Transport and infrastructure in Mexico
Our listing of the primary kinds of transport compares the infrastructure of Mexico with the average of all countries in America. The main traffic and transport routes are in good condition, but do not reach the level of the leading industrial nations.In terms of the length of its rail network, Mexico ranks 70th in the world with 0.16 meters per inhabitant. In total, the rail network is 20,825 kilometers long. Freight traffic on the rails most recently totaled 89.05 billion tons and kilometers traveled. Passenger traffic reached 1.59 billion passenger-kilometers in 2018.
The waterways listed refer to inland traffic on rivers and canals. The number of ports includes those located on the total 9,330 km of coastline. In 2020, about 6.39 million freight containers were transported.
› Airports in Mexico
Back to overview: Mexico
Road traffic
The network of roads and highways has a total length of 398,148 km. For each of the country's 128.93 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 3.09 meters. This puts Mexico in 147th place in the global ranking. However, it is also important to note the country's population density, which is very low at around 66 inhabitants per km². Like this, disproportionately long distances generally have to be covered to reach the more remote parts of the country.With an average of 16529 traffic fatalities per year (2012 - 2019), road traffic in Mexico is considered reasonably safe. This corresponds to around 4.3 accident fatalities per 13.4 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 5.9 in the European Union as a whole and 17.1 worldwide.
In Mexico, traffic drives on the right-hand side of the road, i.e. people drive in the right-hand lane and overtake on the left. Oncoming traffic comes toward you on the left side. Here you can also find an overview of all countries with left-hand traffic.
Mexico | |||
| total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roadways | 398,100 km | 3,088.03 km | 202.68 m |
| Railroads | 20,800 km | 161.52 km | 10.60 m |
| Waterways | 2,900 km | 22.49 km | 1.48 m |
| Commercial harbors | 671 | 5.20 | 0.000 |
| Airports | 1,714 | 13.29 | 0.873 |
Central America | |||
| total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roadways | 644,200 km | 2,894.86 km | 236.78 m |
| Railroads | 31,600 km | 142.02 km | 11.62 m |
| Waterways | 9,200 km | 41.21 km | 3.37 m |
| Commercial harbors | 15,672 | 70.42 | 0.006 |
| Airports | 2,993 | 13.45 | 0.001 |
Data sources used
• Global Health Observatory Data Repository (World Health Organization)• UNCTAD
• Internation Union of Railways (UIC)
• CIA Factbook
• OECD Statistics
• Wikipedia (german)
Largest airports and airlines in Mexico
Climate and temperature development in Mexico
Mega cities - the biggest cities all over the world