Tag Archive for: Poverty In Mexico

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Staying Connected: Indigenous Families in Mexico City

Indigenous Families in Mexico CityIn July 2025, the sound of drums carried across Zócalo as dancers and musicians in traditional prehispanic clothing performed ceremonies marking 700 years since the founding of Tenochtitlan. Families gathered around the square while performers celebrated traditions that long predate the modern capital. Behind them stood the Metropolitan Cathedral, built from the stones of the dismantled ceremonial precinct that once occupied the same ground. The celebration honored the city’s Indigenous foundations while also reflecting something much more current. Indigenous communities continue to shape life in Mexico City despite the pressures of poverty, migration and urban exclusion that many families experience after arriving in the capital.

Strengthening Community Ties

For many Indigenous families, gatherings such as these represent more than a commemoration. They provide an opportunity to strengthen community ties that can come under pressure from economic hardship and displacement. According to the World Bank, Indigenous people across Latin America continue to experience poverty at more than twice the rate of non-Indigenous populations, with Mexico home to one of the region’s largest Indigenous populations. As families move to the capital in search of work or education, community spaces help preserve the relationships, traditions and support networks that remain important long after they arrive.

Year-Round Community Life

The ceremonies in Zócalo lasted only a day, but community life continues throughout the year. Across the city, public spaces host language workshops, artisan markets, traditional dance, communal meals and cultural events that bring Indigenous families together on a regular basis. One example is Mexico City’s PILARES network, which has expanded across the capital to around 300 community centers offering free educational, cultural, sporting and skills-based programs. Alongside workshops and artistic activities, these centers provide places where residents can meet, organize local events and strengthen community ties without financial barriers to participation. During the anniversary celebrations, President Claudia Sheinbaum described Tenochtitlan not as “a dead past,” but as “the living pulse that beats beneath our capital city,” reflecting the continued presence of Indigenous culture in everyday life.

Shared Loss and Memory

Community space also takes shape through shared loss and memory. Across the capital, anti-monuments dedicated to people who have disappeared have become regular meeting places for families, campaigners and neighbors. Relatives return carrying photographs, embroidered names and banners demanding justice for those still missing. These gatherings rarely end when speeches finish. Families exchange legal information, organize future demonstrations, collect donations and support one another through investigations that often continue for years. Places of remembrance become places of practical solidarity as well as public memory.

Visibility and Support

Community spaces cannot remove the inequalities Indigenous families continue to face in Mexico City, but they can make them less isolating. Shared meals, neighborhood events, cultural workshops and public acts of remembrance allow families to exchange practical support while preserving language, tradition and collective memory. They also help ensure that Indigenous communities remain visible in the life of the capital. By the time the ceremonies in Zócalo came to an end, the crowds began to disperse, but the work of sustaining community continues elsewhere. Across Mexico City, shared spaces continue to bring Indigenous families together, strengthening relationships that extend well beyond a single celebration.

– Elliott J Carter

Elliott is based in Mexico City and focuses on Good News for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Unsplash

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Universal Health Care in Mexico: A Fresh Start for Mexican Citizens

Universal Healthcare in MexicoMexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum, has recently announced a positive health reform aimed at granting universal health care coverage starting in January 2027. Describing this as a “historic step” towards free and equitable health services to all citizens of Mexico. Here is more information about the move toward universal health care in Mexico.

The Current Situation

Mexico, the 13th largest country in the world, with a population of more than 100 million people, is a culturally, socially and economically diverse nation. Although it earns a medium-high income, it still has suffered from inequality, poverty, economic insecurity and mental health disorders.

The current health system in Mexico is divided into three types of services: 

  • Social Security: Only the formal, salaried members of the economy, about 47% of the population, receives this.
  • Those Not Covered by Social Security: The poorest members of Mexican society, about 45% of its population, do not receive social security.
  • Private Providers: Private providers attend to non-insured families who can afford them. This accounts for 4% of the population.

The current health care situation in Mexico is dire. Director of the Mexican Ministry of Health, Mariana Barraza-Lloréns explains that half of Mexico’s population is uninsured and incapable of accessing health care due to financial disparity. Barraza-Lloréns also focuses on the Indigenous communities that the current health care system impacts and marginalizes. These communities have infant mortality rates that are 58% higher and a life expectancy that is five years lower than national averages. Barraza-Lloréns argues that universal health care is a need.

