With Mexico the only Latin American nation represented on the 34-member Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), this nation understandably props up many of the grouping’s wellbeing indexes.
Mexico endures the biggest wealth inequality, the fewest number of students in higher education and the highest homicide rate (23.4 murders per 100,000 citizens, compared with 0.3 in Japan, Denmark and the United Kingdom).
Canada is considered the safest of the OECD nations, with 1.13 percent of the population reporting having been the victims of crime in the past 12 months, compared with 12.8 percent of Mexico’s population (the OECD average is 3.9 percent).
Average family income in Mexico is $US13,000 dollars annually, compared with $US41,300 dollars in the United States. The OECD average is $US25,908. The average salaried employee in Mexico earns around $US16,000, compared to $US55,000 in the United States.
The wealth gap in Mexico is best summarized in the average yearly incomes of the top 20 percent of Mexico’s population compared with the bottom 20 percent: $US34,624 to $US2,534.