Despite living in a diverse country, the majority of Mexicans are united under the same national identity. This is the product of an ideology, strongly promoted by Mexican academics and politicians such as Manuel Gamio and José Vasconcelos, known as mestizaje, whose goal was that of Mexico becoming a racially and culturally homogeneous country. In practice, this ideology was reflected in Mexico's national censuses of 1921 and 1930: in the former, approximately 60% of Mexico's population identified as Mestizos, and in the latter, Mexico's government declared that all Mexicans were now Mestizos, for which racial classifications would be dropped in favor of language-based ones in future censuses.
Ethnicity and race
Mexico
Mexico | Ethnicity and race
Mestizos, Yucantan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Oaxaca etc The Mixtec and Zapotec peoples, to name a few. Yucatán, Quintana Roo, and Campeche. The earliest complex civilization here was the Olmec culture.
the culture of the aztec empire was based around which geographic form
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Central Mexico
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this culture became popular between which time period?
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Post-classic period from 1300 to 1521
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which language was spoken by the people of that time?
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Nahuatl language
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what was the reason for the population decline during that time?
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After the arrival of the Europeans in Mexico and the conquest, indigenous populations declined significantly.
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when did they arrive?
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1519–1521
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is human sacrificing a part of the culture mentioned above?
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Yes, death was instrumental in the perpetuation of creation, and gods and humans alike had the responsibility of sacrificing themselves in order to allow life to continue.
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how is the climate of the above mentioned country?
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Cooler temperatures during the winter months  in the north while temperatures are fairly constant year round in the south.
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which ethnicities contributes to the country's population?
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According to these recent surveys, Indigenous peoples amount to 23% of Mexico's population (including people who declared to be partially indigenous), Afro-Mexicans are 2% of Mexico's population. (including people who declared to be partially African) and White or European Mexicans amount to 47% of Mexico's population (based on appearance rather than on self-declared of ancestry). Less numerous groups in Mexico such as Asians and Middle Easterners are also accounted for. Out of all the ethnic groups that have recently been surveyed, that of Mestizos is notably absent, which may be consequence of the ethnic label's fluid and subjective definition, which complicates a precise calculation as well the tendency that Mexicans have to identify people with "static" ethnic labels rather than "fluid" ones.
Mexico | Official censuses
With a similar methodology, the American Sociological Association obtained a percentage of 18.8% having its higher frequency on the North region (22.3%–23.9%) followed by the Center region (18.4%–21.3%) and the South region (11.9%). Another study made by the University College London in collaboration with Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History found that the frequencies of blond hair and light eyes in Mexicans are of 18% and 28% respectively, surveys that use as reference skin color such as those made by Mexico's National Council to Prevent Discrimination and Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography reported a percentages of 47% in 2010 and 49% in 2017 respectively.
Demographics of Mexico | Mexicans of European descent
All of the indices of social development for the indigenous population are considerably lower than the national average which is motive of concern for Mexico's government. Similarly to Mestizo and indigenous peoples, estimates of the percentage of European-descended Mexicans vary considerably: according to the Encyclopædia Britannica which uses as reference the 1921 census, their numbers range from around 10%–20% (the results of the 1921 census, however, have been contested by various historians and deemed inaccurate). Recent nationwide field surveys that account for different phenotypical traits (hair color, skin color etc.) on the other hand, report rather higher percentages, with it being between 18%-23% if the criteria is the presence of blond hair, and of 47% if the criteria is skin color, with the later surveys having been conducted by Mexico's government.
Mexico | Ethnicity and race
Nonetheless, contemporary sociologists and historians agree that, given that the concept of "race" has a psychological foundation rather than a biological one and to society's eyes a Mestizo with a high percentage of European ancestry is considered "white" and a Mestizo with a high percentage of Indigenous ancestry is considered "Indian", a person that identifies with a given ethnic group should be allowed to, even if biologically it doesn't completely belong to that group.
