Pre-Trip Information

 

With a population of about 110 million, Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world and the second-most populous country in Latin America, after Portuguese-speaking Brazil. About 70 percent of Mexicans live in urban areas. Many people emigrate from rural areas that lack job opportunities, such as the underdeveloped southern states, to the more industrialized urban centers along the United States-Mexico border.

 

According to some estimates, the population of the capital city of Mexico City, in conjuction with its surrounding area, is about 20 million (Mexico City's center numbers between 8 and 10 million). This makes it the largest concentration of people in the world. Cities bordering on the United States, such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, as well as cities in the interior, such as Guadalajara, Monterrey and Puebla, have undergone sharp increases in population in recent years.

 

 

Roman Catholicism is the prevailing religion of most Mexicans. Dating back to the Franciscan, Dominican, Augustinian and Jesuit missionaries who entered Mexico with the Spanish conquerors, the power and position of the Roman Catholic Church has been preeminent in much of the country's social history.

 

 

 

More than 60 percent of Mexicans are mestizos, a term used to describe the ethnic blend of people descended from Native Amerindians, the indigenous people of the region, and the Spaniards who conquered Mexico in the 1500s. Native Amerindians, some of whom speak indigenous languages and hold traditional beliefs, make up about 30 percent of the population. Mexicans of predominantly Europ ean ancestry make up almost nine percent of the population.

 

 

 

Spanish is the major language, although, as aforementioned, indigenous tongues are also spoken. Some of the most widely spoken indigenous languages are Nahuatl in central Mexico, Mixteco-Zapoteca in south-central Mexico, Tarahumara in the country's northern region, and various Mayan dialects in the south-eastern region.

 

 

Although educational levels in Mexico have improved substantially in recent decades, the country still faces daunting problems. Education is one of the Mexican government's highest priorities and is being decentralized from federal to state authority in order to improve accountability.

 

Education is mandatory from ages six through 18. The increase in school enr ollments during the past two decades has been dramatic. In 1994, an estimated 59 percent of the population between six and 18 was enrolled in school. Primary (including preschool) enrollment in public schools from 1970-94 increased from less than 10 million to 17.5 million. Enrollment at the secondary public school level rose from 1.4 million in 1972 to as many as 4.5 million in 1994. A rapid increase also occurred in higher education. From 1959 until 1994, college enrollments rose from 62,000 to more than 1.2 million.

 

Despite the fact that education spending has risen dramatically, given increased enrollment, a net decline has occurred in per student expenditures. The Mexican government concedes that despite this progress, two million children still do not have access to basic education. The literacy rate of Mexico's population age 15 and over was estimated to be about 91 percent.

Mexico's infant mortality rate is 19.01 deaths per 1,000 births, according to a recent estimate. The life expectancy at birth of the total population was estimated to be 75.84 years  of age (73.05 years for males and  78.78 years for females).

 

Note that 13.8 percent of GDP in this country is spent on health expenditures; about 4.8 percent is spent on education.

One notable measure used to determine a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which has been compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a recent ranking of 169 countries, the HDI placed Mexico in the high human development category, at 56th place.

Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide -ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.

 

 

 

Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief at CountryWatch.com; see Bibliography for research sources.