What To Expect

This new health care system will be carried out in several phases, beginning with initial registration for this health care system starting with Mexicans aged 85 and older. Sign-ups will continue throughout the year, organized by age group and an official identification card will be given to each citizen to grant them access to services starting January 2027. By prioritizing emergency care, continuity of treatment across institutions and access to services regardless of insurance affiliation. In this first phase this universal health care in Mexico will mainly cover emergency services, high-risk pregnancies, heart attacks, strokes and cancer diagnosis. By the end of 2027 and starting 2028, Mexico plans to roll out its next phases and extend its promise for health care for all.

Why Is Universal Health Care in Mexico Important?

A WHO study in 2020 offered insights into Mexico’s overall health index. While life expectancy has increased from an initial 34 years in 1930 to 75 years in 2017, there has still been a significant delay with these improvements. With mortality rates in cases such as heart disease and diabetes ranging anywhere from 70-80 deaths per thousand, there is evidence to suggest lack of access to proper health services. Sheinbaum’s new health reform aims to provide care to all citizens regardless of insurance status. With 46% of its citizens under the poverty line, universal health care would provide life-changing services to many. 

Countries such as Sweden, which access universal health care, offer some of the highest life expectancy rates in the world, averaging about 81 years. Sweden has seen drastic improvements in overall public health in the last several decades with these universal health reforms. With decreases in mortality, work-related injuries, and mental health, Sweden’s public access to health care has served many.

Universal health care is an object of political, economic and social discussion in many countries across the world. As seen in countries such as Sweden and many others, free public access to health care has proven to be a guarantee for life expectancy and quality of living. Time will tell how Mexico’s health reforms will positively impact the citizens of the country.

– Sadie Lopez

Sadie is based in Seattle, WA, USA and focuses on Global Health for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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Language Barriers and Indigenous Migrants in Mexico City

Woman in colorful clothing stands against a gray wall, reflecting Indigenous culture. Indigenous Migrants in Mexico CityIn Mexico, 38.5 million people lived in multidimensional poverty in 2024, and more than 8.3 million people recently moved out of poverty between 2022 and 2024. While those figures are alarming, the uneven spread of poverty is perhaps more concerning. Indigenous communities continue to face deeper exclusion, and in Mexico City, the pressure becomes practical when schools, shelters and support systems are not equipped to meet people in their language. For Indigenous migrants in Mexico City, language is tied to housing, schooling, paperwork and whether asking for help feels possible at all.

Indigenous Education Support Program

The Indigenous Education Support Program aims to address this issue. It provides lodging, food and educational support for Indigenous and Afro-Mexican children and young people, while also strengthening cultural identity. It is geared partly toward students who do not have the option of continuing school in their own communities. In a city where language can become another line of exclusion, support of this kind can keep younger people in school while preserving ties to community and identity that urban life can erode quickly.

Shelter Support

The same pressure appears in shelters. Reporting from the Latin America Working Group describes how CAFEMIN works with women, children and family groups arriving in Mexico City under increasingly difficult conditions. A shelter coordinator describes current arrivals as “forced migration” shaped by violence rather than only economic need. That phrase captures the pressure many families experience before they even reach the city. Many families are not only poor when they arrive, but they have also been uprooted, and the instability that follows them into the city can turn every form, question and office into another barrier. Under those conditions, legal guidance, daily care and help with paperwork are essential for people to find their footing.

SOS Children’s Villages

A measurable example can be found at SOS Children’s Villages Mexico City, which has worked in the city since 1971. According to the organization, 40 children and young people grow up in its care, 20 young people are supported on the way to independence and 30 people can take part in its various training programs. Its work extends beyond emergency response and includes education, training and family support intended to keep households together. For families already trying to navigate the city from a position of insecurity, help of this kind can narrow the distance between a family and the services it is trying to reach.