Demographics of Mexico | The present day
With a similar methodology, the American Sociological Association obtained a nationwide percentage of 18.8%. Another study made by the University College London in collaboration with Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History found that the frequencies of blond hair and light eyes in Mexicans are of 18% and 28% respectively, nationwide surveys in the general population that use as reference skin color such as those made by Mexico's National Council to Prevent Discrimination and Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography report percentages of 47% and 49% respectively. Europeans began arriving in Mexico during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire; and while during the colonial period most European immigration was Spanish, in the 19th and 20th centuries European and European-derived populations from North and South America did immigrate to the country.
White Mexicans | Introduction
Nonetheless, all the censuses conclude that the majority of Mexico's indigenous population is concentrated in rural areas of the southern and south-eastern Mexican states such as Yucatán at 59%, Quintana Roo 39% and Campeche 27%, who are chiefly Maya; Oaxaca with 48% of the population, the most numerous groups being the Mixtec and Zapotec peoples; Chiapas at 28%, the majority being Tzeltal and Tzotzil Maya; Hidalgo 24%, the majority being Otomi; Puebla 19%, and Guerrero 17%, mostly Nahua peoples and the states of San Luis Potosí and Veracruz are both home to a population that is 15% indigenous, mostly from the Totonac, Nahua and Teenek (Huastec) groups.
Mexico | Ethnicity and race
Mexico enumerates people on whether or not they speak Spanish or indigenous languages. Mexico does not enumerate its population by race and ethnicity directly.
Race and ethnicity in censuses | Mexico
Mexico is ethnically diverse. The second article of the Mexican Constitution defines the country to be a pluricultural state originally based on its indigenous peoples.
Demographics of Mexico | Ethnic groups
Five ethnicities are native to the state: the Mazahua, the Otomi, the Nahuas, the Matlazincas and the Ocuitecos or Tlahuicas. There are also communities of Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Totonaca, Mazateca, Mixe, Purépecha and Maya. According to the 2005 census, the state has 312,319 people who speak an indigenous language, which is about 3 out of every 100 people. Two thirds of those speaking an indigenous language also speak Spanish.
State of Mexico | Demographics
An autosomal DNA study by the "American Journal of Human Genetics" estimated that the average admixture of Mexicans is approximately 65% European, 31% Amerindian, and 4% African. Higher Amerindian ancestry on the X chromosome was observed, consistent with predominantly European patrilineal and Native American matrilineal ancestry. A study by Mexico's National Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN) reported that mestizo Mexicans are 58.96% European, 10.03% African and 31.05% Asian. The African contribution ranges from 2.8 percent in Sonora to 11.13 percent in Veracruz. Eighty percent of the population was classified as mestizo (racially mixed to some degree). The study was conducted among volunteers from six states (Sonora, Zacatecas, Veracruz, Guanajuato, Oaxaca and Yucatan) and an indigenous group, the Zapotecs.
Ethnic groups in Latin America | Mexico
More recent Asian immigration (specifically Chinese) may help explain the comparatively high Asian contribution in Northwest Mexico (i.e., Sonora). The INMEGEN report also notes that on average, the largest genetic component of the self-identified Mestizo Mexicans is indigenous, while African and Asian genetic markers are diminishing with each generation and will continue to do so without new migration. For example, there were an estimated 600,000 "Afromestizos" or Mestizos of significant African descent at the end of the colonial period which roughly amounted to 10% of the population (Euromestizos and indomestizos were estimeted at 1,000,000 and 600,000 respectively) while as of 2015, the number of self identified Afro-Mexicans was 1.38 million (1.2% of the population).
Mestizos in Mexico | Population genetics
The people are mainly a mixture of Spanish and Amerindian, having the mestizo race as the most common people, with at least a 15% of unmixed whites.
