I first visited Mexico in 1981 and returned four or five more times before 2005, when my husband and I bought a house in Guanajuato. You’d think that with all these years under my belt that I’d be knowledgeable about the country where I live part of my life. I’m embarrassed to admit that until I did research, I believed some of the common — and unflattering — Mexico stereotypes.
Take crime, for instance. Given the cartel violence in Mexico, I would have expected Mexico to be far more dangerous than the U.S. And in certain areas, it is, but not everywhere. Miami is more dangerous than Mexico City. According to the website Howsafeismexico.com, Mexico City’s homicide rate is 9 per 100,000, while Miami’s is 15 per 100,000.
I’m not alone in believing some of the stereotypes. According to 2024 data from the Pew Research Center, 60% of Americans have an unfavorable view of Mexico. If you’ve made the same mistakes I did, here are six facts about Mexico that may surprise you.
1. Guns
Mexico has only two gun stores in the entire country, both on military bases, issuing fewer than 50 gun permits a year. Unfortunately, there are still plenty of arms in the country, because every year, more than 200,000 guns are smuggled into Mexico from the U.S., many of them ending up used by drug cartels.
Ironically, the flow of weapons southbound is empowering the same organizations that smuggle drugs north across the U.S. border.
2. Mexican higher education
Some universities in Mexico are world-class. In 2024, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) ranked 93rd of 1,300 universities in the world, according to the journal Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). In Latin America, it ranked second that year only to the University of São Paulo in Brazil, which ranked 85th.
Meanwhile, for the last eight years, the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico’s MIT, has been ranked in the top 200 out of 1,673 prestigious universities in the world.
While public university students in Mexico have to pay for add-ons like housing, food, textbooks, and their actual diplomas, tuition itself is free; in fact, the Mexican constitution forbids public universities from charging tuition. Wouldn’t debt-ridden graduates in the U.S. dream of that?
Not only that, but the Mexican government is very generous with becas, or scholarships. Several of our Spanish teachers spent a couple of semesters studying in Europe or the U.S., fully paid for by the Mexican government.
3. Mexico’s economy
The 10th largest country in the world, Mexico has an economy ranked in the top 15 globally, according to the World Bank, which classifies Mexico as an “upper middle income economy,” along with such countries as Turkey, Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Colombia.
Unfortunately, while Mexico has a large and relatively diverse economy, it also has growing income inequality.
4. Attitudes towards gay and reproductive rights
Mexico supported gay rights long before the U.S., decriminalizing sodomy in 1871, 124 years before the U.S. in 2003. Mexico City was the first Latin American city to legalize same-sex marriage in 2010, and same-sex marriage is now legal in all 32 states of Mexico.
As for abortion, in 2021, Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion nationwide, that is, no one can be imprisoned for having an abortion. Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, however, abortion is still considered a criminal offense in 18 states where state legislatures have been slow to decriminalize it.
5. Average age and gender of top government leaders
Age was clearly an issue in the last U.S. presidential election. If Americans prefer younger candidates, they should move to Mexico! At 62, Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum, is 16 years younger than President Donald Trump, who is 78.
The same holds true in the Mexican legislature. The average age in Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies is 48 years old (six years younger than their counterparts in the U.S. House of Representatives). Meanwhile, the average age of Mexican senators is 54 — a full 10 years younger than the average age of U.S. senators, which is 64.3.
As for gender, more than 50 percent of the seats in the Mexican Congress are held by women, one of only six countries in the world holding that status. This places Mexico among the world’s leaders in gender equality in politics. In the U.S., only 28%, or 155 women, serve in the House and Senate.
6. Immigration
While I wasn’t surprised that the largest immigration group in Mexico is U.S. citizens, I didn’t expect the second largest to be Guatemalans. Other large immigrant groups include people from the Spanish-speaking world — Venezuela, Colombia, Honduras, Cuba, Spain, El Salvador and Argentina.
Over 2.5 million people of African descent, who came to Mexico as slaves, live primarily in the coastal areas of Veracruz, Oaxaca, and Guerrero. Another million people of Chinese descent live mainly in Mexicali and Mexico City, while about 9,000 Koreans live in Mexico City.
