JALISCO or XALISCO, a Pacific coast State of Mexico. Pop. (193o) 1.255.346. Area, 31,151 sq. miles. Jalisco is traversed from north north-west to south south-east by the Sierra Madre, locally known as the Sierra de Nayarit and Sierra de Jalisco, which divides the State into a narrow, heavily forested coastal plain and a high plateau region, part of the great Anahuac table land, with an average elevation of about 5,000 ft., broken by spurs and flanking ranges of moderate height. The sierra region is largely volcanic and earthquakes are frequent ; in the south are the active volcanoes of Colima (12,750 ft.) and the Nevado de Colima (14,363 ft.). The tierra caliente zone of the coast is tropical, humid and unfavourable to Europeans, while the inland plateaux vary from subtropical to temperate and are generally drier and healthful. The greater part of the State is drained by the Rio Grande de Lerma (called the Santiago on its lower course) and its tributaries, chief of which is the Rio Verde. Lakes are numerous, the largest being Chapala, about 8o m. long by 10 to 35 m. wide, which is considered one of the most beautiful inland sheets of water in Mexico.
The agricultural products of Jalisco include Indian corn, wheat and beans on the uplands, and sugar-cane, cotton, rice, indigo and tobacco in the warmer districts. Rubber and palm oil are natural forest products of the coastal zone. Stock-raising is an important occupation in some of the more elevated districts. The mineral resources include silver, gold, cinnabar, copper, bismuth and vari ous precious stones. There are reduction works and some manu factures, including cotton and woollen goods, pottery, refined sugar and leather. The State has railway outlets eastward to Mexico City, westward to Manzanillo on the coast and north ward, via the Southern Pacific of Mexico to the United States.
There is a large percentage of Indians and mestizos in the population. The capital is Guadalajara, and other important towns with their populations (1921) are : Ciudad Guzman (16,842), 6o m. N.E. of Colima ; Lagos (i0,012), a mining town Ioo m. E.N.E. of Guadalajara, on the Mexican Central railway; Autlan (12,383) ; Ameca (11,304), in a fertile agricultural region on the western slopes of the sierras.