Politics: The quality of public services is in clear decline according to an INEGI survey
Mexico's municipal governments are failing to deliver the basic public services their citizens need. Satisfaction rates remain below 52% for all services except garbage collection, and have fallen further between 2023 and 2025. Roads and streets are the worst-performing services — fewer than 30% of citizens are satisfied — while police forces rank consistently near the bottom, with only a third of the population saying they generate a sense of security. Although 92% of households are connected to the public water network, just 19% have access to drinking-quality water at home.
The root cause is structural: municipalities are the weakest tier of government, heavily dependent on federal transfers for 70% of their revenues and allocating only 22% of total income to public investment. Property tax collection — their main own-source revenue — amounts to a mere 0.2–0.3% of GDP, far below the OECD average of 1.8–2%.
Beyond municipal services, public health remains severely degraded following the dismantling of the Seguro Popular program, with overall satisfaction at 47% for IMSS Bienestar and just 43% for IMSS. Six out of ten users of both systems have had to pay for private healthcare out of pocket. Corruption has also worsened, with incidence and prevalence rates approaching the record levels of 2019, concentrated primarily in public safety procedures and property-related permits. Police forces, political parties, and prosecutors' offices are perceived as the most corrupt institutions in the country.
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