Population: 108,700,891 (July 2007 est.)
Regime History: Mexican independence from Spain was declared on September 16, 1810 by Miguel Hidalgo, leading to a long war with Spain that ended in official independence in 1821. Between 1876 and 1911, Mexico was ruled by Porfirio Díaz, and era known as the Porfiriato. While this era saw remarkable economic achievements and investments in art and sciences, it was also characterized by massive economic inequalities and political repression. The obvious fraud of Díaz’s fifth reelection led to the Mexican Revolution of 1910. In 1928, Plutarco Elías Calles founded the National Revolutionary Party (PNR), later renamed the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which would dominate Mexican politics for the next 70 years. In 1938, the oil industry was nationalized, serving as a massive source of state revenue. During the 1970s, while the prices of oil were at record high prices and interest rates were low, Mexico made investments in the state-owned oil company, with the intention of revitalizing the economy. However, culminating in 1982, overborrowing and mismanagement of oil revenues led to inflation and economic crisis, when oil prices plunged, interest rates soared, and the government defaulted on its debt, precipitating the debt crisis of the 1980s. Electoral fraud marked the Presidential election of 1988, leading to the eventual reversal of fortunes for the PRI when the National Action Party (PAN) candidate Vincente Fox was elected President in 2000. In 2006, a highly contested Presidential election saw the PAN candidate Felipe Calderón narrowly defeating the Party of the Democratic Revolution candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, while the PRI candidate finished third.
Organization: Mexico is a federal republic with 31 states and 1 federal district.The Mexican legal system is a mixture of US constitutional theory and civil law system and incorporates judicial review of legislative acts. Justices (or ministros) are appointed by the president with consent of the Senate for the Supreme Court of Justice (or Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nacion).
Economy: Mexico has a free market economy that recently entered the trillion dollar class. It contains a mixture of modern and outmoded industry and agriculture, increasingly dominated by the private sector. Recent administrations have expanded competition in seaports, railroads, telecommunications, electricity generation, natural gas distribution, and airports. Per capita income is one-fourth that of the US; income distribution remains highly unequal.
GDP per capita (purchasing power parity): $10,700 (2006 est.)
Population below poverty line: 40% (2003 est.)
Unemployment rate: 3.2% plus underemployment of perhaps 25% (2006 est.)
Ethnic groups: 60% mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish), 30% Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian, 9% white, 1% other