Facatativá | Demographics
Approximately 50% of the population lives in one of the 55 large metropolitan areas in the country. In total, about 78.84% of the population of the country lives in urban areas, meaning that only 21.16% live in rural areas. The Census Inegi in Mexico is the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI). The National Population Council (CONAPO), is an institution under the Secretary of the Interior in charge of the analysis and research of population dynamics. The National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (CDI), also undertakes research and analysis of the sociodemographic and linguistic indicators of the indigenous peoples
Demographics of Mexico | Introduction
Generally, it can be said that in scholarship, as well as popular discourse, there has been a tendency of talking about indigenous peoples in terms of ethnicity, about Afro-minorities and white socio-economic privilege in terms of race, and about mestizos in tems of national identity. It is now however becoming recognized that processes of identity formation and social stratification in regards to all population groups in Mexico can be analyzed both in terms of race and of ethnicity.
Race and ethnicity in Latin America | Mexico
As had occurred with a large portion of Mexico's black population, over generations the Asian populace was absorbed into the general Mestizo population. Facilitating this miscegenation was the assimilation of Asians into the indigenous population. The indigenous people were legally protected from chattel slavery, and by being recognized as part of this group, Asian slaves could claim they were wrongly enslaved. Asians, predominantly Chinese, became Mexico's fastest-growing immigrant group from the 1880s to the 1920s, exploding from about 1,500 in 1895 to more than 20,000 in 1910.
Demographics of Mexico | Asian Mexicans
"Note: Births in table do not add up, because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number."
New Mexico | Birth data
The resulting effect of employing these criteria, therefore, skews the figure of said groups if they had been based on genetic factors, or even based on phenotypic factors. Thus, for instance, the estimate of "whites" given for Chile would include mostly genetic mestizos, while the estimate of "mestizos" in Mexico would include not only a significant proportion of genetic Amerindians, but also many genetic whites, and so on for other countries.
Ethnic groups in Latin America | According to Lizcano
The following table is a compilation of (when possible) official nationwide surveys conducted by the Mexican government who have attempted to quantify different Mexican ethnic groups. Given that for the most part each ethnic group was estimated by different surveys, with different methodologies and years apart rather than on a single comprehensive racial census, some groups could overlap with others and be overestimated or underestimated. Of all the ethnic groups that have been surveyed, Mestizos are notably absent, which is likely due to the label's fluid and subjective definition, which complicates its precise quantification. However it can be safely assumed that Mestizos make up at least the remaining 30% unassessed percentage of Mexico's population with possibilities of increasing if the methodologies of the extant surveys are considered.
Demographics of Mexico | The present day
The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates.
Demographics of Mexico | UN estimates
Sonora shows the highest European contribution (70.63%) and Guerrero the lowest (51.98%) which also has the highest Native American contribution (37.17%). African contribution ranges from 2.8% in Sonora to 11.13% in Veracruz. 80% of the Mexican population was classed as mestizo (defined as "being racially mixed in some degree"). In May 2009, the same institution (Mexico's National Institute of Genomic Medicine) issued a report on a genomic study of 300 Mestizos from those same states. The study found that the Mestizo population of these Mexican states were on average 55% of indigenous ancestry followed by 41.8% of European, 1.8% of African, and 1.2% of East Asian ancestry.
Mestizo | Genetic studies
Some Hispanic or Latino American groups that have white majorities or pluralities originate in countries that do not. For example, Mexico's white population is 9% to 17% only, while Mexico is majoritarily mestizo, meaning that they have mixed European and Native American descent at an extent while 52.8% of Mexican Americans are White, or identify themselves as white in the Census (See the table). However, genetic studies performed in the general Mexican American and Mexican populations have shown that Mexicans residing in Mexico consistently have a higher European admixture in average (with results ranging from 37% to 78.5%) than Mexican-Americans (whose results, range from 50% to 68%).
White Hispanic and Latino Americans | Population by national origin
Most foreigners in Mexico counted in the Census come from the United States or other Hispanophone countries, with smaller numbers from Europe, East Asia, and the non-Hispanophone Americas. Their numbers have been rising as the country's economy develops, but still comprise less than 1% of the population.
