Mexico's agricultural and manufacturing exports both increased in April, driving up export revenue. (Cuartoscuro)
¡Buen provecho y salud! (Bon appétit and cheers!)
Mexico’s agricultural and agro-industrial exports brought in more revenue in 2023 than any previous year, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Mexico.
Poultry was amongst Mexico’s top agri-food imports in 2023. (Egor Myznik/Unsplash)
The value of agri-food exports — a category that includes big-earning beverages such as beer and tequila — hit a record high of US $51.87 billion in 2023, a 3.9% increase compared to 2022.
Meanwhile, agri-food imports declined ever so slightly (0.07%) to $44.29 billion, leaving Mexico with an agri-food trade surplus of just under $7.58 billion in 2023, a 35.3% increase compared to the 2022 surplus. It was the ninth consecutive year that Mexico had an agri-food trade surplus.
Agriculture Minister Víctor Villalobos Arámbula noted in a statement that 2023 was the first year that Mexico’s agri-food exports exceeded $50 billion. A decade earlier in 2013, agri-food exports were worth $24.4 billion, meaning that they increased 113% in the space of a decade.
Villalabos said that agri-food exports contribute to economic dynamism in Mexico as they stimulate job creation and generate foreign currency earnings.
Which agri-food products brought in the most revenue?
It’s no secret that Mexican beer is popular among consumers all over the world.
That fact is clear to see in the agri-food export data, as cerveza mexicana generated revenue of $6.16 billion in 2023, more than any other product in the category. The value of beer exports rose 2.2% compared to 2022.
Beer was Mexico’s largest agri-food export, raking in more than US $6 billion. (Edgardo Moya/Shutterstock)
The next biggest earner was tequila/mezcal with the two agave spirits — lumped together in the Bank of Mexico data — bringing in just under $4.3 billion in export revenue, an increase of 1.6% compared to the previous year.
Rounding out the top five were:
Tomatoes: $3.04 billion (up 13.5% compared to 2022).
Avocados: $3.03 billion (down 8.8% in annual terms).
Bakery products: $2.64 billion (up 13%).
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development noted that the value of live beef cattle exports rose 63.1% in 2023, the highest percentage terms increase of any agri-food product. The total value of such exports was $1.11 billion.
The next biggest percentage term increases were for:
The biggest market for Mexican agri-food exports is the United States, but Mexico sends its products all over the world. Corona beer, for example, is exported to 180 countries, according to AB InBev, the Belgian multinational that owns the brand.
What were Mexico’s top agri-food imports?
In 2023, Mexico imported yellow corn worth US $5.87 million, an increase of 1.3% compared to 2022. Most of the yellow corn – which is widely used in Mexico as animal fodder – came from the United States, Mexico’s top trade partner.
Mexico’s next biggest agri-food imports were:
Soy beans: $3.65 billion (down 11.5% from 2022).
Pork: $2.76 billion (up 4.2% in annual terms).
Wheat: $1.8 billion, (down 14.9%).
Poultry: $1.59 billion (8.2%).
Agriculture consultancy Grupo Consultor de Mercados Agrícolas (GCMA) said in late December that Mexico imported a record high of 37.44 million tonnes of grains and oil producing plants in the first 11 months of 2023, an 8.8% increase compared to the same period of 2022. Widespread drought in Mexico was the main reason for the increase.
Mexican fans bought 3% of Super Bowl tickets sold on StubHub this year. (Shutterstock)
Fans in the United States, of course, bought the most tickets to Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday in Las Vegas, but guess which country was No. 2?
According to StubHub, NFL fans in Mexico purchased 3% of the seats that the ticket resale giant sold to the game at Allegiant Stadium — where a sellout crowd of 61,629 watched the Kansas City Chiefs subdue the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime.
StubHub’s report that Mexico was second only to the U.S. was picked up by several Latin American media sources.
