Country · Americas
Mexico
United Mexican States
Mexico is a country in North America. Its capital city is Mexico City. About 126.2 million people live there, in an area of 1 964 375 square kilometres.
Picture credit: ArturoSebastianGonzalez (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Gobierno CDMX (CC0) · Carlos Valenzuela (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Mexico?
Mexico lies in North America, on the continent of Americas.
It sits in the northern half of the world, roughly 2 560 km from the equator.
Its coastline is about 9 330 km long.
It shares a border with 3 countries: Belize, Guatemala and United States.
How big is Mexico?
Mexico covers 1 964 375 square kilometres.
That is about 5.5 times the size of Germany.
Among the world's countries that makes it the 13th largest.
If everybody spread out evenly, there would be about 64.2 people on every square kilometre.
Who lives in Mexico?
About 126.2 million people live in Mexico.
That is the 11th biggest population in the world.
People here speak Spanish.
They pay with the Mexican peso ($).
On average, people born here can expect to live about 72 years.
The land of Mexico
The land in Mexico sits on average 1 111 metres above sea level — high enough that much of it counts as mountain country.
Its coast runs for about 9 330 km. Walking it end to end, at twenty kilometres a day, would take roughly 467 days.
It lies inside the tropics, which is the single biggest reason its weather is the way it is.
What makes Mexico different?
A dish the country is known for: Tacos, Mole poblano and Chiles en nogada.
Websites from here often end in .mx.
Mexico and the rest of the world
Out of every thousand people alive on Earth, about 17 live in Mexico.
It takes up about 1.5 % of all the land that countries stand on.
Within Americas it is the 5th largest of 35 countries, and the 3rd most populated.
That is close to the world average of roughly 60 people per square kilometre.
Mexico and its neighbours
United States, its largest neighbour, is about 4.8 times bigger.
United States has more people: 326.7 million against 126.2 million.
Nature and animals
Of the animals on this site, 18 live wild in Mexico: Jaguar, Nine-banded armadillo, Raccoon, Scarlet macaw, Ruby-throated hummingbird and Blue whale and more. The highest mountain we cover here is Popocatépetl, at 5 393 metres. And one of the wonders of the world stands here: Chichen Itza.
Jaguar
Nine-banded armadillo
Raccoon
Scarlet macaw
Ruby-throated hummingbird
Blue whale
Humpback whale
Manatee
Great white shark
Whale shark
Great hammerhead shark
Giant oceanic manta ray
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons under free licences — every credit is on the page itself and in the picture credits.
Where this country lands in the record lists
Questions children ask
What is the capital of Mexico?
The capital of Mexico is Mexico City. It is the city where the country's government works from.
How many people live in Mexico?
About 126.2 million people live in Mexico, which makes it the 11th most populated country in the world. (Source: World Bank, 2018.)
Which countries border Mexico?
Mexico borders Belize, Guatemala and United States — 3 neighbours in total.
How big is Mexico?
Mexico covers 1 964 375 square kilometres, making it the 13th largest country in the world. That is about 5.5 times the size of Germany.
Which continent is Mexico in?
Mexico is in Americas, in the part called North America.
Where these numbers come from
Borders and outlines: Natural Earth. Names, capitals, areas, languages and currencies: ISO 3166 data (world-countries). Population: World Bank, 2018. Every derived figure on this page (ranks, density, distance from the equator) is calculated from those values.
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