Looking Ahead

None of these efforts erase the barriers that Indigenous migrants face in Mexico City, and none solve poverty on their own. Still, they make the city easier to navigate. A place to stay, help remaining in school and support that treats families as more than a case file can soften the force of language barriers, even when those barriers remain. Mexico City is still difficult for many underrepresented families, but the programs in place suggest that services do not have to remain distant or impersonal. They can be made more reachable, more legible and more humane.

– Elliott J Carter

Elliott is based in Mexico City, Mexico and focuses on Good News for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Unsplash

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Fighting Poverty in Indigenous Communities in Mexico

Poverty in Indigenous Communities in MexicoPoverty is one of the most pressing issues in Indigenous communities in Mexico. Besides all the hardships they face culturally, economically and socially. Indigenous communities face poverty in more than 70% of the indigenous populations. This affects their day-to-day life and impacts the kind of work, learning opportunities, and well-being initiatives they can access. Here are three organizations fighting poverty in Indigenous communities in Mexico.

The Hunger Project

The Hunger Project is an organization that works to help Indigenous and other marginalized communities to gain independence. It works with four main marginal areas in Mexico: Chiapas, Oaxaca, Yucatán, and Mexico City.

Its main goals are getting Indigenous communities to become self-sustaining by having distinct categories that they focus on management and authority, open-mindedness, food sufficiency, uplifting women, and profit.

The organization works with the government to create change in these categories, and they have seen amazing outcomes such as the way that women are viewed favorably in society and the recognition of injustices against women historically. As well as relationships with government authorities recognizing the independence of the people.

The Hunger Project has helped several other organizations that focus on fighting poverty in Indigenous communities in Mexico.

Indigenous Women-Led Food Security System (Citi Foundation) involves men and women from Oaxaca and Chiapas in a teaching operation that helps create long-lasting food supply, distribution and monetary wellbeing for those communities, their loved ones, and other members of the general public.

Eat Well Program (Guzman and Gomez) helps Indigenous communities strengthen their understanding and create food security by providing healthy foods and full meals from within Indigenous lands.

Plant With Purpose

Plant with Purpose focuses similarly to the Hunger Project on Chiapas, Oaxaca, but also Puebla as well. Its goal is to create connections between people and the land by uplifting families through organic agriculture and financial security.

“Healing the land is restoring hope,” the organization states on its website. One of its main goals is to make sure families stay together even when facing poverty. Due to poverty, farmhands often have to leave behind their families in order to still be able to find work to have an income for their families. So, what Plant with Purpose does is make sure that does not have to happen by helping Indigenous farmers to mend their land, boost land conditions, and harvest produce. This helps with economic sustainability and reduces the demand to find work elsewhere.

Its other goal is to restore land and nourish communities. The organization rebuilds land cleanness using recreation learnings from Indigenous insight. “Healthier gardens mean families can grow nutritious food and send kids to school”. Investment divisions often provide families a monetary safeguard and security for time to come. Discussion groups increase understanding and awareness among communities, fostering improved connection with others.

Pro México Indígena

Pro Mexico Indigena is a Mexican nonprofit that has been working for 26 years to fight poverty, scarcity of assistance and services, and public erasure. It works to empower Indigenous people and has worked with “11 indigenous ethnic groups in nine states of the Mexican Republic”. The organization has helped more than 300,000 indigenous people gain independence and improve their quality of life.

While these solutions are great, there is still a higher poverty rate present in Indigenous communities in Mexico and by increasing the number of organizations available for these Indigenous groups and communities, it will only make it easier and decrease the percentage of Indigenous communities who are still in poverty in Mexico. According to Mexicohistorico “geographical disparities exacerbate poverty levels. Rural areas, particularly in states like Chiapas and Guerrero, experience higher poverty rates compared to urban centers. This geographical divide leads to a concentration of resources and opportunities in metropolitan areas, leaving rural populations in a cycle of poverty that is difficult to escape.

– Leo Hardy

Leo is based in Muncie, IN, USA and focuses on Good News and Technology for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Flickr

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Support Networks for Indigenous Migrants in Mexico City

Indigenous Migrants in Mexico CityMexico City can hold out the promise of opportunity, but for many families arriving with little money or stability, it can also be difficult to navigate without proper support or infrastructure. Housing is expensive, work can be insecure and basic services are not always easy to reach. For indigenous migrants in Mexico City, those pressures could often come with another layer of difficulty, as many try to hold on to language, identity and community while adjusting to a fast-moving urban environment. Support networks can ease that transition while helping families maintain community and culture. They offer shelter, food, education and practical help. Just as importantly, they can offer the reassurance that a family is not alone in a city of more than 9 million.