One of them, Latinus, declared proudly that Mexicans had surpassed Canadians in ticket sales and were going to be the “segunda fuerza” (second force) in Las Vegas.
“Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas will be painted tricolor,” the media outlet hyperbolized in allusion to the green, red and white Mexican flag.
ESPN Deportes declared with similar brashness that the Chiefs-49ers game “will be, in part, a Mexican fiesta.”
Mexican American pro wrestler Rey Mysterio at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday. (WWE Español/X)
Though no reports specified how many 2024 Super Bowl tickets overall were purchased by Mexicans, the media outlets generously concluded that Mexicans were the largest foreign fan base at the game.
StubHub did provide the statistic that the number of Mexicans who purchased its resale tickets was 47% higher this year than it was for the Super Bowl in 2020 (in which the Chiefs and 49ers also faced off).
CBS News reported the average price of a resale ticket to this year’s game at US $8,600, based on information from StubHub. The cheapest face-value tickets this year, sold directly by the NFL, were about US $2,000 each.
The attendance in Las Vegas of 61,629 was the lowest attendance in 57 of the 58 Super Bowls to date. Only the Super Bowl played on Feb. 7, 2021 in Tampa, Florida, had a lower attendance (24,835), but that was due to restrictions put in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Mexican ticket sales news was good news for the NFL, which in recent years has been putting a lot of effort into recruiting and maintaining its Latin American fan base.
The league says that Hispanics in the United States are the NFL’s most rapidly growing fan base, with an increase of 11% over this time last year.
Forbes México reported that the Mexican band Los Tigres del Norte declared themselves last week to be diehard 49ers fans — and that during their concert on Sunday in Chicago they would be wearing red 49ers underwear to support the team.
A Mexican fan proudly represents his home town at the Super Bowl on Sunday. (Juárez Ahora/Facebook)
The Mexican Association of Travel Agencies said airline ticket purchases from Mexico to Las Vegas last week increased by 20% over airline tickets to last year’s Super Bowl site in a Phoenix suburb (a 38-35 victory for the Chiefs over the Philadelphia Eagles).
For this year’s game in the U.S., the Spanish-language network Univision hosted its first Super Bowl telecast ever. Owned by Mexican American media giant TelevisaUnivision, the network also broadcast the game in Mexico on Televisa.
TV viewership numbers will come more into focus on Tuesday; preliminary reports showed the broadcast in the U.S. could likely beat last year’s record Super Bowl viewership of 115.1 million viewers.
The Spanish-language telecast didn’t miss its opportunity to comment on the romance that, for some viewers, eclipsed the sporting event. The commentary when singer Taylor Swift and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce kissed after the game was, “¡Viva el amor!” (Long live love!).
The Cancún-Tulum section of the Maya Train will be open by the end of the month, says President López Obrador. (Elizabeth Ruiz/Cuartoscuro)
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed on Sunday that the Cancún to Playa del Carmen stretch of the Maya Train (Tramo 5 Norte) will open as scheduled on Feb. 29.
In a post on social media platform X the president said that he carried out an inspection of the Maya train over the weekend, along with various members of his cabinet and the governor of Yucatán, Mauricio Vila.
President López Obrador shared an image of a working group reviewing progress at the railroad project. (Andrés Manuel López Obrador)
“Yesterday and today, we supervised work on the Maya Train. On Feb. 29, we will inaugurate the section from Cancún to Playa del Carmen, in the heart of the tourist area, bearing in mind the need to improve transport for the [tourism] industry’s employees,” he wrote.
While Feb. 29 had previously been announced as the date for completion of the entire railroad — which crosses the states of Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco and Chiapas — López Obrador said in January that the inauguration of the remaining sections (the southern part of Section 5, as well as Sections 6 and 7) would be postponed, likely until after the June 2 elections.
During the president’s Monday morning press conference, Maya Train director General Óscar David Lozano Águila said that the Tramo 5 Norte would offer an early morning service for regional workers at 6 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. from Cancún to Playa del Carmen. For tourists, the train will open at 9 a.m. and offer six daily departures. However, he said that the frequency of the schedules would depend on user demand.
