Benítez Zenteno, Raúl (1931–2006)

Raúl Benítez Zenteno began publishing detailed and prescient scholarly work on Mexico's population in the 1960s and quickly emerged as one of Mexico's most prominent demographers. With a scholarship from Mexico's Institute of Social Investigations at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (IISUNAM), Benítez Zenteno became the first Mexican to study at the United Nations Center of Latin American Demography. His 1961 publication, Análisis demográfico de México, examined birth trends, death rates, and migration movements to construct models and scenarios of the nation's future size. The analysis produced two principal projections, one of which estimated the future population of Mexico. Further Benítez Zenteno studies, commissioned by the Bank of Mexico, helped the government to develop planning policies, which took into account tremendous expansion of the population and the economy. Examining the relationship between historical demography and economic development in other works, Benítez Zenteno inspired younger scholars to analyze the effects of population trends over the long term. He worked as a professor at UNAM and later became director of IISUNAM. Benítez Zenteno directed the demographic journal Demos, which became well-known for its analyses of national and international human growth patterns.

See alsoEconomic Developmentxml .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Benítez Zenteno, Raúl. Análisis demográfico de México. Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, Universidad Nacional, 1961.

Pick, James B., and Edgar W. Butler. The Mexico Handbook: Economic and Demographic Maps and Statistics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994.

                                           Byron Crites