Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 72 years
male: 68.98 years
female: 75.17 years (1999 est.)
Languages: Spanish
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 89.6%
male: 91.8%
female: 87.4% (1995 est.)
Geography of Mexico City
Mexico City is situated in the southern part of Mexico and approximately 2,200 meters above sea level, and surrounded by mountains of volcanic origin that reach altitudes of over 5,000 meters above sea level.
Growth (Dates and population)
Mexico City Growth and Population Fact File:
Population: 100,294,036 (July 1999 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 35% (male 17,987,500; female 17,289,875)
15-64 years: 61% (male 29,610,813; female 31,216,342)
65 years and over: 4% (male 1,873,986; female 2,315,520) (1999 est.)
Population growth rate: 1.73% (1999 est.)
Birth rate: 24.99 births/1,000 population (1999 est.)
Death rate: 4.83 deaths/1,000 population (1999 est.)
The population of Mexico City has never been accurate to at leas the tens of thousands. It is estimated that in 1995 the population of Mexico City 9,800,00.
The population of the metropolitan area reached 16.9 million in 1996. The city's population growth was out of the ordinary during most of the 20th century, this is mostly due to the migration from the provinces and a high birth rate. From 1950 through 1970, the city's population grew 4.2 percent a year, from 3,050,000 in 1950 to 6,874,000 in 1970. By 1980 the census reported 8,831,000 people residing in Mexico City.
It is estimated that in 1995 Mexico City had 15.5 million inhabitants.
Source: United Nations (U.N.) Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects (The 1996 Revision), on diskette (U.N., New York, 1996).
Size (Population – Most recent)
As of October 10th, 2003, the population in Mexico City was 15.25 million people. This was distributed over 570square miles.
Mexico is a very centralized country. In spite of efforts made by the government in recent years, Industrial development has concentrated in Mexico City.
Reasons for rapid growth (Push and Pull Factors) + Natural increase/Migration (Rural→Urban)
1 000s of people are pouring into Mexico City each year.
There are several reasons for Mexico City’s rapid growth.
The first, and most obvious reasons for Mexico’s rapid growth, is their high birth rate. Girls as young as 13 or 14 years of age are becoming pregnant in Mexico City. Mexico City has an extremely high birth rate. To put it into proportion, Mexico City’s birth rate is higher then India, or Brazil.
There is a high employment rate in Mexico City. There are 30 000 factories in Mexico City, and if each factory needs 100 people to operate it, that means that 3 000 000 people are needed to operate the factories in Mexico City. You would have thought that with such a high demand like this, Mexico City’s economy would be wealthy. However, the average wage in Mexico City is just $4USD per day. This figure is 1/20th of the average Americans Daily wage. Even though the
In the 1950s, ‘reliable’ penicillin was introduced. Thus meaning that the death rate dramatically fell over that decade.
Quite recently, the Government of Mexico City introduced a free health centre, similar to our NHS. This is encouraging for people to migrate to the city of Mexico.