Immigration to Mexico | Foreign-born population by country of birth
According to indepentent Mexico's first-ever (but second-ever counting New Spain's) national census that considered race, made right after the Mexican revolution in 1921, 59% of Mexico's population was Mestizo, 29% was Indigenous, and 9% was European, with Mestizos being the most numerous ethno-racial group in almost all the states. For a long time this census' results were taken as fact, with extraofficial international publications such as "The World Factbook" and Encyclopædia Britannica using them as a reference to estimate Mexico's racial composition up to this day. In recent time nonetheless, Mexican academics have subjected the census' results to scrutiny, claiming that such a drastic alteration in demographic trends in regards to New Spain's 1793 census (on which Europeans were estimated to be 18% to 22% of the population, Mestizos 21% to 25% and Indigenous peoples 51% to 61%) is not possible and cite, among other statistics the relatively low frequency of marriages between people of different continental ancestries in colonial and early independent Mexico.
Mexico | Official censuses
Because of this, Europeans often were the most numerous ethnic group within colonial cities in northern and western Mexico (albeit this trend is also seen in large central Mexican cities such as Mexico City) and became the regions with the highest proportion of whites during the Spanish colonial period. However, recent immigrants from southern Mexico have been changing, to some degree, its demographic trends. Estimates of Mexico's white population differ greatly in both, methodology and percentages given, extra-official sources such as the World factbook and Encyclopædia Britannica, which use the 1921 census results as the base of their estimations calculate Mexico's White population as only 9% or between one tenth to one fifth (the results of the 1921 census, however, have been contested by various historians and deemed inaccurate).
White Latin Americans | Mexico
Mexico City has recently been integrating rapidly, doing much better than many cities in a sample conducted by the Intercultural Cities Index (being the only non-European city, alongside Montreal, on the index). Mexico is an ethnically diverse country with a population composed of approximately 123 million in 2017. There is a wide variety of ethnic groups, the major group being Mestizos followed by Indigenous Mexicans. There are many other ethnic groups such as Arab Mexicans, Afro-Mexicans, Asian Mexicans and White Mexicans. From the year 2000 to 2010, the number of people in Mexico that were born in another country doubled, reaching an amount of 961,121 people.
Multiculturalism | Mexico
The estimations given for the total population range from 3,799,561 to 6,122,354. It is concluded then, that across nearly three centuries of colonization, the population growth trends of whites and mestizos were even, while the total percentage of the indigenous population decreased at a rate of 13%–17% per century. The authors assert that rather than whites and mestizos having higher birthrates, the reason for the indigenous population's numbers decreasing lies in their suffering higher mortality rates due to living in remote locations rather than in cities and towns founded by the Spanish colonists or in being at war with them.
Demographics of Mexico | 1793 census
It is notable that only 5% of Mexican Americans reported being of two or more races despite the presumption of mestizaje among the Mexican population in Mexico. Genetic studies made in the Mexican population have found European ancestry ranging from 56% going to 60%, 64% and up to 78%. In general, Mexicans have both European and Amerindian ancestries, and the proportion varies by region and individuals. African ancestry is also present, but in lower proportion. There is genetic asymmetry, with the direct paternal line predominately European and the maternal line predominately Amerindian.
Mexican Americans | Race and ethnicity
While during the colonial era, most of the European migration into Mexico was Spanish, in the 19th and 20th centuries a substantial number of non-Spanish Europeans immigrated to the country, with Europeans often being the most numerous ethnic group in colonial Mexican cities. Nowadays Mexico's northern and western regions have the highest percentages of European populations, with the majority of the people not having native admixture or being of predominantly European ancestry. The Afro-Mexican population (1,381,853 individuals ) is an ethnic group made up of descendants of Colonial-era slaves and recent immigrants of sub-Saharan African descent. Mexico had an active slave trade during the colonial period, and some 200,000 Africans were taken there, primarily in the 17th century.
