Mexico City, Mexico

Mexico City is the capital of the United States of Mexico; it is the country's largest urban center, the largest city in Latin America, and the third-largest megacity in the world. Mexico City generally refers to the whole metropolitan area, which not only covers the Federal District (Distrito Federal, or D.F.), but also parts of the states of Mexico and Hidalgo. At the beginning of this century, its metropolitan area stretched over an area of 5,122.86 square kilometers (about 2,000 square miles), of which the Federal District accounted for 28.6 percent, and in 2005, Mexico City had a population of 19,331,365, equivalent to almost 20 percent of the national population. The city sits at an altitude of approximately 2,250 meters and is located within a closed basin, which has resulted in a number of ongoing environmental challenges, particularly relating to water and pollution management.

Mexico City is a vibrant, modern city with a rich heritage, yet it is also one of stark contrasts, with [Page 513]opulent districts to the south and west of the city standing in stark contrast to the vast tracts of poverty concentrated toward the north and east, where many settlements lack even basic services. The larger of these municipalities, such as Nezahualcoyotl, have populations of a similar size to many important cities in Mexico. Today, while outlying areas of the city continue to grow, the central areas have been steadily losing population. In fact, the Population Council (Consejo de la Poblacion, Conapo) insists that the city has become a net population exporter. While throughout its history the city has traditionally been a symbol of the centralization of power, in recent years, decentralization policies have gone some way to reducing the country's heavy economic and political reliance on the capital city, and much heavy industry has been relocated, signifying a major shift in the city's economy toward the service and financial sectors.