The Cancún-Playa del Carmen section covers almost 50.57 km and comprises three stations: Cancún-Airport, Puerto Morelos and Playa del Carmen.
Maya Train pilings shown penetrating the roofs of underground caves. (gchristy65/X)
Environmentalists have repeatedly raised concerns about the potential damage to the environment and subterranean water systems caused by construction of the massive infrastructure project, while the government says it will be key to economic development in the southeast.
Héctor Rebaque and his HR100 car - Mexico's first (and so far only) Formula One car - at the 1979 Canadian Grand Prix. (Re Alessandro)
The modern world of Formula One is a super corporate, high-spending, ultra-glamorous one. Millions of viewers from around the world tune in to watch their racing heroes — including Mexico’s Sergio “Checo” Perez and his Red Bull Racing team — as expertly engineered machines rally against hundredths of a second.
Fifty years ago, however, the top level of global motorsport was a very different place.
The son of an architect, Héctor Rebaque was a Mexico City-born racer who competed at the very highest level of motorsport. (Ziv Knoll)
This was the era of the brave gentleman driver, a man from another time making his way in very different world. Sometimes these drivers would appear at one-off races, building their own cars from kits. Fancying themselves a designer, they would pioneer what they believed to be the next big concept in racing (it usually wasn’t). Many raced simply for the pleasure of speed and a desire to compete with the best, and had the deep pockets to do so.
Their names are etched into Formula One history — Jim Clark, the Scottish farmer many believe to be the greatest ever to race in the sport; Graham Hill, the master of Monaco; Rob Walker, the heir to the Johnnie Walker whisky fortune who listed his occupation only as “Gentleman;” and Al Pease, the only driver ever to be disqualified for driving too slowly.
The last of these great sporting amateurs was Hector Rebaque, the chilango son of an architect. Family money made it easy for him to enter the 1973 24 Hours of Daytona aged just 18. Modest sportscar success followed, and in 1974, he and fellow Mexican Guillermo Rojas entered their own car — a Porsche Carrera — as the Rebaque-Rojas racing team.
Not satisfied with simply racing sportscars, Rebaque set his sights on the ultimate motorsport series – Formula One. His timing couldn’t have been better.
Mexico in Formula One
The first Mexicans to race in Formula One were the Rodríguez brothers — super talented Ricardo and successful race-winner Pedro — but both were tragically killed early in their careers: Ricardo at the very first Mexican Grand Prix in 1962, and Pedro in Germany in 1971. Their deaths rocked the world of Mexican sports, and the public searched for another driver with the talent to represent Mexico on the world stage. Moisés Solana had valiantly tried to fill this gap, but his efforts in the top tier of motorsport had come up short. Mexico needed winners.
The Rodríguez brothers pioneered Mexican motorsport, dazzling racing fans between 1957 and 1970. (Pirelli)
It was under these circumstances that Hector Rebaque first came to Formula One. He had found himself a spot on the Hesketh racing team — best known for the playboy lifestyle of its owner and drivers, including the famous James Hunt. It was the ultimate privateer team for the ultimate privateer driver.
There was just one problem: Hesketh wasn’t very good. The car was slow, the team had no money, and the owner, Lord Thomas Hesketh, prioritized a life of vice over racing success. In true Mexican spirit, however, Rebaque had an incessant drive to succeed, and set out to reach the top any way he could. It was time to start his own Formula One team, and run things his way.
Mexico’s first Formula One car
Formula One teams are almost always based in the United Kingdom (with a few notable exceptions, like Ferrari), so founding and operating Team Rebaque was going to require setting up shop outside of Mexico.