Education That Makes Staying Possible

One part of that support comes through the Indigenous Education Support Program, which helps Indigenous children and young people continue their studies by providing lodging, food and support that also strengthens cultural identity. The program is especially important for students who do not have the option of continuing school in their own communities. Poverty is not only a question of income. It also shapes whether a child stays in school, eats properly and can imagine a future without being away from everything familiar. Educational support combined with daily stability gives families more room to hold things together. It also gives younger people a better chance of moving forward without losing touch with their cultural identities.

A Place to Regain Stability

A second kind of support comes through shelters such as Casa Tochán, which works with people in migration in Mexico City. Its work includes housing, medical and psychological care, job support and cultural activities, all of which give people a greater sense of stability while they try to build or rebuild their lives. Families living with poverty or displacement often need more than emergency relief. They need somewhere to rest and somewhere that makes ordinary life possible again. That sense of dignity comes through strongly in Gaby Hernández’s words when she says, “this is how we change how people migrate,” by “making others feel valued and helping them resolve the issue of work.” Shelter alone is not enough; people also need the stability that allows them to preserve dignity and cultural identity while rebuilding their lives.

The wider shelter network in Mexico City suggests that these pressures are not isolated. Shelters like CAFEMIN work with women, children and family groups arriving in the city under increasingly difficult conditions. Sister Magda’s description of current arrivals as “forced migration” shaped by violence rather than only economic need helps clarify the conditions many families are now moving through. Many are arriving after being uprooted, and that instability continues long after they reach the city. In that situation, shelter, legal support and day-to-day care are what make any kind of stability possible.

The Effects of Support

These support networks respond to need where it is actually felt. They help make sure a child can remain in school, a parent can find temporary stability and a family can avoid the stress of uncertainty. In a city as demanding as Mexico City, these are not small gestures, they are often what keeps hardship from deepening further. Support Networks for Indigenous Migrants in Mexico City is not only a story about vulnerability, but also about local and sustaining care and support. Programs and organisations may not solve every structural cause of poverty or displacement, but they can create the conditions in which indigenous migrants in Mexico City are able to hold on, rebuild and move forward with greater confidence.

– Elliott J Carter

Elliott is based in Mexico City, Mexico and focuses on Good News for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Unsplash

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Community Groups Supporting Indigenous Families in Mexico City

Indigenous Families in Mexico CityMexico City can offer opportunities, but for many families it also brings new pressures. Rent is high, work can be uncertain and basic services are not always easy to access. For Indigenous families, those pressures are often intensified by displacement, exclusion and the strain of trying to preserve community and identity in a city that can be indifferent to both. 

That is why local support matters. In practice, it can mean food, shelter, help staying in school or simply the reassurance that someone is taking a family’s future seriously. Community groups supporting Indigenous families in Mexico City are, at heart, about that kind of practical support and the difference it can make.

The Indigenous Education Support Program

The Indigenous Education Support Program provides lodging and food, promotes cultural identity and supports Indigenous and Afro-Mexican youth as they continue their studies. It is aimed particularly at students who do not have local educational options in their communities. This helps address longer-term issues when poverty is not only about income but also about whether young people can remain in school without being forced to choose between education and survival.

A program like this does more than meet an immediate need; it gives families a better chance of staying stable while helping younger people move forward without losing touch with their cultural identities.

Casa Tochán

Support in Mexico City also comes through shelters and community organizations that help people rebuild and settle after periods of upheaval. Casa Tochán is one such organization that supports people in migration in Mexico City through housing, medical and psychological care, job support and cultural activities. The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) describes it as a place that helps people not only survive but begin to recover some sense of ordinary life.

Casa Tochán also provides paralegal advice, community health campaigns and support with local integration issues. Even though the shelter is not exclusively for Indigenous families, its work still speaks to the wider reality of exclusion in the city. Families arriving with few resources often face overlapping pressures related to housing, legal uncertainty, health and work. 

