Mexico City has gone from one of the safest metropolitan areas in the world to one of the most dangerous. Health care is also a pressing issue in Mexico City. These rates are so high because access to health care is distorted, largely confined to middle and upper classes. Large concentrations of low-income families do not have adequate health care. In addition, Mexico City's extraordinarily high levels of air pollution are particularly detrimental to the health of infants.
Homeless children are increasingly an issue, too.
Mexico was estimated to have 13,373 children living on the streets in 1995. Adequate housing has long been a problem in the capital, although the Federal District ranks well above the average for the entire country. For example, the average occupant per room was 1.1 in the Federal District in 1995, but 1.5 nationally. More than 75 percent of private homes in the Federal District had 3 or more rooms in 1995, compared to 66 percent nationally. Housing in the Federal District ranks higher than other parts of the country in terms of qualitative services, such as water and sewage.