Mexico

• high, rugged mountains;
• low coastal plains;
• high plateaus;
• desert

fresh water lake(s):

Laguna de Chapala - 1,140 sq km

salt water lake(s):

Laguna de Terminos - 1,550 sq km

Atlantic Ocean drainage:

(Gulf of Mexico) Rio Grande/Bravo (607,965 sq km)

Pacific Ocean drainage:

(Gulf of California) Colorado (703,148 sq km)

• most of the population is found in the middle of the country between the states of Jalisco and Veracruz;
• approximately a quarter of the population lives in and around Mexico City

noun:

Mexican(s)

adjective:

Mexican

total:

30.8 years (2024 est.)

male:

28.8 years

female:

32.7 years

• most of the population is found in the middle of the country between the states of Jalisco and Veracruz;
• approximately a quarter of the population lives in and around Mexico City

at birth:

1.05 male(s)/female

0-14 years:

1.06 male(s)/female

15-64 years:

0.95 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.75 male(s)/female

total population:

0.96 male(s)/female (2024 est.)

total:

12.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2024 est.)

male:

13.4 deaths/1,000 live births

female:

10.9 deaths/1,000 live births

total population:

74.6 years (2024 est.)

male:

71.6 years

female:

77.7 years

total:

4.25 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

beer:

3.72 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

wine:

0.19 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

spirits:

0.19 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

other alcohols:

0.15 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

total:

13.1% (2020 est.)

male:

19.9% (2020 est.)

female:

6.2% (2020 est.)

women married by age 15:

3.6%

women married by age 18:

20.7% (2018 est.)

• scarcity of hazardous waste disposal facilities;
• rural to urban migration;
• natural freshwater 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

urban population:

81.6% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization:

1.4% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

particulate matter emissions:

17.83 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions:

486.41 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions:

135.77 megatons (2020 est.)

municipal solid waste generated annually:

53.1 million tons (2015 est.)

municipal solid waste recycled annually:

2.655 million tons (2013 est.)

percent of municipal solid waste recycled:

5% (2013 est.)

fresh water lake(s):

Laguna de Chapala - 1,140 sq km

salt water lake(s):

Laguna de Terminos - 1,550 sq km

Atlantic Ocean drainage:

(Gulf of Mexico) Rio Grande/Bravo (607,965 sq km)

Pacific Ocean drainage:

(Gulf of California) Colorado (703,148 sq km)

municipal:

13.17 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

industrial:

8.56 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

agricultural:

67.83 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

total global geoparks and regional networks:

2

global geoparks and regional networks:

Comarca Minera, Hidalgo; Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca (2023)

conventional long form:

United Mexican States

conventional short form:

Mexico

local long form:

Estados Unidos Mexicanos

local short form:

Mexico

former:

Mexican Republic, Mexican Empire

etymology:

named after the capital city, whose name stems from the Mexica, the largest and most powerful branch of the Aztecs; the meaning of the name is uncertain

name:

Mexico City (Ciudad de Mexico)

geographic coordinates:

19 26 N, 99 08 W

time difference:

UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC, during Standard Time)

daylight saving time:

DST was permanently removed in October 2022

time zone note:

Mexico has four time zones

etymology:

named after the Mexica, the largest and most powerful branch of the Aztecs; the meaning of the name is uncertain

history:

several previous; latest approved 5 February 1917

amendments:

• proposed by the Congress of the Union;
• passage requires approval by at least two thirds of the members present and approval by a majority of the state legislatures;
• amended many times, last in 2024

citizenship by birth:

yes

citizenship by descent only:

yes

dual citizenship recognized:

not specified

residency requirement for naturalization:

5 years

highest court(s):

Supreme Court of Justice or Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación (consists of the chief justice and 11 justices and organized into civil, criminal, administrative, and labor panels) and the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary (organized into the superior court, with 7 judges including the court president, and 5 regional courts, each with 3 judges)

judge selection and term of office:

• Supreme Court justices nominated by the president of the republic and approved by two-thirds vote of the members present in the Senate;
• justices serve 15-year terms;
• Electoral Tribunal superior and regional court judges nominated by the Supreme Court and elected by two-thirds vote of members present in the Senate;
• superior court president elected from among its members to hold office for a 4-year term;
• other judges of the superior and regional courts serve staggered, 9-year terms

subordinate courts:

federal level includes circuit, collegiate, and unitary courts; state and district level courts

note : in April 2021, the Mexican congress passed a judicial reform which changed 7 articles of the constitution and preceded a new Organic Law on the Judicial Branch of the Federation

• Citizen's Movement (Movimiento Ciudadano) or MC
• Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) or PRI
• Labor Party (Partido del Trabajo) or PT
• Mexican Green Ecological Party (Partido Verde Ecologista de México) or PVEM
• Movement for National Regeneration (Movimiento Regeneración Nacional) or MORENA
• National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional) or PAN
• Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolución Democrática) or PRD
• This Is For Mexico (Va Por México) (alliance that includes PAN, PRI, and PRD)
• Together We Make History (Juntos Hacemos Historia) (alliance that included MORENA, PT, PVEM) (dissolved 23 December 2020)

• three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and red;
• Mexico's coat of arms (an eagle with a snake in its beak perched on a cactus) is centered in the white band;
• green signifies hope, joy, and love;
• white represents peace and honesty;
• red stands for hardiness, bravery, strength, and valor;
• the coat of arms is derived from a legend that the wandering Aztec people were to settle at a location where they would see an eagle on a cactus eating a snake;
• the city they founded, Tenochtitlan, is now Mexico City

note: similar to the flag of Italy, which is shorter, uses lighter shades of green and red, and does not display anything in its white band

total World Heritage Sites:

