Mérida landed near the top tier of Mexican cities in a new citizen-satisfaction reading, but the results are not uniform. Parks and police performance placed the city among national leaders, according to the reported figures. At the same time, the same data showed weaker ratings for potable water and streets and avenues, offering a more mixed picture of how residents judge basic services.
Mérida places above the national average
Mérida ranked 12th nationally for citizen satisfaction with municipal services, with 48% of respondents expressing satisfaction, according to figures reported from INEGI’s 2025 National Survey of Government Quality and Impact. The figure placed the Yucatán capital above the reported national average of 41.7% for that category.
INEGI released the 2025 survey results on May 21. The agency said the survey measures satisfaction with public services and government contact among people 18 and older in urban areas with at least 100,000 residents. Data collection took place in late 2025, covering experiences with public services, government procedures, and contact with authorities.
The strongest marks for Mérida came in parks and public gardens. The city placed first nationally in that category, with 56.3% satisfaction, according to the reported city-level breakdown. Police performance also ranked high, placing second nationally with 50.7% satisfaction, far above INEGI’s national figure of 27.9% for police service satisfaction.
Those results sit alongside a broader national picture in which satisfaction varies sharply by service. INEGI reported that 71.5% of adults in surveyed urban areas were satisfied with garbage collection, 51.4% with potable water, 42% with parks and gardens, 27.9% with police service, and 23.7% with streets and avenues.
Service gaps remain visible in the same data
Mérida’s overall ranking did not erase weaker service areas. Satisfaction with potable water stood at 54.1%, while the condition of streets and avenues received 33.3% acceptance, according to the Sol Yucatán report based on the INEGI data.
Garbage collection moved in the other direction. The report said satisfaction with that service improved compared with 2023 and was among the areas with the strongest positive movement in Mérida. No percentage for that increase was included in the cited report.
Public confidence followed a similar pattern. Mérida ranked ninth nationally in confidence in the municipal government, at 49.6%, while confidence in public servants reached 48.2%, both above the national reference cited in the report.
Vallarta Daily has covered comparable INEGI-based readings in other cities, including a report on the effectiveness of the Puerto Vallarta government and another on local complaints about water, transit, and road problems. Those reports show how the same federal survey system is often used to compare local government performance and basic-service concerns across Mexican cities.
The Mérida figures give city officials favorable numbers in several categories, especially parks and police service. Still, the lower ratings for water and streets indicate areas where satisfaction remains more limited, even in a city that ranked above the national average for municipal service satisfaction.
