Population of Mexico City

The population of Mexico City proper was 13,096,686 in 2000.

The population of the metropolitan area reached 18.7 million in 2003.

The city's population growth was phenomenal during most of the 20th century, spurred by migration from the provinces and a high birth rate.

From 1950 through 1970, the city’s population grew 4.2 percent a year, from 3,050,000 in 1950 to 6,874,000 in 1970.

By 1980 the national census reported 8,831,000 people residing in Mexico City. But from 1970 to 1990 the annual growth rate decreased to only 0.9 percent.

In part, the growth rate slowed after the mid-1970s because the government introduced a population control policy.

As late as 1970, the government denied that a population problem existed.

However, during the administration of Mexican president Luis Echeverría Álvarez (1970-1976) the government began a concerted effort to reduce birth rates, providing information on family planning through the national system of social security hospitals.

In the capital, the government began an advertising campaign suggesting smaller families as an ideal.

The government also began to encourage the creation of jobs in other regions of Mexico, which led to a sharp decrease in migration into Mexico City.

From 1985 to 1990, the Federal District lost over a million people, more than any Mexican state.

Nonetheless, in 1990 about 22 percent of the city's population had been born outside the metropolitan region.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the average age of the population in the metropolitan area increased as younger residents left Mexico City to pursue economic opportunities elsewhere.

The median age in the Federal District was 23 in 1990, higher than any of the states.

In 1995 the overall population density was about 6,600 persons per sq km (17,200 per sq mi).

In the past, the city center was by far the most densely settled part of the city.

However, since the 1940s the outlying areas have absorbed most of the population increase.

Not surprisingly, the Federal District is more urban than any of the Mexican states, with 99.7 percent of the population living in communities with more than 2,500 inhabitants.

Most of the people who live in Mexico City are mestizos—people of both Spanish and indigenous descent.

Nevertheless, variations exist within the mestizo population based on the ratio of Spanish to indigenous ancestry.

Most of the people in the city speak Spanish. Mexico City has relatively few individuals who still speak Native American languages, unlike other regions of the country.

In 1990 only 1.5 percent of Federal District residents spoke Native American languages, compared to 7.5 percent nationally.

The major condition dividing the city's population is wealth. The capital is a city of sharp social contrasts.

Wealthy residential sections are characterized by housing and suburban retail centers that rival the most luxurious in the world.

A person can travel for miles in the affluent western and southern parts of the city without awareness of being in an underdeveloped nation.

These neighborhoods are often in sharp contrast to the poorer sections, where housing is substandard, access to utilities and services is limited, and the standard of living is well below the poverty level.

These less affluent neighborhoods are found in the center of the city and to the north and east.

Ninety-two percent of the population professes membership in the Roman Catholic Church. Only 3.2 percent are Protestant, and less than 0.3 percent are Jewish.

The Roman Catholic Church plays an influential social and cultural role in the city.

More residents are members of church-affiliated organizations than of any other type.

Led by one of Mexico's cardinals, the diocese of Mexico City is the most important in the country. It frequently publishes statements criticizing political and societal problems and emphasizing the need to reduce economic poverty.