|
|
| Country | Mexico | | | Flag |  | | | Capital | name: Mexico (Distrito Federal) geographic coordinates: 19 24 N, 99 09 W time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard Time) daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in April; ends last Sunday in October note: Mexico is divided into four time zones | | | Population | 108,700,891 (July 2007 est.) | | | GMT | -6/7 | | | Location | Middle America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, between Belize and the US and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Guatemala and the US
see map | | | Area | total: 1,972,550 sq km land: 1,923,040 sq km water: 49,510 sq km | | | Ethnic groups | mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 60%, Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian 30%, white 9%, other 1% | | | Religions | 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) | | | Languages | Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regional indigenous languages | | | Government type | federal republic | | | 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 | | | Background | 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. 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. | | Internet country code | .mx | |
|