Casa Tochán’s model is useful because it treats those pressures as connected rather than separate. Its works allow families to focus on their own lives rather than becoming caught in the various bureaucratic webs these issues can create when kept separate.

The Impacts of Support 

What stands out about both the Indigenous Education Support Program and Casa Tochán is that neither treats poverty as an abstract issue. They respond to it by asking whether a child can remain in school, whether a family has food and shelter and whether people trying to build a life in Mexico City are met with respect rather than indifference. That may sound simple, but it is not insignificant.

For underrepresented families, consistent, local and humane support can shape the course of daily life. These community groups supporting Indigenous families in Mexico City are not only responding to need, but also reflecting the effort, care and quiet solidarity that help people endure and rebuild. Mexico City remains a difficult place for many families living at the margins.

However, these examples show that practical support is within reach. When organizations invest in education, shelter and everyday dignity, they make it easier for families not just to endure the city but to find some footing within it.

– Elliott Carter

Elliott is based in Mexico City, Mexico and focuses on Good News for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Unsplash

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Establishment of Mexico’s Universal Health Care System

Mexico's Universal Health CareIn an April 7 press conference, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced the creation of Mexico’s universal health care system, which is scheduled to achieve full coverage by 2028. Sheinbaum described the initiative as a “historic step” toward achieving free, accessible and quality health care for all of Mexico’s more than 120 million citizens. The country plans to roll out the new system in phases, beginning with the issuance of health ID cards for citizens over 85 years old this year. By 2027, the exchange of services between institutions will begin, and the process will conclude in 2028 with coverage of treatment for chronic conditions and the ability to refill prescriptions at any health institution.

The Necessity of a New System

Since the creation of the Mexican health care system in 1943, fragmentation has created disparities in quality and access due to divisions based on economic, social and regional factors. As of 2023, the system was divided into the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), which covered salaried private sector workers; the Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers (ISSSTE), which covered salaried public sector workers; PEMEX, which covered workers in the oil industry; and IMSS-Bienestar, or INSABI, which covered those who did not qualify for the others, such as contract workers, the unemployed and the self-employed. INSABI replaced Seguro Popular in 2018, causing the number of citizens without access to health services to increase by 15.6 million in only two years. As of May 2023, the government had dismantled INSABI. However, the effects still remain, increasing the need for Mexico’s universal health care system.

In 2025, Mexico ranked below Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) averages in life expectancy (75.5 years), preventable mortality (243 per 100,000), eligible children vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) (78%) and women screened for breast cancer (20%). Mexico spent $1,588 per capita on health, compared with the OECD average of $5,967. Much of this was due to fragmentation’s effects on the rural poor. Because access to health services was based on employment status and proximity to salaried jobs in the public or private sector, the poor could not always use the closest hospital or institution if a specific subsystem ran it. Additionally, changes in the labor market caused by the COVID-19 pandemic placed more than half of the population in the informal sector. This created disparities in quality of care between the formal and informal sectors, effectively splitting the country’s health care system in half.

How a Universal System Will Address These Issues

Beyond providing free coverage for its citizens, Mexico’s universal health care system will integrate these subsystems into a national network. In doing this, the government hopes that quality care and accessibility will transcend employment status or geographical location. Citizens will be able to use any health care institution, regardless of personal factors, with a health ID card. The card will be connected to an app displaying an individual’s medical records, upcoming appointments and available services.

The health ID card and connected app should streamline the health care process and improve efficiency. The consolidation of subsystems should also help efficiency, as specialized equipment can now be shared across hospitals that it previously could not. Patients will have the option to remain at a specific health center for the full duration of care, removing forced transfers that shortened treatments. The unification of these subsystems is necessary for both universal coverage and an efficient, centralized network.

Looking Ahead

According to Sheinbaum’s timeline, the exchange between institutions will begin by Jan. 1, 2027, with services covering emergency care, high-risk pregnancies, heart attacks, strokes, cancers, vaccinations and primary care consultations. The second half of 2027 marks the beginning of coverage for specialized medical services. By 2028, universal coverage will include prescriptions, referral-based hospitalization and specialized outpatient care. Mexico’s universal health care system represents a significant shift in access for millions of citizens, particularly those in the informal sector and rural communities who have historically been underserved.