That didn’t mean the DNA of the team had to be foreign, however, and the team earned sponsorship from a number of Mexican brands. The title sponsor was brewery chain Moctezuma (under their Carta Blanca label). Further support came from Domecq wines and a long-standing partnership with Café de México, which gave the team the funding they needed to get started. Other Mexicans on the team included Hector Rebaque Sr., Hector’s father, and Chacho Medina, who would go on to become the voice of Mexican motorsport commentary.
Team Rebaque negotiated the use of the title-winning Lotus 78 during their first season, seen here at the British Grand Prix. (Keith Long)
The Rebaque team had a lot of spirit, but it didn’t have a lot of money compared to the major players of the time. At the other end of the title race, Mclaren turned over £2.25 (US $2.8 million) in 1980 alone, equivalent to £9.7 million (US$ 12.2 million) today).
Given the team’s financial limitations, the Mexican Formula One dream began in the back of a garage in Leamington Spa, a charming market town on the outskirts of Birmingham. In a feat of outstanding negotiation, Rebaque arranged for the team to buy the revolutionary Lotus 78, which had won the World Championship the year before, outfitting it with the privateer’s engine of choice — the Cosworth DFV.
Hector ran the team, the office, served as a mechanic and acted as its only driver. Over the course of two full seasons, he raced in 30 Grands Prix across four continents. He arranged sponsors, worked on the car, and negotiated with suppliers.
The first season ahead of the 1978 World Championship was slow. The huge number of entries during the early years of Formula One — when drivers could enter their home Grand Prix for a single race — meant that it was often necessary to “pre-qualify,” a step which meant many new teams faced extreme pressure to even make it into the event itself. This didn’t stop Rebaque, who managed to qualify for nine of the 16 events in his first season.
Real success came in the German Grand Prix that year, when Rebaque took his car from 18th place on the grid to a 6th-place finish and scored the first points for Team Rebaque. The enormous achievement put the team on the map, and the future looked bright for the Mexican privateers battling for racing glory.
But Rebaque had even larger plans. He commissioned Geoff Ferris and John Barnard to build him the Rebaque HR100 — Mexico’s first (and so far, only) Formula One car. Designing and building a car from scratch isn’t easy, especially when you run your team in the back of an industrial estate, and it took some time for the final designs to be signed off on and prepared.
Sponsor pressure for the new car was huge — Mexico’s first Formula One car was a sporting achievement, and supporters wanted to see what Rebaque had created. As a result, the car was rushed out for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, perhaps a little earlier than it should have been.
Rebaque later found himself at Brabham, but he struggled to adapt to the car as his teammate Nelson Piquet won the World Championship. (f1forgottendrivers.com)
Unfortunately, patriotism, spirit and courage can only take you so far. The car was not especially fast, and it failed to qualify for three of the four races in which it was entered, retiring after its one race day outing in Canada.
After Formula One
Under modern scoring rules, Team Rebaque would have been a decent success, with enough points to attract the necessary sponsorship to continue. Unfortunately, the points system in the 1970s was much less forgiving — but Team Rebaque retains the distinction of being a points-scoring team nonetheless, something which only a handful of racecar constructors can say they have achieved.
Much like Checo Pérez some 40 years later, Rebaque managed to do well enough to secure a drive with a top team — and he headed to Brabham. While he picked up some points finishes, he finished a distant 10th in his only full season with the team, while his teammate Nelson Piquet won the title in the same car.
Rebaque was well enough regarded, and his efforts were rewarded in 1982 with an offer to join the Arrows team. Still, he chose to look to new pastures for the rest of his career.
Today, the HR100 sits in Rebaque’s garden as a memory of the time when Mexico dared to dream at motor racing’s highest level. (Carlos Jalife)
He headed to the United States and bagged a win at Road America in his only season with the #52 Carta Blanca car. He also finished in the top 15 in the Indianapolis 500 that same year.
Today, Rebaque is an architect, like his father. The HR100 can be found at his home, serving as a garden ornament.
