ABSTRACT
The rapid population growth and related strains that Mexico has experienced have spared the United States. Mexico's population is much smaller, much less well distributed, and much poorer. Racial and ethnic diversity has characterized the U.S. population since the first days of the republic. In general, Mexico has followed the typical demographic transition model evident throughout the world. Mexico's population is overwhelmingly mestizo, meaning a mixture of Indians with Europeans of predominantly Spanish origin and, to a far lesser degree, with Africans, Asians, and sundry peoples from the Americas. This chapter examines population issues that have had important economic consequences for Mexico historically. Mexico's pro-population policies worked only too well, and by the mid- twentieth century overpopulation replaced underpopulation as the major problem facing the country. But even as the population growth rate has declined, economic expansion has remained insufficient to provide enough good employment opportunities for people in the lower half of the social order.