– Joshua Megson

Joshua is based in Albemarle, NC, USA and focuses on Good News for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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Using Bikes To Fight Poverty in Mexico City

Poverty in Mexico CityMany people associate bikes with an expensive international sport that is growing in popularity. With professional cyclists gaining attention on social media and brands using aggressive marketing, cycling is often seen as an exclusive activity for those who can afford it. In major cities around the world, it has become a strong attraction for sports enthusiasts.

In the United States, for example, a record 112 million Americans rode a bike at least once in 2024. Bikes and cycling can positively impact millions of people worldwide, especially in densely populated urban areas. One key example is Mexico City, the capital of Mexico. 

In recent weeks, it officially became the largest metropolitan area in North America, with an estimated population of 25.6 million. That status brings major challenges, including urban poverty, inequality and rising pollution. Bicycles, however, have the potential to help address these issues. Through bike-share programs across the city, Mexico is using bikes to fight poverty, inequality and climate challenges.

Shared Mobility Services

Bikes can help address pollution and transportation affordability in urban areas. As more people migrate to cities, carbon emissions have continued to rise. Emissions from transportation, especially in cities, account for 22% of global fuel emissions. In response, many cities are turning to shared mobility services that reduce emissions by lowering the number of vehicles on the road. 

These services not only cut pollution in densely populated areas, but also give people more ways to reach their destinations without relying on a single mode of transport. These programs allow low-income households and individuals to move faster and more cheaply across the city, freeing some of their income to spend on other priorities. Bike-share programs are one form of shared mobility service being implemented worldwide to fight poverty. 

Major cities in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil have introduced bike-share programs for their populations. American cities like New York City and more than 150 European cities have also implemented similar programs. Although these initiatives continue to face regulatory and other challenges, there is a clear global shift toward supporting their success. 

Mexico City is leading such efforts in Latin America. It has the largest program in the region, “with [more than] 6,000 bikes and a competitive ride-hailing market with an estimated 200,000-plus drivers.”

Poverty in Mexico City

Although the government has worked over the last two decades to fight poverty across the country, poverty and inequality continue to plague Mexico City. The biggest challenge within the capital is inequality, with the “richest 1% of the population [owning] 40% of the country’s wealth, while nearly 19 million people struggle to put food on the table.” This is not new for residents, but it has worsened in recent years. 

For instance, “Mexico’s 22 billionaires have seen their fortunes double in the last five years,” while the average Mexican citizen has not seen proportional growth in economic status. Inequality within the city is evident in its real estate and housing environment. Those who are wealthy “have been very effective at isolating themselves from the rest of the country,” living in luxury apartments in the heart of Mexico City, where more economic opportunities are available. 

On the contrary, those with lower incomes are “relegated to sprawling cinder-block slums” located far from those opportunities. As a result, commuting to and from work is often costly and inefficient for low-income families. During an interview with Lucia Margarita Vazquez Alcantara, a resident of Mexico City for the last 40 years, she expressed frustration with the cost of gasoline for her car and taxis. 

“It is impossible to afford gas if you want to go anywhere in the city,” she stated. The distance and cost of transportation place a heavy burden on lower-income families in Mexico City, making it harder to escape cycles of poverty or afford basic necessities.

Bike-Share Programs in Mexico City

Bike-share programs offer an effective and environmentally friendly solution to reduce transportation costs in Mexico City and help lower-income families travel to their places of work. Ecobici is the city’s official bike-share program, allowing users to “take a bicycle from any cycle station and return it to the nearest one to their destinations in unlimited 45-minute rides.” If users wish to use it longer, they can pay for an affordable $32 subscription. 

This program shows how Mexico is actively using bikes to fight poverty. Women in particular are benefiting greatly from the Ecobici program in Mexico City. In urban areas, women often have “less access to quick and reliable transportation” and tend to make trips with multiple purposes.

The bike-share program improves mobility across the city and women have “gained a cheap, efficient and flexible mode of transportation.” Since its implementation, Ecobici has increased women’s bicycle use in the city from 10% to 38%. “I am too old to be riding bicycles, but now some of my friends’ daughters use them to get to work or go to ‘la tienda’ (grocery store) when needed,” said Alcantara. 