The incident occurred in the beach town of Tulum, Quintana Roo. (Flickr)
A woman from the United States was killed at a beach club in the resort town of Tulum on Friday during an armed attack that targeted an alleged member of a local crime group.
Media reports identified the woman as 44-year-old Niko Honarbakhsh, who was originally from Los Angeles but lived in Cancún.
The Quintana Roo Attorney General’s Office (FGE) said in a statement that a foreign man, an alleged criminal known as “Belice” (Belize), was also killed. It didn’t explicitly say he was from Belize — which borders Quintana Roo — but some reports assumed that was the case.
The attack occurred at the Mia Restaurant and Beach Club, which describes itself as “the best beach club” in Tulum.
The FGE said Sunday that it had identified the perpetrators of the attack and was working to apprehend them. Three people entered the restaurant in search of a diner who attempted to flee upon seeing them, the El Universal newspaper reported.
The FGE stressed that the female victim was in no way linked to “Belice,” who died at a hospital from gunshot wounds he sustained.
At least one media outlet suggested that the two victims were a couple, but an alleged photo of them together showed a different woman, the FGE said.
Honarbakhsh, identified by some reports as the wife of a former DEA agent, was apparently killed by a stray bullet.
The FGE said that “Belice” was accused of drug dealing and belonged to a criminal group considered a “generator of violence” in Quintana Roo, a state which also includes the tourist hotspots of Cancún and Playa del Carmen.
It said that at the time of his murder, he was in possession of bags of white powder with the “characteristics” of cocaine as well as red and orange pills and a small bag of brown-colored powder.
Foreigners have been killed in previous armed attacks in Tulum, including one in October 2021 that left a German woman and an Indian woman dead. They, and three other foreign tourists who were wounded, were caught in the crossfire of a shootout between drug gangs.
Shortly before spring break last year, the United States government advised U.S. citizens to “exercise increased caution in the downtown areas of popular spring break locations, including Cancún, Playa Del Carmen, and Tulum, especially after dark.”
Quintana Roo was Mexico’s 17th most violent state in terms of total homicides last year. There were 722 murders in the Caribbean coast state in 2023, according to preliminary government data, an increase of 14.6% compared to 2022.
The lab was the largest discovered so far during AMLO's term. (Semar/Cuartoscuro)
A massive drug lab hidden in the mountains of Sonora was uncovered last week by the Mexican Navy (Semar) and dismantled over the weekend.
According to reports, the lab is the largest seized during the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took office Dec. 1, 2018.
Officials seized over 35 tonnes of methamphetamines ready for sale, plus chemicals that could be used to produce an additional 41 tonnes of illegal drugs. (Alfonso Durazo/Facebook)
In announcing the bust on Sunday, officials said they had seized just over 35 tonnes of methamphetamines (crystal meth) ready for sale, plus chemicals that could be used to produce an additional 41 tonnes of illegal drugs.
Combined, the potential street value of everything seized was more than US $600 million, according to Semar.
The “megalaboratory” was found in the municipality of Quiriego in southern Sonora, about 425 kilometers south of the state’s border with Arizona at Nogales.
The raid was a joint effort among elements of the Navy, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and state officials.
Sonora Governor Alfonso Durazo visited the site of the bust over the weekend. (Alfonso Durazo/Facebook)
To put the bust in perspective, Sonora Governor Alfonso Durazo said the largest illegal drug laboratory previously recorded in Sinaloa last year, had 13 reactors, although reports at the timeput the number at 23.
The newly located Sonora lab had 72 reactors, 102 condensers and 32 centrifuges.
Vehicles, motorcycles, trailers and various materials related to the production of synthetic drugs were also found at the site, but authorities said they did not arrest any suspects, nor did they find any weapons or cash.
José Rafael Ojeda Durán, the head of the Mexican Navy, said the operation prevented more than 1 billion pills from reaching the United States, Canada, Australia, China, Spain, Japan and various European countries.