35 (27 cultural, 6 natural, 2 mixed)

selected World Heritage Site locales:

• Historic Mexico City (c);
• Earliest 16th-Century Monasteries on the Slopes of Popocatepetl (c);
• Teotihuacan (c);
• Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino (n);
• Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (n);
• Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley (m);
• Historic Puebla (c);
• El Tajin (c);
• Historic Tlacotalpan (c);
• Historic Oaxaca and Monte Albán (c);
• Palenque (c);
• Chichen-Itza (c);
• Uxmal (c)

• upper-middle income economy;
• highly integrated with US via trade and nearshore manufacturing;
• low unemployment;
• inflation gradually decreasing amid tight monetary policy;
• state intervention in energy sector and public infrastructure projects;
• challenges from income inequality, corruption, and cartel-based violence

Fitch rating:

BBB- (2020)

Moody's rating:

Baa1 (2020)

Standard & Poors rating: BBB (2020)

note: The year refers to the year in which the current credit rating was first obtained.

agriculture:

4% (2023 est.)

industry:

31.8% (2023 est.)

services:

58.3% (2023 est.)

note: figures may not total 100% due to non-allocated consumption not captured in sector-reported data

total:

6.1% (2023 est.)

male:

5.8% (2023 est.)

female:

6.7% (2023 est.)

note: % of labor force ages 15-24 seeking employment

on food:

25.7% of household expenditures (2022 est.)

on alcohol and tobacco:

3.6% of household expenditures (2022 est.)

lowest 10%:

2.1% (2022 est.)

highest 10%:

34.4% (2022 est.)

note: % share of income accruing to lowest and highest 10% of population

Number of operational nuclear reactors:

2 (2023)

Net capacity of operational nuclear reactors:

1.55GW (2023 est.)

Percent of total electricity production:

4.9% (2023 est.)

production:

7.453 million metric tons (2022 est.)

consumption:

18.423 million metric tons (2022 est.)

exports:

2,000 metric tons (2022 est.)

imports:

9.917 million metric tons (2022 est.)

proven reserves:

1.211 billion metric tons (2022 est.)

total petroleum production:

2.101 million bbl/day (2023 est.)

refined petroleum consumption:

1.737 million bbl/day (2023 est.)

crude oil estimated reserves:

5.786 billion barrels (2021 est.)

production:

31.422 billion cubic meters (2022 est.)

consumption:

90.566 billion cubic meters (2022 est.)

exports:

30.129 million cubic meters (2022 est.)

imports:

59.436 billion cubic meters (2022 est.)

proven reserves:

180.322 billion cubic meters (2021 est.)

general assessment:

• with a large population and relatively low broadband and mobile penetration, (86 lines for mobile broadband for every 100 habitants in June 2021) Mexico’s telecom sector has potential for growth;
• adequate telephone service for business and government;
• improving quality and increasing mobile cellular availability, with mobile subscribers far outnumbering fixed-line subscribers (24.6 million fixed line subscribers and 125 million mobile line subscribers in June 2021);
• relatively low broadband and mobile penetration, potential for growth and international investment;
• extensive microwave radio relay network;
• considerable use of fiber-optic cable and coaxial cable;
• 5G development slow in part due to high costs (2021)

domestic:

fixed-line teledensity 19 lines per every 100; mobile-cellular teledensity is 98 per 100 persons (2021)

international:

• country code - 52;
• Columbus-2 fiber-optic submarine cable with access to the US, Virgin Islands, Canary Islands, Spain, and Italy;
• the ARCOS-1 and the MAYA-1 submarine cable system together provide access to Central America, parts of South America and the Caribbean, and the U.S.;
• Pan-American Crossing (PAC) submarine cable system provides access to Panama, California, U.S., and Costa Rica;
• Lazaro Cardenas-Manzanillo Santiago submarines cable system (LCMSSCS) provides access to Michoacan, Guerrero, and Colima, Mexico;
• AMX-1 submarine cable system with access to Colombia, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Gulf of California Cable submarine cable systems that connects La Paz, Baja California Sur and Topolobambo, Sinaloa;
• and Aurora submarine cable system provides access to Guatemala, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, and the U.S. satellite earth stations - 124 (36 Intelsat, 1 Solidaridad (giving Mexico improved access to South America, Central America, and much of the US as well as enhancing domestic communications), 9 Panamsat, numerous Inmarsat mobile earth stations);
• linked to Central American Microwave System of trunk connections (2022)

• telecom reform in 2013 enabled the creation of new broadcast television channels after decades of a quasi-monopoly;
• Mexico has 885 TV stations and 1,841 radio stations and most are privately owned;
• the Televisa group once had a virtual monopoly in TV broadcasting, but new broadcasting groups and foreign satellite and cable operators are now available;
• in 2016, Mexico became the first country in Latin America to complete the transition from analog to digital transmissions, allowing for better image and audio quality and a wider selection of programming from networks (2022)

number of registered air carriers:

16 (2020); inventory of registered aircraft operated by air carriers: 370

annual passenger traffic on registered air carriers:

64,569,640 (2018)

annual freight traffic on registered air carriers:

1,090,380,000 (2018) mt-km

total:

23,389 km (2017)

standard gauge:

23,389 km (2017) 1.435-m gauge (27 km electrified)

total:

704,884 km

paved:

175,526 km (includes 10,845 km of expressways)

unpaved:

529,358 km (2017)

total ports:

35 (2024)

large:

0

medium:

7

small:

10

very small:

14

size unknown:

4

ports with oil terminals:

21

key ports:

Acapulco, Ensenada, Manzanillo, Mazatlan, Tampico, Tuxpan, Veracruz