Transport and infrastructure in Mexico
Our listing of the primary types 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 68th 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 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 704,884 km. For each of the country's 126.71 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 5.56 meters. This puts Mexico in 100th place in the global ranking. However, it is also important to note that the country's population density is very low at around 65 inhabitants per km². In this case, disproportionately long distances generally have to be covered to reach the more remote parts of the country.With an average of 16267 traffic fatalities per year (2013 - 2019), road traffic in Mexico is considered reasonably safe. This corresponds to 13.2 accident fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.3 in the USA and 17.0 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 | 704,900 km | 5,563.18 km | 358.83 m |
| Railroads | 20,800 km | 164.36 km | 10.60 m |
| Waterways | 2,900 km | 22.89 km | 1.48 m |
| Commercial harbors | 671 | 5.30 | 0.000 |
| Airports | 67 | 0.53 | 0.034 |
Central America | |||
| total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roadways | 950,800 km | 4,294.37 km | 349.46 m |
| Railroads | 31,600 km | 142.75 km | 11.62 m |
| Waterways | 9,600 km | 43.32 km | 3.53 m |
| Commercial harbors | 15,672 | 70.78 | 0.006 |
| Airports | 233 | 1.05 | 0.000 |
Data sources used
• Global Health Observatory Data Repository (World Health Organization)• UNCTAD
• Internation Union of Railways (UIC)
• CIA Factbook
• OECD Statistics
• Wikipedia (german)
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