The lab was located in a mountainous region near the tri-border point of Sonora, Chihuahua and Sinaloa, an area where factions loyal to the Sinaloa Cartel – and run by sons of imprisoned cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera – are known to operate.
“Indeed, we believe it is run by the Sinaloa Cartel,” Ojeda said of the lab.
The laboratory is believed to have been operated by the Sinaloa Cartel. (Semar/Cuartoscuro)
The discovery comes on the heels of a meeting last Thursday in Mexico City led by the White House Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall and attended by representatives from Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.
A White House transcript of the fourth meeting of the Trilateral Fentanyl Committee noted that the three countries reaffirmed their commitment to reducing the movement of illicit synthetic drugs (especially fentanyl) and firearms, and to fighting human trafficking.
One of the primary actions agreed upon was “increasing collaboration on the control of precursor chemicals and equipment related to illicit drug production.”
The seizure of the Sonora lab came one week after two armed attacks were reported in the area. The attacks, one on a family and the other on a group of day laborers, resulted in seven deaths and the arrest of three alleged gang members. It is unclear whether there is a connection between the arrests and the raid.
The strongest of the earthquakes had a magnitude of 5.3. (SkyAlert)
The cities of Mexicali, Tijuana and Tecate, Baja California were hit by a series of earthquakes early on Monday.
The first earthquake, which registered a magnitude of 4.8 on the Richter scale, occurred at 12:36 a.m. Its epicenter was located 3 km from El Centro, a city in Imperial County, California.
The first of this morning’s earthquakes occurred in El Centro, California. (USGS)
At 2:32 a.m., Mexico’s National Seismological Service (SSN) reported another earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 and a depth of 10 kilometers southeast of the Santa Isabel municipality in Mexicali.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), over 20 aftershocks occurred between 12:36 and 5:24 a.m. Monday, with magnitudes ranging between 3.5 to 4.8.
As a precautionary measure, Baja California Governor María del Pilar Ávila Olmeda ordered schools in Mexicali to close on Monday so that authorities could assess the safety of school infrastructure.
She added that no damages had been reported so far. According to local media, the Health Ministry reported that the state’s hospitals have been operating normally.
In an interview with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the head of the SSN Arturo Iglesias Mendoza explained that the term “earthquake swarm” refers to the occurrence of multiple earthquakes in the same region within a short period of time. Typically, these earthquakes have similar magnitudes.
This could help explain the cluster of earthquakes that happened today between Mexico and the United States, which seem to have originated from the San Jacinto fault system, one of the most active faults in Southern California.
A mechanical failure likely forced the aircraft's pilot to crash-land on Bacocho Beach. (@ivancp25/X)
A 62-year-old man was killed and five people including four Canadians were injured when a light plane made a forced landing on a beach in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, on Sunday.
A Cessna aircraft carrying a group of skydivers came down on Bacocho Beach at around midday and collided with a structure used as a turtle camp.
According to a statement posted online by state Civil Protection authorities, the 62-year-old victim was on the beach with his wife when the accident occurred. The Associated Press reported that the plane — operated by the company Sky Dive Puerto Escondido — “landed almost on top of the victim.”
Four Canadians aged 60, 59, 41 and 35 and a 40-year-old Puerto Escondido local were injured and taken to hospital for treatment, according to Civil Protection authorities. They were reported to be in stable condition.
Local firefighters and paramedics responded to the incident, and security forces including the army, National Guard and state and municipal police attended the scene.
The five injured people were among 17 people on board the light plane, according to the El Universal newspaper. Citing preliminary reports, Civil Protection authorities said that a “forced landing” was reported, but didn’t mention any reason why such a landing was necessary.
The victim was visiting Bacocho beach when the plane crashed almost directly on top of him. (@SSPC_GobOax/X)
The newspaper El Imparcial de Oaxaca reported that a mechanical failure forced the aircraft’s pilot to land on Bacocho Beach, located west of Zicatela Beach, Puerto Escondido’s most famous surfing beach.
