,000 USD
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Electricity Production: 209,200,000,000 kWh
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Electricity Exports: 1,070,000,000 kWh
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Electricity Consumption: 193,900,000,000 kWh
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Electricity Imports: 390,200,000,000 kWh
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Electricity Production by Source:
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Fossil Fuel Electricity Production: 75.91%
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Nuclear Electricity Production: 4.02%
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Hydro Electricity Production: 16.88%
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Other Electricity Production: 3.19%
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Oil Production: 3,420,000 barrels per day
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Natural Gas Production: 47,300,000,000 cu m
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Oil Consumption: 1,752,000 barrels per day
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Natural Gas Consumption: 55,100,000,000 cu m
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Oil Exports: 1,863,000 barrels per day
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Natural Gas Exports: 0 cu m
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Oil Imports: 205,000 barrels per day
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Natural Gas Imports: 7,850,000,000 cu m
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Proven Oil Reserves: 33,310,000,000 barrels
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Proven Natural Gas Reserves: 424,300,000,000 cu m
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External Debt: $137,200,000,000 USD |
Received in economic aid: $1,166,000,000 USD
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Donated in economic aid: $0 USD
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Agricultural Products: corn, wheat, soybeans, rice, beans, cotton, coffee, fruit, tomatoes; beef, poultry, dairy products; wood products
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Primary Industries: food and beverages, tobacco, chemicals, iron and steel, petroleum, mining, textiles, clothing, motor vehicles, consumer durables, tourism
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Industrial Growth Rate: 1.90 %
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Import Amount in USD: $223,700,000,000 USD - metalworking machines, steel mill products, agricultural machinery, electrical equipment, car parts for assembly, repair parts for motor vehicles, aircraft, and aircraft parts
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Import Partners: US 53.4%, China 8%, Japan 5.9%
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Export Amount in USD: $213,700,000,000 USD - manufactured goods, oil and oil products, silver, fruits, vegetables, coffee, cotton
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Export Partners: US 85.7%, Canada 2%, Spain 1.4%
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GINI Index: 54.60%
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Labor Force Number of People: 43,400,000
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Labor Force by Occupations: agriculture: 18%, industry: 24%, services: 58%
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Radio Broadcast Stations: 1,410 |
Number of People with Radios: 31,000,000 |
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Television Broadcast Stations: 236 |
Number of People with Televisions: 25,600,000 |
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Number of People with Mainline Telephones: 19,512,000 |
Number of People with Mobile Phones: 47,462,000 |
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Internet Service Providers: 3,426,680 |
Internet Users: 18,622,500 |
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Internet Country Code: .mx |
Newspapers: 97 |
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Two Letter Country Code: MX |
Weights and Measures: |
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Phone Country Code: +52 |
Electricity Voltage: 127 Volts |
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Telephone Systems: general assessment: low telephone density with about 18 main lines per 100 persons; privatized in December 1990; the opening to competition in January 1997 improved prospects for development, but Telmex remains dominant
domestic: adequate telephone service for business and government, but the population is poorly served; mobile subscribers far outnumber fixed-line subscribers; domestic satellite system with 120 earth stations; extensive microwave radio relay network; considerable use of fiber-optic cable and coaxial cable
international: country code - 52; satellite earth stations - 32 Intelsat, 2 Solidaridad (giving Mexico improved access to South America, Central America, and much of the US as well as enhancing domestic communications), 1 Panamsat, numerous Inmarsat mobile earth stations; linked to Central American Microwave System of trunk connections; high capacity Columbus-2 fiber-optic submarine cable with access to the US, Virgin Islands, Canary Islands, Morocco, Spain, and Italy
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Highways: 116,928 km |
Railways: 17,562 km
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Gas And Oil Pipelines: 40,016 km |
Waterways: 2,900 km
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Airports: 228 |
Heliports: 1
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Motor Vehicles: 153 per 1,000 people |
CO2 Emissions: 366,274,000 Metric Tons of CO2 per year |
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Per capita CO2 emissions: 3.90 Metric Tons of CO2 per year |
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Merchant Marines: total: 56 ships (1000 GRT or over) 751,607 GRT/1,129,234 DWT
by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 6, chemical tanker 6, liquefied gas 4, passenger/cargo 9, petroleum tanker 25, roll on/roll off 4
foreign-owned: 5 (Denmark 2, France 1, Norway 1, UAE 1)
registered in other countries: 15 (Belize 1, Honduras 1, Liberia 1, Panama 5, Portugal 1, Spain 3, Venezuela 3)
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Ports and Harbors: Altamira, Manzanillo, Morro Redondo, Salina Cruz, Tampico, Topolobampo, Veracruz
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Population: 107,449,525 people type - nationality |
Birth Rate: 20.69 births per 1,000 people |
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Population Density: 53.00 people per sq km |
Death Rate: 4.74 deaths per 1,000 people |
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Population Growth: 1.16% per year |
Fertility Rate per Women: 2.42 babies born per woman |
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Population Male 0-14: 16,770,957 |
Population Female 0-14: 16,086,172 |
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Population Male 15-64: 33,071,809 |
Population Female 15-64: 35,316,281 |
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Population Male 65+: 2,814,707 |
Population Female 65+: 3,389,599 |
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Population 0-14: 30.60% |
Literacy Rate: 92.20% |
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Population 15-64: 63.60% |
Literacy rate of Males: 94.00% |
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Population 65+: 5.80% |
Literacy rate of Females: 90.50% |
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Population that is Male: 48.00
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Population that is Female: 52.00% |
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Life expectancy at birth in years: 75.41 years |
Infant mortality rate - baby deaths per 1000 births: 20.26 Babies die per 1,000 births |
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Life expectancy at birth for Males: 72.63 years |
Life expectancy at birth for Females: 78.33 years |
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Rate of AIDS/HIV infection: 0.30%
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Number of people living with AIDS or HIV: 160,000
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Number of people who died of AIDS: 5,000 |
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Disease Risk:
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Diseases:
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Net Migration Rate per 1,000 people: -4.32
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Nationality: MEXICAN
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Ethnic Groups: mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 60%, Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian 30%, white 9%, other 1%
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Primary Language: Spanish
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Other Languages: Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regional indigenous languages
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Primary Religion: Roman Catholic
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Other Religions: nominally Roman Catholic 89%, Protestant 6%, other 5%
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Branches: Secretariat of National Defense (Secretaria de Defensa Nacional, Sedena): Army (Ejercito), Mexican Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Mexicana, FAM); Secretariat of the Navy (Secretaria de Marina, Semar): Mexican Navy (Armada de Mexico, ARM, includes Naval Air Force (FAN) and Marines)
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Manpower Fit to Serve: 18 years
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Manpower Available: 50,616,054 People
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Manpower Fit to Serve: 41,025,133 People
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Amount of Manpower Available each Year: 2,107,049 People per year
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Expenditures: $0 USD per year
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Expenditures as a Percentage of GDP: 0.80
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Note: Phrasebase uses a variety of sources when compiling the facts and information presented above. This information is continually updated throughout the year.
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Mexico Spa and Resort Directory
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Mexico Home Exchanges and Home Swaps
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Mexico Vacation Rentals And Holiday Villas
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Mexico City Information Game Earn Real Money
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