Bear in mind that a lot depends on infrastructure.

Mexico (along with Japan, Chile, the US West, and Mediterranean Europe) all have good earthquake readiness from both past experience and relative wealth.

An earthquake of a similar energy release in Iran, Pakistan and India, Indonesia and the Philippines, or Haiti (and these places have had them not so long ago) would be much more devastating.

7.5 degrees (IIRC) is no joke. It just happened in a country with high earthquake readiness.


Compare with weather. -10C / 14F are nothing relevant in Canada, the US North, Scandinavia or Russia; but they would be deadly in most of Western Europe, including big cities like London, Paris, Rome, Madrid or Barcelona. Same for heat. 40C / 104F are par for the course in maybe over half of Africa, the Arabian peninsula, southern India, and even the US Southwest and northern Mexico; but they would be deadly in the US North and Canada, most of Europe, and probably all of China and Japan.