El Imparcial identified the man who died as Armando D.C., a tourist from San Bartolo Coyotepec, a municipality near Oaxaca city. His wife was not injured but was reportedly distraught by the situation.
Authorities didn’t identify the injured people by name.
Oaxaca Governor Salomón Jara Cruz said on the X social media platform that his government will provide “all necessary support” to the family of the deceased man. He described his death as an “irreparable loss.”
Australia and Mexico are vastly different from each other, but they also have some things in common that might surprise you. (Google Earth)
As an Australian in Mexico, I sometimes find myself comparing the country in which I live to the one in which I was born and grew up.
Not in the sense that one country is better than the other — I’ve long been an advocate of the “not better, not worse, just different” school of thought — but rather in an objective way: Mexico has a much bigger population, but Australia is significantly larger in area.
Those kinds of things.
Mexico News Daily’s “Australia in Focus” week gave me a perfect opportunity to delve further into data on the two countries — a real treat for someone who is a bit of statistics nerd.
The result of my research is this addition to our “Mexico in Numbers” series of articles, in which I present a selection of data for Mexico and Australia, and make some objective comparisons between the two countries.
Population and demographics
The population of Australia was estimated to be 26.63 million at June 30, 2023, while Mexico’s 2020 census found that just over 126 million people were living in the country.
Thus, Mexico’s population is around five times larger than that of Australia.
Australians, on average, are much older than Mexicans. The median age of Australians was 38.5 in 2022, while the median age of Mexicans was 29 in 2020.
Given the vast distance between the two countries and the absence of traditional ties — such as those between Australia and England or those between Mexico and Spain — it’s not surprising that the number of Australians living in Mexico, and the number of Mexicans living in Australia, is not particularly high.
Australia’s 2021 census found that there were 6,845 Mexican-born residents, about half of whom are Australian citizens. Most moved to Australia this century as the Mexican-born population was just 1,154 in 2001.
Thus, the number of Mexicans who call Australia home increased by almost 500% in the space of 20 years. Concerns about security in Mexico, the opportunity to have “a better quality of life” in Australia and a desire to be close to family members already in Australia were among the reasons Mexicans migrated “Down Under,” according to a 2013 study.
Australian Ambassador to Mexico Rachel Moseley (left) at a recent event with Mexico’s Culture Minister Alejandra Frausto. (AusEmbMex/X)
As for Australian residents in Mexico, there were 695 in 2020, according to the census conducted that year. Almost three-quarters — 72.4% — of those counted were male, while 77.6% of the total were aged between 25 and 39.
Family, work, education and personal reasons were the main things that brought Australians to Mexico. Mexico City has the highest population of resident Australians, with 317, or 46% of the total counted by the 2020 census.
Mexico – it may come as a surprise – could fit into Australia almost four times over.
Australia is divided into six states and two mainland territories, whereas Mexico has 31 states and a 32nd state-like entity in Mexico City, the national capital. Mexico could easily fit into Australia’s largest state, Western Australia, whose area exceeds 2.5 million square kilometers.
Mexico is significantly smaller in land area than Australia. (TheTrueSize.com)
Australia’s highest (mainland) mountain, the 2,228-meter-high Mount Kosciuszko, is dwarfed by Mexico’s highest peak — that of the 5,636-meter-high Pico de Orizaba, an active stratovolcano on the Veracruz-Puebla border.
Around 40% of Mexico’s territory is classified as desert or semi-arid land. That territory includes the Chihuahuan Desert, which covers more than 500,000 square meters of land in northern Mexico and southern United States.
The IMF estimates that Australia’s nominal GDP was US $1.69 trillion last year, while that of Mexico was placed at $1.81 trillion.
While the overall size of the two economies is similar, per capita GDP is much higher in Australia given the country’s significantly smaller population.
Per capita GDP in Australia was just over $65,000 in 2022, according to the World Bank, while it was just under $11,500 in Mexico.
