ABSTRACT
Any strategies to eradicate poverty must be based on a fundamental understanding of how poverty arose in the region in the first place and how changes in demographic factors have affected the region over time. From a socio-economic perspective, understanding the demographic dynamics of the region may well hold the key to structuring public policy actions so that current problems can be remedied and future ones prevented. One of the most important demographic variables influencing economic conditions is population. The poverty pattern of the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) is, in part, a function of the industrial structure of the economy of the region. The northern border region of Mexico across from the LRGV consists of ten municipalities in the state of Tamaulipas. The population of the LRGV has increased faster than the state as a whole.
