People of Mexico from CIA World FactBook

Population:	107,449,525 (July 2006 est.)
Age structure:	0-14 years: 30.6% (male 16,770,957/female 16,086,172) 15-64 years: 63.6% (male 33,071,809/female 35,316,281) 65 years and over: 5.8% (male 2,814,707/female 3,389,599) (2006 est.)
Median age:	total: 25.3 years male: 24.3 years female: 26.2 years (2006 est.)
Population growth rate:	1.16% (2006 est.)
Birth rate:	20.69 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Death rate:	4.74 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Net migration rate:	-4.32 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Sex ratio:	at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)
Infant mortality rate:	total: 20.26 deaths/1,000 live births male: 22.19 deaths/1,000 live births female: 18.24 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:	total population: 75.41 years male: 72.63 years female: 78.33 years (2006 est.)
Total fertility rate:	2.42 children born/woman (2006 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:	0.3% (2003 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:	160,000 (2003 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths:	5,000 (2003 est.)
Nationality:	noun: Mexican(s) adjective: Mexican
Ethnic groups:	mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 60%, Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian 30%, white 9%, other 1%
Religions:	nominally Roman Catholic 89%, Protestant 6%, other 5%
Languages:	Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regional indigenous languages
Literacy:	definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 92.2% male: 94% female: 90.5% (2003 est.)

Mexico Economy Overview from CIA World Factbook

Economy - overview:

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. Trade with the US and Canada has tripled since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994. Mexico has 12 free trade agreements with over 40 countries including, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, the European Free Trade Area, and Japan, putting more than 90% of trade under free trade agreements. The new Felipe CALDERON administration that took office in December 2006 faces many of the same challenges that former President FOX tried to tackle, including the need to upgrade infrastructure, modernize the tax system and labor laws, and allow private investment in the energy sector. CALDERON has stated that his top priorities include reducing poverty and creating jobs. The success of his economic agenda will depend on his ability to garner support from the opposition.

Background to Mexico from CIA World Factbook

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. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time since the 1910 Mexican Revolution that the opposition defeated the party in government, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Vicente FOX of the National Action Party (PAN) was sworn in on 1 December 2000 as the first chief executive elected in free and fair elections.