MEXICO - FACTS AND FIGURES

Area: 1,972,547 km2

Population: 93.7 million (1995)

Population Growth:1.8%

Capital: Mexico City

System of Government: Constitutional Federal Republic

Head of State: President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León

Key Government Ministers: José Angel Gurría Treviño, Minister of Foreign

Affairs, Guillermo Ortiz Martínez, Minister of Finance, Herminio Blanco,

Minister of Trade and Industrial Planning

Language: Spanish is the official language. There are about 13 Indian

languages with many different dialects, the main one being Nahuatl, or

Aztec.

Literacy Rate: 89.4%

Ethnic Background: The Mexican population is composed of three main groups:

the people of Spanish descent (approx 10%), Mestizo, or mixed European and

Native descent (60%) and Indígena (Native Americans or Indians - including

Nahua, Maya, Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Totonacs and Tarascos or Purépecha) (30%)

Religion: Romal Catholicism is the faith of more than 90% of the people.

Currency: C $1 = 5.7493 Pesos (as of July 9/97)

For more information on Mexico, visit these sites:

Canadian Embassy of Mexico in Ottawa

¡@migo! Mexico Online

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Some of this information was taken from the Information Series published by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. It is available in print format.