Mexico’s economy is currently growing more quickly than Australia’s. Preliminary data published in late January showed that GDP in Mexico increased 3.1% in annual terms in 2023, while growth in Australia was 2.1% in the 12 months to the end of September.
Indigenous languages
More than 250 Indigenous languages were spoken in Australia at the time of British colonization in 1788, but the number had declined to 150 by 2021. Many of those languages have a small or very small number of speakers.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, just under 77,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people reported speaking an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander language in 2021.
More than 7.3 million Mexicans speak an Indigenous language, according to the 2020 census, a figure that accounts for about 6% of the population.
Mexico’s Indigenous-language speaking population is larger than Australia’s, although Australia has more linguistic diversity. (Gob MX)
Thus, there are around 95 Mexicans who speak an Indigenous language for every Australian who can communicate in a native Australian tongue.
Biodiversity
Both Australia and Mexico are among 17 “mega-diverse” countries identified by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre of the United Nations Environment Program.
Mexico and Australia are both among the world’s “mega-diverse” countries, home to a huge variety of animal and plant species. (The Swiftest)
According to the Global Biodiversity Index, developed by the research firm The Swiftest, Mexico is the world’s fifth most biodiverse country and Australia ranks sixth.
The rankings are based on the number of bird species, amphibian species, fish species, mammal species, reptile species and plant species.
Mexico is home to 29,051 species across those six categories, while Australia has 26,772 species, according to the biodiversity index.
Brazil, Indonesia, Colombia and China are the world’s top four most biodiverse countries.
Shark attacks
There have been a few headline-making shark attacks in Mexico recently, but data shows that they are much more common in Australia.
A map of confirmed unprovoked shark attacks from 1580 to today. The United States, Australia, South Africa, Brazil and New Zealand are the top five sites. Mexico is number eight on the list. (International Shark Attack File/Florida Museum)
According to the Florida Museum’s “International Shark Attack File,” there have been 706 confirmed unprovoked attacks in Australia since 1580 (more than 200 years before British colonization), and 42 attacks in Mexico in the same period.
This article is part of our Australia in Focus series. You can read the rest of the articles here.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
Travis Bembenek, CEO of Mexico News Daily with his wife Tamanna at the Australian Embassy in Mexico City. (Courtesy)
There is so much going on between the United States and Mexico — and with Canada in the USMCA treaty — that it is easy to forget that Mexico has dynamic, fascinating and long-standing relationships with many other countries from around the world. Mexico’s profile continues to rise globally, and there are many great stories to tell.
Our team at MND is committed to reporting more and more on these stories. The motivation behind our “Global Mexico” series is to bring you a new perspective on Mexico in a global context — beyond the daily headlines that focus mostly on US-Mexico relations. Every country has its own different and unique relationship with Mexico, and we think it’s important to understand these stories to fully understand the country and its future.
This series will focus on the relationships between Mexico and key countries from around the world. We have been working very hard over these past few months — meeting with different embassies, chambers of commerce and social associations to uncover the stories behind “Global Mexico.”
We will share with you — through the interviews and reporting we are doing — the thoughts and perspectives of leaders, as well as important initiatives, investments and experiences of people from around the world in Mexico.
It’s important to remember that Mexico has been a world leader in free trade for years, with agreements currently signed with 50 nations. Countries from around the world increasingly are connecting with Mexico for myriad reasons — business, political, cultural, tourism and lifestyle. The stories behind these connections are fascinating.
What our team has covered so far is informative, educational and inspiring. We are committed to helping you better understand Mexico and its position on the world stage.
Our first series, “Australia in Focus,” launched on February 5, and you can read all of the articles here.
Our second series “India in Focus” launched on March 11, and the full series will be updated here daily. More countries are in the works for the months to come. Stay tuned!
Thank you for supporting MND and helping us get better every day.
Travis Bembenek is the CEO of Mexico News Daily and has been living, working or playing in Mexico for over 27 years.
