Population

Between 1855 and 1875, Mexico’s population only increased from 7.5 to 8.4 million. Beginning in the 1870s, and especially in the 1890s, population growth accelerated due to political peace, medical advances, improvements in sanitation, railroads moving cereal during times of famine, and improved living conditions for some sectors of the population. Between 1875 and 1910, the population increased from 8.3 million to 15.1 million—an increase of 1.7 percent a year. This moderate population increase, given the lack of immigrants, almost entirely resulted from the birthrate exceeding the death rate. During the first decade of the twentieth century, the birth rate was 46.3 per 1,000, while the death rate was 33.2 per thousand.259

During the middle of the nineteenth century, more than 300 out of every 1,000 children born died before their first birthday.260 A Protestant missionary recalled his experience during the Porfiriato:

I used to ask, “How many of you, fathers and mothers, have children in heaven?” Usually all hands would promptly go up, while the replies came, “Tengo cinco.” “Tengo ocho,” I have five, I have eight, etc. Deplorable ignorance as to proper sanitary conditions in the home and the care of children is responsible for a large proportion of this death harvest among the little ones.261

At the end of the Porfiriato, only 0.8 percent of Mexico’s population was foreign-born, compared to 30 percent that was foreign-born in Argentina at the time of the First World War. Liberal policy makers attempted to attract immigrants since they felt the only salvation for Mexico lay in attracting European Catholics whose industry and intelligence could develop the country. Despite this welcoming attitude, Mexico, with its low wages and densely populated central plateau, could not compete with the United States and Argentina, which offered higher wages, attractive climate, and abundant, free, fertile land.262

In 1910, 116,527 foreigners lived in Mexico. Many were members of the U. S. upper and middle classes who worked in northern Mexico as merchants and technicians. Those who did come to do manual work had less choice than European Catholics. Some indebted Korean laborers harvested henequen in Yucatan. In Sonora, Chinese came to work as miners, cooks, gardeners, washers, and domestics. A 1903 report noted that 2,464 Chinese lived in the state.263