People

More than 60 percent of Mexicans are mestizos, a term used to describe the ethnic blend of people descended from Native Americans, the indigenous people of the region, and the Spaniards who conquered Mexico in the 1500s. Native Americans, some of whom speak indigenous languages and hold traditional beliefs, make up about 30 percent of the population. Mexicans of predominantly European ancestry make up almost nine percent of the population. Spanish is the major language, although, as aforementioned, indigenous tongues are also spoken.

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 U.S.-Mexico border.

According to some estimates, the population of the area around Mexico City is about 20 million, which make 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 the late twentieth century and into 2001.

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.

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 eighteen. The increase in school enrollments 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.

Although 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 in 1999 to be 91.8 percent.

Mexico's infant mortality rate is 24.62 deaths per 1,000 births, according to a 1999 estimate. The life expectancy at birth of the total population was estimated in 1999 to be 72 years; 68.98 years for males and 75.17 years for females.

Since 1990, the United Nations Development Programme in concert with organizations across the globe has produced the Human Development Index, (or HDI). According to the UNDP, "the index measures average achievement in basic human development in one simple composite index," and produces from this index a ranking of countries. The HDI is a composite of three basic components of human development: longevity, knowledge and standard of living. Longevity is measured by life expectancy. Knowledge is measured by combination of adult literacy and mean years of schooling. Standard of living is measured by purchasing power, based on real GDP per capita (in constant US$) adjusted for differences in international living costs (or, purchasing power parity, PPP). While the index uses these social indicators to measure national performance with regard to human welfare and development, not all countries provide the same level of information for each component needed to compute the index; therefore, as in any composite indicator, the final index is predicated on projections, predictions and weighting schemes. The index is a static measure, weighting the component parts the same over time; and, it is clearly arbitrary in nature and necessarily an incomplete measure of human welfare. For example, the HDI does not measure a citizen’s range of choice nor freedom. In fact, the UNDP says itself the concept of human development focuses on the ends rather than the means of development and progress. The HDI, as the UNDP states, examines the "average condition of all people in a country," but there are inequalities among various groups of society, which are not reflected in national averages and must therefore be analyzed separately.

Specifically, the index is calculated by determining the maximum and minimum for each of the three components (as listed above) and then measuring where each country stands in relation to these scales - expressed as a value between 0 and 1. For example, the minimum adult literary rate is zero percent, the maximum is 100 percent, and the reading skills component of knowledge in the HDI for a country where the literacy rate is 75 percent would be 0.75. The scores of all indicators are then averaged into the overall index.

The HDI 2000 found the top five ranking of 174 participating countries were: Canada, Norway, United States, Australia and Iceland. A few of the medium human development nations include: Cuba, Belarus, Belize, Panama and Bulgaria. The bottom five (or low human development) of 174 participating countries were: Burundi, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Niger and Sierra Leone.

The HDI 2000 ranking for Mexico is 55th. The completed Human Development Report 2000 index for each country, ranked by the UNDP, can be found in Appendix C of this review. For a more extensive examination of human development please visit www.undp.org.