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 had been making an impressive recovery until the global financial crisis hit in late 2008. 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. In January 2009, Mexico assumed a nonpermanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2009-10 term.

Middle America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, between Belize and the United States and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Guatemala and the United States

23 00 N, 102 00 W

North America

slightly less than three times the size of Texas

9,330 km

varies from tropical to desert

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

petroleum, silver, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas, timber

63,200 sq km (2003)

457.2 cu km (2000)

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

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

strategic location on southern border of US; corn (maize), one of the world's major grain crops, is thought to have originated in Mexico

112,468,855 (July 2010 est.)

1.118% (2010 est.)

19.39 births/1,000 population (2010 est.)

4.83 deaths/1,000 population (July 2010 est.)

-3.38 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2010 est.)

2.31 children born/woman (2010 est.)

0.3% (2007 est.)

200,000 (2007 est.)

11,000 (2007 est.)

mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 60%, Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian 30%, white 9%, other 1%

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)

Spanish only 92.7%, Spanish and indigenous languages 5.7%, indigenous only 0.8%, unspecified 0.8%; note - indigenous languages include various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regional languages (2005)

5.5% of GDP (2005)

federal republic

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

16 September 1810 (declared); 27 September 1821 (recognized by Spain)

Independence Day, 16 September (1810)

5 February 1917

mixture of US constitutional theory and civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations

18 years of age; universal and compulsory (but not enforced)

bicameral National Congress or Congreso de la Union consists of the Senate or Camara de Senadores (128 seats; 96 members elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms, and 32 seats allocated on the basis of each party's popular vote) and the Chamber of Deputies or Camara de Diputados (500 seats; 300 members are elected by popular vote; remaining 200 members are allocated on the basis of each party's popular vote; members to serve three-year terms)

Supreme Court of Justice or Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nacion (justices or ministros are appointed by the president with consent of the Senate)

Convergence for Democracy or CD [Luis MALDONADO Venegas]; Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI [Beatriz PAREDES Rangel]; 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 [Cesar NAVA Vasquez]; New Alliance Party (Partido Nueva Alianza) or PNA [Jorge Antonio KAHWAGI Macari]; Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolucion Democratica) or PRD [Jesus ORTEGA Martinez]

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

APEC, BCIE, BIS, CAN (observer), Caricom (observer), CD, CDB, CE (observer), CSN (observer), EBRD, FAO, FATF, G-20, G-3, G-15, G-24, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, LAES, LAIA, MIGA, NAFTA, NAM (observer), NEA, OAS, OECD, OPANAL, OPCW, Paris Club (associate), PCA, RG, SICA (observer), UN, UN Security Council (temporary), UNASUR (observer), UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, Union Latina, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and red; the coat of arms (an eagle with a snake in its beak perched on a cactus) is centered in the white band

Mexico has a free market economy in 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 roughly one-third that of the US; income distribution remains highly unequal. Trade with the US and Canada has nearly tripled since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994. Mexico has free trade agreements with over 50 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 its first year in office, the Felipe CALDERON administration was able to garner support from the opposition to successfully pass pension and fiscal reforms. The administration passed an energy reform measure in 2008, and another fiscal reform in 2009. Mexico's GDP plunged 6.5% in 2009 as world demand for exports dropped and asset prices tumbled, but GDP is expected to post positive growth late in 2010. The administration continues to face many economic challenges, including improving the public education system, upgrading infrastructure, modernizing labor laws, and fostering private investment in the energy sector. CALDERON has stated that his top economic priorities remain reducing poverty and creating jobs.

$1.482 trillion (2009 est.)

$1.585 trillion (2008 est.)

$1.565 trillion (2007 est.)

$1.017 trillion (2009 est.)

-6.5% (2009 est.)

1.3% (2008 est.)

3.3% (2007 est.)

$13,500 (2009 est.)

$14,400 (2008 est.)

$14,400 (2007 est.)

47 million (2009 est.)

5.6% (2009 est.)

