Transparencia Mexicana, a chapter of the corruption watchdog group Transparency International, conducted a survey of 13,790 households in 2000 in order to measure corruption nationwide. The survey found that Mexico's capital, Mexico City, heads the list of areas in the country with the highest incidence of corruption, followed by Guerrero, Puebla, Jalisco and Michoacan states. In Mexico City, for every 100 public services, 22.6 percent (of the 38 administrative procedures tracked) in the survey required bribes.

The Fox administration, which launched a campaign in 2001 to end the "culture of corruption", cites a lack of properly trained officials and widespread social acceptance of both bribe-givers and takers. Fox anti-corruption czar and Minister of Comptrollership and Administrative Development, Francisco Barrio estimates that it will take 30 years to eradicate corruption in Mexico.

According to Transparencia Mexicana, Mexican households participated in 214 millions acts of corruption. Families paid $2.3 billion in bribes in 2001 to receive public services -- from getting phone service to obtaining exception from military service -- a sum equivalent to about one percent of Mexico's gross domestic product. The average bribe in Mexico amounted to an estimated $10. A Mexican family, the organization reports, pays an average of $109.50 in bribes each year -- not an insignificant number in a country where the average annual income is $9,100.

According to anti-corruption czar Francisco Barrio, the cost of corruption by government officials and by everyday Mexicans surpassed the amount budgeted for education by more than three percentage points -- some 9.5 percent of Mexico's GDP of $550 billion. Recent studies by the World Economic Forum, an international organization that works to improve worldwide economic conditions, found that the business environment such as rule of law, transparency and corruption were disincentives for foreign investment in Mexico. Corruption, which is often described as a tax, adds to the cost of doing business. The Opacity Index, a study conducted by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, found that Mexico lost $8.5 billion in foreign direct investments in 1999 due to corruption and other suspect legal or economic practices.