Country Comments

Mexico in the mid 1970’s had a total fertility rate of over six children per mother. That rate has declined over the past fifty years to almost replacement rate today. The country for the past decade has averaged more than 1.5 million births over deaths annually with about five percent of this amount emigrating to other countries like the United States each year. The country currently has more than twice as many people than its renewable resources can support.

Air pollution, deforestation, and lack of clean water rank as the biggest environmental health issues facing the country. Rapid population growth and industrialization due to inexpensive labor and lax environmental regulations has caused severe environmental degradation.

Although there have been improvements in women’s rights such as access to contraception and reproductive health services and the recent decriminalization of abortion in certain states, women and girls continue to face alarming rates of gender-based violence.

Human Rights Watch reported during January through July 2019 nationwide, there were 540 femicides—defined by Mexican law as depriving a woman of her life based on her gender. By April 2018, an official registry had recorded 9,522 women and girls as missing. (1)

(1) https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/mexico#