Mexico has one of the largest Lebanese diasporas in the Americas, somewhere between 400,000 and 700,000 people, living primarily in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara. They began arriving in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, seeking economic opportunities and fleeing religious persecution. Well-known Mexicans of Lebanese descent include business magnate Carlos Slim and actress Salma Hayek.
As these facts attest, Mexico not only is endowed with rich traditions, cuisine, art and music but also is a forward-thinking, diverse, increasingly egalitarian and progressive nation.
Louisa Rogers and her husband Barry Evans divide their lives between Guanajuato and Eureka, on California’s North Coast. Louisa writes articles and essays about expat life, Mexico, travel, physical and psychological health, retirement and spirituality. Her recent articles are on her website, https://authory.com/LouisaRogers
Interesting read! Tlazohcomati!
Great statistics and perspective. Thank you!
I agree with you!! Thank you Louisa for an enlightening article!!
I can assure you that millions of Mexicans, especially in rural areas, have guns. And thank God they do.
Great list, Louisa!
Here’s another: UNESCO World Heritage sites (35). Mexico has more than any country in the western hemisphere.
Wow! Impresionante!
That’s wonderful. I love my life here in Mexico. Will never return to the US to live.
The comment that tuition is free for University students is very misleading. Teck Monterey isn’t free tuition . I have paid for a bright young man to go there for the past 5 years. He has passed his engineering exams and is now set to face the world with an Engineering Degree from TECK. THE TUITION FEES WERE MANY THOUSANDS PER SEMESTER. THE STUDENT IS MEXICAN FROM. A VERY POOR FAMILY.
Tec Monterey is not a public university. Only public universities are prohibited from charging tuition.
Very nice report…Mexico how ever has a very dark side where the Cartels have taken over areas throughout Mexico killing anyone that gets in their way, Reporters, Police, and aspiring Politicians. We have been traveling throughout Mexico for over 35 years and Love the people as they are the most hospitable you will find. A lot of them refugees from other parts of the country. We spend a lot of time in the Yucatan considered the safest of all Mexico…Have been throughout the country over the years.
Thank you for clarifying. It’s great that people can receive a post secondary degree and graduate loan free.
We were able to send four very talented girls to Iteso University in Guadalajara for less money than it would cost to send just one to college in the U.S. All four did carry very high GPAs and they earned partial scholarships, one as high as 90 percent, the rest 50 percent. As there were three in school at any one time we decided it was cheaper to buy an apartment in Guadalajara rather than pay rents on them individually. The value of the apartment has risen considerably, in the end the apartment alone will return more than tuition, supplies and living expenses cost for all of them.
There is no way we could have done this in the U.S. And frankly we think they have gotten a much better education at Iteso than they would have at any of those highly leftist politicized and dumbed down “universities” in the U.S. The three who haave graduated are all doing very well and the fourth will likely have multiple job offers when she graduates in December.
Congratulations on their success! And your money saving skills. So many university and college graduates in the US are saddled with student loans. I worked three jobs a day in the US to pay my tuition and fees. Fortunately, I received an academic scholarship in my junior and senior to offset the cost but still had to work part time. I went to a large state, public university. Mexico is so right to provide postsecondary studies at public universities tuition free.
I much admire and celebrate what you have done for the “four very talented young students” you put through university and the intelligent way you went about it. I must take exception, however, to your reflexive hostility to American universities. I spent 35 years in higher education — from Catholic colleges to state universities — and I have never found them to be the hotbed of radical leftists that you assert. Everywhere I have been there has been a breadth of political opinion from hard right to hard left but with most very much in the moderate middle. I’m guessing that your principal news source is Fox News or its equivalent, one that sews hatred and contempt for any who don’t fit the right wing mold. It’s a shame.
Six more reasons why I love living in Mexico, in addition to my main reason, the Mexican people. Thank you for your article. Knew some of these to debunk the myths and ignorance assumptions.
If it’s so great in Mexico why do millions of Mexicans what to migrate to the United States?
Nicely reported!
Thank you. Lisa
Now savoring expat and the writing life
… in Zihuatanejo after my first visit in 1999.