4% (2008 est.)

18.2% using food-based definition of poverty; asset based poverty amounted to more than 47% (2008)

48.2 (2008)

53.1 (1998)

20.8% of GDP (2009 est.)

37.7% of GDP (2009 est.)

35.8% of GDP (2008 est.)

3.6% (2009)

6.5% (2008)

NA%

4.9% (31 December 2009)

8.71% (31 December 2008)

$115.9 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$92.34 billion (31 December 2008)

$146.8 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$147.4 billion (31 December 2008)

$331.3 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$287 billion (31 December 2008)

$232.6 billion (31 December 2008)

$397.7 billion (31 December 2007)

$348.3 billion (31 December 2006)

corn, wheat, soybeans, rice, beans, cotton, coffee, fruit, tomatoes; beef, poultry, dairy products; wood products

food and beverages, tobacco, chemicals, iron and steel, petroleum, mining, textiles, clothing, motor vehicles, consumer durables, tourism

-7.3% (2009 est.)

245 billion kWh (2008 est.)

181.5 billion kWh (2009 est.)

1.288 billion kWh (2008 est.)

584 million kWh (2008 est.)

2.601 million bbl/day (2009 est.)

1.772 million bbl/day (2009 est.)

1.225 million bbl/day (2009 est.)

479,600 bbl/day (2008 est.)

10.5 billion bbl (1 January 2009 est.)

52.15 billion cu m (2008 est.)

66.88 billion cu m (2008 est.)

1.136 billion cu m (2008 est.)

12.61 billion cu m (2008 est.)

372.7 billion cu m (1 January 2009 est.)

-$10.12 billion (2009 est.)

-$15.81 billion (2008)

$229.7 billion (2009 est.)

$291.3 billion (2008 est.)

manufactured goods, oil and oil products, silver, fruits, vegetables, coffee, cotton

US 80.5%, Canada 3.6%, Germany 1.4% (2009 est.)

$234.4 billion (2009 est.)

$308.6 billion (2008 est.)

metalworking machines, steel mill products, agricultural machinery, electrical equipment, car parts for assembly, repair parts for motor vehicles, aircraft, and aircraft parts

US 48%, China 13.5%, Japan 4.8%, South Korea 4.6%, Germany 4.1% (2009 est.)

$90.8 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$95.3 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

$177 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$200.4 billion (31 December 2008)

$307.7 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$295.7 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

$46.39 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$45.39 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

Mexican pesos (MXN) per US dollar - 13.64 (2009), 11.016 (2008), 10.8 (2007), 10.899 (2006), 10.898 (2005)

20.667 million (2008)

79.4 million (2009)

AM 851, FM 726, shortwave 15 (2009)

729 (2009)

.mx

12.716 million (2009)

23.26 million (2008)

1,744 (2009)

1 (2009)

gas 22,705 km; liquid petroleum gas 1,875 km; oil 8,688 km; oil/gas/water 228 km; refined products 6,520 km (2009)

2,900 km (navigable rivers and coastal canals) (2008)

Altamira, Coatzacoalcos, Manzanillo, Morro Redondo, Salina Cruz, Tampico, Veracruz

Secretariat of National Defense (Secretaria de Defensa Nacional, Sedena): Army (Ejercito, includes 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), naval infantry) (2009)

18 years of age for compulsory military service, conscript service obligation - 12 months; 16 years of age with consent for voluntary enlistment; conscripts serve only in the Army; Navy and Air Force service is all voluntary; women are eligible for voluntary military service (2007)

0.5% of GDP (2006 est.)

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

major drug-producing nation; cultivation of opium poppy in 2007 rose to 6,900 hectares yielding a potential production of 18 metric tons of pure heroin, or 50 metric tons of "black tar" heroin, the dominant form of Mexican heroin in the western United States; marijuana cultivation increased to 8,900 hectares in 2007 and yielded a potential production of 15,800 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 toward the US stopping in Mexico; major drug syndicates control the 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 (2007)