She added that although she does not ride bikes, she has seen tangible changes in Mexico City. The sky is clearer, pollution is lower and she sees more people smiling instead of yelling at each other behind the wheel.

Beyond their economic benefits, biking is growing in popularity among Mexico’s population. Monica Castilla, a hotel cook in the Zona Rosa area of Mexico City, expressed her preference for riding her bike over driving a car or taking the bus. “You get the stress out. You [get] exercise. And it’s faster,” she said. Mexico has 250 miles of bike lanes and “closes major avenues in the city center every Sunday” so cyclists can use them recreationally.

Conclusion

Bike-share programs are proving that simple transportation solutions can create real social change. In Mexico City, initiatives like Ecobici are reducing travel costs, expanding mobility for low-income families, supporting women’s independence and helping cut urban pollution. As the city continues to grow, Mexico is showing how two wheels can help move people closer to economic opportunity and a better quality of life.

– Rodrigo Salgado

Rodrigois based in Boulder, CO, USA and focuses on Good News and Technology for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Unsplash

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Everything You Need to Know About Poverty in Mexico

Poverty in MexicoPoverty in Mexico remains a major social challenge that affects different groups disproportionately, even as the country has made noticeable progress in recent years. In 2024, 38.5 million Mexicans, as much as 29.6% of the population, were living in multidimensional poverty. While that number remains strikingly high, it marks a notable decline of 8 million people in poverty from 2022. The shift suggests that while hardship remains widespread, recent support measures and broader social gains have helped ease conditions for millions of households.

Who Poverty in Mexico Affects Most

National figures only tell part of the story and might suggest that quality of life is improving nationally, however, poverty in Mexico continues to fall unevenly, with rural and Indigenous communities carrying a far heavier burden than the country as a whole. In rural areas, the poverty rate stood at an alarming 45.8% in 2024, compared with 25% in urban areas. This divide reflects more than geography alone. It indicates long-standing gaps in infrastructure, formal employment and access to support systems.

The disparity is even sharper for Indigenous communities. In 2024, 60.8% of Mexico’s Indigenous population was living in poverty. Although that figure represents an improvement from previous years, it does so at a less than the national rate, illuminating how deeply inequality remains embedded in communities that have had less access to opportunity and public investment.

Why Poverty Persists in Mexico

Part of the reason poverty in Mexico remains so difficult to overcome is that it is not just about wages. Mexico measures poverty through a multidimensional system, taking into account access to essentials such as education, health care and social protections. For many families, economic vulnerability persists because single setbacks such as illness, job losses or rising cost of living can quickly push them into poverty.

This is especially true where social protections remain weak. In 2024, nearly half of Mexico’s population did not have formal employment-based protections such as pensions, health coverage or other long-term support. This helps explain why national progress can coexist with persistent hardship, especially in the country’s most vulnerable regions.

Reducing Poverty in Mexico

What is helping, however, is easier to see in the latest data. Recent reporting suggests that social welfare programs and other support measures helped reduce hardships for many families. While that kind of support does not solve the deeper causes of poverty, it can make an immediate difference for households under financial pressure and help prevent even deeper forms of deprivation.

National programs have also tried to address poverty through employment schemes and rural development. Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro, for example, has supported millions of young people who are not in work or education with training and financial support, while Sembrando Vida is aimed at strengthening rural livelihoods by supporting farmers and local production. While these efforts are not enough to eliminate every structural cause of disproportionate poverty in Mexico, they show that targeted investment can expand opportunity and reduce vulnerability for many families, making a palpable difference to many lives.

Looking Forward

Poverty in Mexico remains a major issue, particularly for rural and Indigenous communities that continue to face the highest levels of hardship. Even so, the latest figures offer a measure of hope. Poverty has declined in recent years, and national support programs appear to be helping prevent even deeper deprivation. With sustained investment and continued attention to the communities most affected, Mexico has a real opportunity to build on that progress in the years ahead.

