Despite negative forecasts on the global political panorama and the world economy, besides the good-size challenges we have as a country in these times, a careful look at 2016 shows that Mexico has a lot of good news to talk about. Here we list forty reasons for Mexico to be proud.

Education

1. Today the percentage of graduates in engineering and manufacturing is higher in Mexico than in Germany, Brazil, Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom.

2. Mexican students are acknowledged for their successful participation in international knowledge Olympiads such as the International Math Olympiad, NASA's IASP and Mars Trekker Global Teen Summit.

3. The content platform @aprende 2.0 will be the largest in Latin America.

Health and Quality of Life

4. Mexico is the ninth global exporter of medical devices and an elite medical tourism country with over a million foreign patients seen each year.

5. According to Happy Planet Index, Mexico is the second happiest country in the world.

Infrastructure and Economics

6. Progress was made on construction of the new Mexico City International Airport, designed to handle as many as 125 million passengers a year and to become Latin America's leading air traffic hub.

7. Mexico has attracted more than $127,560 million dollars in investments from foreign companies.

8. We are the world's 13th exporting country.

9. We have one of the most open economies in the world, with a network of free trade agreements that gives us preferential access to 46 countries.

10. Globally, the NAFTA region is the most extensive free trade zone (484 million inhabitants trade freely) with the most movement in the world; a million dollars in trading takes place per minute.

11. We are the seventh vehicle producer in the world and the fourth exporter of new cars worldwide, following Germany, South Korea and Japan.

12. Mexico is the first exporter of medium- and high-technology manufacturing in Latin America and the third in the G20. We are the world's main exporter of flat-screen TVs.

13. In 2016, the national aeronautical sector was consolidated.

14. We are the sixth aerospace supplier to the United States, and every two minutes, an airplane manufactured in Mexico takes off somewhere in the world.

Creative Industries

15. Mexico is the largest exporter of creative goods in the Spanish language.

16. We are the sixth largest exporter of animation, video games, software and digital content, making us the most competitive destination in the Americas in these areas.

17. Mexico also has the largest video game market in Latin America.

18. We are the world's third exporter of information technology services.

Mexican Agricultural Production

19. Today, Mexico stands out as an international power in agri-food exports, surpassing $1,596 million dollars and a commercial flow that covers over 150 destinations.

20. Our current agri-food policy is headed toward the top ten worldwide.

21. Mexico is the world's leading exporter of beer, avocado and tequila.

22. Two out of every three avocados eaten in the world is Mexican.

23. One out of every ten limes in the world is from a Mexican orchard.

24. One out of every ten chile peppers consumed on Earth is Mexican.

Culture

25. Mexico is the sixth country in terms of the number of World Heritage sites it has, and the first in Latin America.

26. We have the greatest number of Natural World Heritage Sites in Latin America.

27. Traditional Mexican cuisine is recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

28. Mexico is the third country with the most World Heritage Cities.

29. Three Mexican restaurants are on Restaurant Magazine's list of the 50 best.

30. Also, in November 2003, the UNESCO decided to consider our fiestas dedicated to the dead Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, for being one of Mexico's and the world's most significant representations of its living legacy.

31. The Guadalajara Book Fair is the largest Spanish-language publishing event in Latin America and one of the largest in the world.

32. The city of Mérida was declared American Culture Capital for 2017.

33. Mexico City is the city with the most museums, not only in the whole country but in the world.

Tourism

34. In 2015, Mexico was again among the top ten in tourism, with 32.1 million international tourists. We are the main tourist destination from the U.S. and the main tourist destination in Latin America.

35. We have over 450 beach destinations.

36. The New York Times named Mexico City the number one destination to visit in 2016.

37. Tulum was named destination number one to visit in 2016, by TripAdvisor.

38. In 2016, the UNESCO named the equestrian tradition of Charrería in Mexico Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and the Archipiélago de Revillagigedo a Natural World Heritage Site.

Innovation

39. Mexico has more than 200 research and development centers. In 2014, it ranked tenth in number of patents granted (9,819).

40. At the GE IQ center in Querétaro Mexican engineers were involved in designing the GENx turbine.