Mexico City is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, exceeding those in Brazil and parts of Africa.
Jean-Kemi Ogunmuyiwa 10 Jupiter Geography Case Study
Mexico City is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, exceeding those in Brazil and parts of Africa. The number of people living there is estimated to be 16 million but due to the constant internal migration, the figures could easily be in the region of 32 million people. It is the Primate city in Mexico and the number of it’s inhabitants far exceeds the numbers of people living in smaller cities. Mexico’s second largest city has a population of only two million.
The vast amount of people living in Mexico City has created socioeconomic problems such as lack of adequate housing, pollution, poor standard of living, rising levels of crime, excessive traffic, health and environmental concerns.
People are often lured from rural to city areas by the promise and prospect of improved wages and better standard of living. In Mexico, people migrate to the larger cities due to lack of employment opportunities and decent wages in the countryside. Many of the people living on the outskirts of larger cities are involved in agriculture, with small wages and do not earn enough money to support their families. Most Mexican farmers lack access to modern farming technology and methods and therefore cannot maximise their productivity. This makes them less competitive and ties them to farming at subsistence level (growing crops to sustain their families). Some people migrate to larger cities such as Puebla or Tolluca but unemployment there means that they are forced to embark on further migration to the capital. Most migrants are usually under the age of thirty. This places substantial strain on the government and economy. In addition to existing socioeconomic problems, the government has to fund and make provisions for more schools, employment, sanitation and housing to support the ever increasing urban population, fuelled mostly by rural migrants. This appears to be a never ending circle as the movement of people from surrounding cities and the country side threatens to continue in a non-ending stream, for there will always be movement of people in search of the good life from rural to city areas so long as inequalities in employment opportunities, wages, housing, health/sanitation and education remain unaddressed between the two areas.