– Elliott J. Carter

Elliott is based in Mexico City, Mexico and focuses on Good News for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Unsplash

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Poverty in Mexico and SDG Progress

Poverty in MexicoIn 2015, United Nations member states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a global effort to end poverty, protect the planet and promote peace and prosperity by 2030. Mexico, a country of about 128 million in North America, has seen progress in reducing poverty through federal policies, but key challenges remain. Poverty in Mexico has been on the decline in recent years. As of 2025, the number of Mexicans living below the $2.15 per day poverty threshold fell from 3.9 million, or 3%, in 2018 to 2.5 million, or 2%.

Despite this progress, structural and institutional inequality still threatens Mexico’s ability to meet the SDGs. This article will review Mexico’s evaluation based on the United Nations SDG objectives for the country.

Progress on Poverty

Poverty reduction has been significant nationwide. Over the past five years, the poverty headcount ratio at $2.15 per day has decreased from 5.06 in 2020 to 1.82 in 2025. In the same time frame, poverty rates after taxes and transfers have been reduced from 16.6% to 15%.

In the 2024 Voluntary National Review (VNR), Mexico emphasized the role of policy in these reductions. For example, from 2018 to 2024 minimum wage increased by 110% and the unemployment rate reduced to 2.6%. The main financiers for these poverty in Mexico reduction programs have been the federal government and foreign investors. Social spending increased by 38%, and by 2023, foreign direct investment increased by 27%. 

Although inequality has been improving nationally, regional disparities persist. The 2024 VNR report states that between 2018 and 2022, the contrast between the richest and poorest decile earning ratios has declined from 22 times to 15 times.

Despite these improvements, inequality persists in rural regions of Mexico. As of 2025, 88% of the rural population lives below the $2.15 poverty threshold. This percentage has remained stagnant since 2018.

What’s Driving Change?

The Mexican government has been deliberate about addressing social injustices and structural inequality by means of redistribution programs. For example, from 2018 to 2022, 10 million additional Mexicans became food secure.

Households and NPISHs Final consumption expenditure per capita growth (annual %) increased from 0.5% in 2018 to 1.9% in 2024, with a volatile period in between, ranging from a minimum of -10.6% in 2020 and a maximum 7.7% in 2021.

In spite of efforts, issues in health care, social protection, gender inequality and structural informality persist. In the VNR report, the Mexican government claimed it had aimed to address some of these issues by focusing on SDGs which were interdependent on each other, such as how addressing SDG 1 (no poverty) invariably affects SGD 10 (reduced inequalities) as well.

Is Mexico on Track for 2030? 

The United Nations uses the SDG index rank, SDG index score and spillover score to quantify a nation’s progress towards achieving its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as to measure a nation’s ability to help other nations develop their own SDGs. Currently, Mexico ranks 72nd in the SDG index rank. Additionally, it has an index score of 70.80 and a spillover score of 90.23, ranking it at 85 out of the 167 UN member states that qualify for the index. These rankings demonstrate that, despite the progress on poverty in Mexico and inequality that has been made, there is room for improvement with regard to other SDGs.

In 2024, Mexico announced its policy initiative through the Plan Nacional de Desarrollo (PND). PND aims at stating the objectives and priorities of the government for the 2025 to 2030 period. PND contains four main areas of focus and three cross-cutting issues to direct public policy. Among the main areas of focus is “moral economy and work,” which states the priority of increasing minimum wages, expanding formal jobs and promoting social security. Among the cross-cutting issues, sometimes referred to as the transverse axis, the “substantive equality and women’s rights” objective aims at improving health policies and eliminating structural violence for women through reforms and the SEMUJERES agency.

The PND initiatives are part of the Movimiento Regeneracion Nacional (MORENA) attempt to consolidate the second stage of the transformation. The transformation is in reference to the general project of the party titled La Cuarta Transformacion, a political project which aims at transforming the political, economic and social structures of Mexico.

The Future of Mexico

The experience of Mexico shows that poverty reduction is possible, but sustaining it requires deeper structural reform. Issues related to health care, social protection, gender inequality, structural informality and regional inequality persist in the country. However, with the help of the PND strategic framework and policy initiatives, Mexico could be on track to achieve a majority of its SDGs by 2030.  

– Arturo Gonzalez 

Arturo is based in Miami, FL, USA and focuses on Business and Politics for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Flickr