Land use: arable land: 12.99% permanent crops: 1.31% other: 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 hurricanes on the Pacific,
Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean coasts
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
note: the government considers the lack of clean water and
deforestation national security issues
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: 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
People Mexico
Population:
104,959,594 (July 2004 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 31.6% (male 16,913,290; female 16,228,552)
15-64 years: 62.9% (male 31,975,391; female 34,090,440)
65 years and over: 5.5% (male 2,618,713; female 3,133,208) (2004
est.)
Median age: total: 24.6 years male: 23.7 years female: 25.5 years (2004 est.)