Poverty Rates

Mexico is a place filled with beautiful people and lush landscapes, but underneath all of its beauty is poverty. Mexico has 18.2% of its population under poverty, based on using food-based definitions of poverty, and 47% of its population on asset based poverty. There is a labor force of 44.71 million and 6.2% unemployment. In the years of 1994-1995, an economic crisis hit Mexico and this was the most severe in Mexico's history due to 50% of its population falling into poverty. However, rapid growth in exports initiated by NAFTA and other trade agreements helped to reduce the poverty rates, but this was only achieved in rural communities. According to World Bank, in 2004, 17.6% of Mexico's population lived in extreme poverty, while 21% lived in moderated poverty. The CIA Factbook reported 13.8% of the population being under the poverty line, and this was being measured in food-based poverty.