Mexico ( Estados Unidos Mexicanos) is a country in Middle America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, between Belize and the US and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Guatemala. Mexico geographic coordinates 23 00 N, 102 00 W; area 49,510 sq km; area comparative slightly less than three times the size of Texas; land boundaries Belize 250 km, Guatemala 962 km, US 3,141 km; coastline 9,330 km; maritime claims 20; climate varies from tropical to desert; terrain high, rugged mountains; low coastal plains; high plateaus; desert; elevation extremes Volcan Pico de Orizaba 5,700 m; natural resources petroleum, silver, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas, timber; land use 85.7% (2001); irrigated land 65,000 sq km (1998 est.); natural hazards tsunamis along the Pacific coast, volcanoes and destructive earthquakes in the center and south, and; 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 the government considers the lack of clean water and deforestation national security issues; environment international agreements none of the selected agreements; geography note 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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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. government type federal republic; capital Mexico (Distrito Federal); 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; independence 16 September 1810 (from Spain); national holiday Independence Day, 16 September (1810); constitution 5 February 1917; legal system mixture of US constitutional theory and civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations; suffrage 18 years of age; universal and compulsory (but not enforced);

people

Mexico population 106,202,903 (July 2005 est.); age structure 5.6% (male 2,715,010/female 3,258,846) (2005 est.); median age 25.85 years (2005 est.); population growth rate 1.17% (2005 est.); birth rate 21.01 births/1,000 population (2005 est.); death rate 4.73 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.); net migration rate -4.57 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.); sex ratio 0.96 male(s)/female (2005 est.); infant mortality rate 22.85 deaths/1,000 live births; life expectancy at birth 78.1 years (2005 est.); total fertility rate 2.45 children born/woman (2005 est.); hiv adult rate 0.3% (2003 est.); hiv people with aids 160,000 (2003 est.); hiv deaths 5,000 (2003 est.); nationality Mexican; ethnic groups mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 60%, Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian 30%, white 9%, other 1%; religions nominally Roman Catholic 89%, Protestant 6%, other 5%; languages Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regional indigenous languages; literacy 90.5% (2003 est.);

Regions

Cities