Mexico

Abstract

Poverty in Mexico remained largely unchanged, at 37.4% in 2020, compared to 37.6% in 2016, above the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) average of 26.3%. Extreme poverty in that period rose from 8.4% to 9.2%, partly owing to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, above the LAC average (8.7%). The population living in completely informal households decreased from 41.6% in 2010 to 37.0% in 2018, in line with the LAC average of 36.3% in 2018. Regarding environmental indicators, in 2019, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita were 5.1 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (t CO2e), lower than the averages for LAC (6.3) and countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (9.1). That year, the share of the population exposed to air pollution levels that pose risks to human health (PM2.5 at more than 10 µg/m3) was 99.5%, higher than 95.4% for LAC and 61.0% for the OECD. The marine protected area of Mexico accounted for 21.6% of its territorial waters in 2021, substantially higher than 7.3% for LAC and above 18.6% for the OECD. On the fiscal side, environmentally related tax revenue was 1.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, above LAC (1.0%) but below the OECD (2.1%). Total tax revenue as a percentage of GDP (17.9%) remains lower than the averages for LAC (21.9%) and the OECD (33.5%).