Over the past couple of years Mexican agency Cofemer has been conducting a study to find Mexico’s most livable cities. They used 38 measures, including: geographic location, crime, education services, health care, and job market.

The winners are: Querétaro, Monterrey, Chihuahua, Saltillo, and Mexico City.

This Vivirlatino writer has lived in 3 of those 5 cities, and has visited all but one. I have to agree that these are some great cities, and besides Mexico City (a.k.a.: DF) itself, are some great alternatives to the monstrous capital.

Mexico has quite a bit of land, most of it very sparsely populated. In order to find work, people must go to one of maybe just 20 cities or so that are of significant size. That’s why there are so many people in Mexico City; but there are more and more options arising as companies and families are trying to escape the traffic and pollution of DF.

As time goes on, we will continue to see the population of cities such as Querétaro, Saltillo and Monterrey continue to grow by huge numbers every year.