Contents
Mexico Brief |
 | ||
|
 Formal NameUnited Mexican States (Estados Unidos Mexicanos). Short Form: México. Term for Citizen(s)Mexican(s). CapitalMexico City (Ciudad de México), located in the Federal District (Distrito Federal) with a population of about 8.6 million. Major CitiesThe Greater Mexico City metropolitan area encompasses Mexico City and several adjacent suburbs, including the populous cities of Ecatepec de Morelos (1.8 million residents) and Netzahualcóyotl (1.2 million). The total population of the Greater Mexico City metropolitan area is estimated at about 16 million. Other major cities include Guadalajara (1.6 million), Puebla (1.3 million), Ciudad Juárez (1.2 million), Tijuana (1.1 million) and Monterrey (1.1 million). IndependenceSeptember 16, 1810 (from Spain). Public HolidaysNew Year’s Day (January 1); Constitution Day (February 5); Birthday of Benito Juárez (March 21); International Labor Day (May 1); Independence Day (September 16); Discovery of America (October 12); Anniversary of the Revolution (November 20); Christmas (December 25); and New Year’s Eve (December 31). FlagThree 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. Source: Library of Congress – Federal Research Division Country Profile | |||
Past | Mexico | ||
| 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. The elections held in 2000 marked the first time since the 1910 Mexican Revolution that an opposition candidate - Vicente FOX of the National Action Party (PAN) - defeated the party in government, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He was succeeded in 2006 by another PAN candidate Felipe CALDERON. | ||
Environment | Mexico | ||
| 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 | ||
| Climate: | varies from tropical to desert | ||
| Natural resources: | petroleum, silver, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas, timber | ||
| 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 | ||
People | Mexico | ||
| Population: | 108,700,891 (July 2007 est.) | ||
| Nationality: | noun: Mexican(s) | ||
| Ethnic groups: | mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 60%, Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian 30%, white 9%, other 1% | ||
| Religions: | Roman Catholic 76.5%, Protestant 6.3% (Pentecostal 1.4%, Jehovah's Witnesses 1.1%, other 3.8%), other 0.3%, unspecified 13.8%, none 3.1% (2000 census) | ||
| Languages: | Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regional indigenous languages | ||
Government | Mexico | ||
| Country name: | conventional long form: United Mexican States | ||
| Capital: | name: Mexico (Distrito Federal) | ||
| Political parties and leaders: | Convergence for Democracy or CD [Luis MALDONADO Venegas]; Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI [Beatriz PAREDES]; Labor Party or PT [Alberto ANAYA Gutierrez]; Mexican Green Ecological Party or PVEM [Jorge Emilio GONZALEZ Martinez]; National Action Party (Partido Accion Nacional) or PAN [German MARTINEZ Cazares]; New Alliance Party (Partido Nueva Alianza) or PNA [Jorge Antonio KAHWAGI Macari]; Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolucion Democratica) or PRD [Leonel COTA Montano]; Social Democratic and Peasant Alternative Party (Partido Alternativa Socialdemocrata y Campesina) or Alternativa [Alberto BEGNE Guerra] | ||
| Political pressure groups and leaders: | Broad Progressive Front or FAP; Businessmen's Coordinating Council or CCE; 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 Small Business Chamber or CANACOPE; National Syndicate of Education Workers or SNTE; National Union of Workers or UNT; Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca or APPO; Roman Catholic Church | ||
Business | Mexico | ||
| Business - 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. In 2007, during his first year in office, the Felipe CALDERON administration was able to garner support from the opposition to successfully pass a pension and a fiscal reform. The administration continues to face many economic challenges including the need to upgrade infrastructure, modernize labor laws, and allow private investment in the energy sector. CALDERON has stated that his top economic priorities remain reducing poverty and creating jobs. | ||
| Industries: | food and beverages, tobacco, chemicals, iron and steel, petroleum, mining, textiles, clothing, motor vehicles, consumer durables, tourism | ||
| Currency (code): | Mexican peso (MXN) | ||
| Exchange rates: | Mexican pesos per US dollar - 10.8 (2007), 10.899 (2006), 10.898 (2005), 11.286 (2004), 10.789 (2003) | ||
| Fiscal year: | calendar year | ||
Communications | Mexico | ||
| Telephones - mobile cellular: | 57.016 million (2006) | ||
| Telephone system: | general assessment: 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 | ||
| Televisions: | 25.6 million (1997) | ||
| Internet country code: | .mx | ||
| Internet users: | 22 million (2006) | ||
Transportation | Mexico | ||
| Airports: | 1,834 (2007) | ||
| Railways: | total: 17,665 km | ||
| Roadways: | total: 235,670 km | ||
| Waterways: | 2,900 km (navigable rivers and coastal canals) (2007) | ||
| Ports and terminals: | Altamira, Coatzacoalcos, Manzanillo, Morro Redondo, Salina Cruz, Tampico, Veracruz | ||
Security | Mexico | ||
| Military 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) (2007) | ||
| Military expenditures - percent of GDP: | 0.5% (2006 est.) | ||
International | Mexico | ||
| Disputes - international: | abundant rainfall in recent years along much of the Mexico-US border region has ameliorated periodically strained water-sharing arrangements; the US has intensified security measures to monitor and control legal and illegal personnel, transport, and commodities across its border with Mexico; Mexico must deal with thousands of impoverished Guatemalans and other Central Americans who cross the porous border looking for work in Mexico and the United States | ||
| Illicit drugs: | major drug-producing nation; cultivation of opium poppy in 2005 amounted to 3,300 hectares yielding a potential production of 8 metric tons of pure heroin, or 17 metric tons of "black tar" heroin, the dominant form of Mexican heroin in the western United States; marijuana cultivation decreased 3% to 5,600 hectares in 2005 - just two years after a decade-high cultivation peak in 2003 - and yielded a potential production of 10,100 metric tons; government conducts the largest independent illicit-crop eradication program in the world; continues as the primary transshipment country for US-bound cocaine from South America, with an estimated 90% of annual cocaine movements towards the US stopping in Mexico; major drug syndicates control majority of drug trafficking throughout the country; producer and distributor of ecstasy; significant money-laundering center; major supplier of heroin and largest foreign supplier of marijuana and methamphetamine to the US market | ||
| This section was last updated on 17 January, 2008 Source: The World Factbook | |||
