Mexico’s inequality problem has a number: 22. That is how many people hold more combined wealth than two of the country’s most productive states generate in a year.
A new Oxfam Mexico report found the nation’s billionaires — most of them men, most of them heirs — held a record $219.3 billion as of November 2025. Their fortunes have multiplied 4.2 times over three decades, growing at 8.8 percent annually — far outpacing the broader economy.
Carlos Slim accounts for nearly half at $107.1 billion — a personal record. Beyond his telecom empire, which dominates Mexico and much of Latin America, Slim has become a key partner of state oil company Pemex, expanding into fossil fuel projects.
Oxfam frames the concentration as structural. “When capital grows faster than the economy, inequality becomes a predictable consequence,” said program director Carlos Brown. The report calls it a model where a handful accumulate wealth “at the expense of the time, labor, and effort of millions.”
The report also maps how inequality shapes daily life. Women in the poorest 10 percent spend 11.5 hours a day on unpaid care work, versus 8 for the richest 1 percent — leaving far less time for education, rest, or paid employment.
Critics of this framing argue that wealth concentration reflects entrepreneurial success that creates jobs, and that heavier taxation risks discouraging the investment Mexico needs. The debate is not new, but the record numbers make it harder to ignore — in a country where left and right both pledge to close the gap while it keeps widening.