MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -- Mexicans live longer and have fewer children
                  than they did a quarter century ago, said the National Population Council
                  (Conapo), an agency that turned 25 Saturday.

                  When the Conapo was founded in 1974 with the slogan "Small families live
                  happily," families had an average of seven children each, but that figure had
                  since declined to 2.2 children, a Conapo statement said.

                  The Conapo said that Mexico's population would have been 142.5 million in
                  1999, instead of an actual 98.1 million, had the country's birth rate not
                  declined.

                  The population would reach 100 million in 2000 if the current growth rate of
                  1.8 percent a year were maintained, and would rise to 129 million in 2030.

                  Average life expectancy has increased to 75 years in 1999 from 62 years in
                  1970, the statement added.

                  Mothers also spent an average of 10 years caring for children between birth
                  and turning six, instead of 25 years at the beginning of the 1970s.