Mexico | Ethnicity and race
The discrepancy between the percentage of white Mexicans reported in United States and white Mexicans from Mexico can be explained if the differences in racial perceptions that exist in both countries are considered: The concept of race in Mexico is subtle not only including physical clues such as skin color but also cultural dispositions, morality, economic, and intellectual status. It is not static or well defined but rather is defined and redefined by situation. This makes racial distinctions different than those in other countries such as the United States. Other important differences lay in the criteria and formats used for the censuses in each country: In Mexico, the only ethnic census including categories other than Amerindian (dated back to 1921) performed by the government offered the following options in the questionnaire: The census had the particularity that, unlike racial/ethnic census in other countries, it was focused in the perception of cultural heritage rather than in a racial perception, leading to a good number of white people to identify with "Mixed heritage" due cultural influence.
White Hispanic and Latino Americans | Population by national origin
Today, historians and academics consider that a good number of people were classified under the "mestizo identity" by the government regardless of whether they were of mixed ancestry or not, as the population trends reported in those censuses are incongruent with those exhibited in earlier censuses and modern research has observed that when asked directly about their ethno-racial identification, many Mexicans do not identify as Mestizos. Ethnoracial labels such as "White" or "Indian" are far more prominent in contemporary Mexican society than the "Mestizo" one is, whose use is mostly limited to intellectual circles. The total percentage of Mexico's indigenous peoples tends to vary depending of the criteria used by the government on its censuses: it is 5.4% if the ability to speak an indigenous language is used as the criteria to define a person as indigenous, if racial self-identification is used it is 14.9% and if people who consider themselves part indigenous are also included it amounts to 23%.
Mexico | Ethnicity and race
Various authors theorize that the reason for these inconsistencies may lie in the Mestizo identity promoted by the Mexican government, which reportedly led to people who are not biologically Mestizos to identify themselves as such.
Demographics of Mexico | 1921 census
Additionally the presence of considerable portions of the population with partly African and Asian heritage further complicates the situation. Even though it still arranges persons along the line between indigenous and European, in practice the classificatory system is no longer biologically based, but rather mixes socio-cultural traits with phenotypical traits, and classification is largely fluid, allowing individuals to move between categories and define their ethnic and racial identities situationally.
Mexicans | Today
The survey also states that 64.9% (896,829) of Afro-Mexicans also identified as indigenous, with 9.3% being speakers of indigenous languages.
Demographics of Mexico | Afro-Mexicans
Depending on the region, some may have small traces of Asian admixture due to the thousands of Filipinos and "Chinos" (Asian slaves of diverse origin, not just Chinese) that arrived on the "Nao de China". More recent Asian immigration (specifically Chinese) may help explain the comparatively high Asian contribution in Northwest Mexico (i.e., Sonora). According to numerous studies, on average, the largest genetic component of Mexicans who self-identify as being Mestizos is indigenous; although the difference in incidence between the indigenous and European composites is relatively small, both representing well over 40% of the genetic composition of mestizos. In studies made on the general Mexican population (this is, studies where there is no other kind of self-identification than that of being "Mexican") the European ancestral genetic component tends to overtake the indigenous composite.
Mexicans | Genetic studies
Structure of the population (12.06.2010) (Census):
Demographics of Mexico | Structure of the population
Despite living in a diverse country, the majority of Mexicans are united under the same national identity. This is the product of an ideology, strongly promoted by Mexican academics and politicians such as Manuel Gamio and José Vasconcelos, known as mestizaje, whose goal was that of Mexico becoming a racially and culturally homogeneous country. In practice, this ideology was reflected in Mexico's national censuses of 1921 and 1930: in the former, approximately 60% of Mexico's population identified as Mestizos, and in the latter, Mexico's government declared that all Mexicans were now Mestizos, for which racial classifications would be dropped in favor of language-based ones in future censuses.
Mexico | Ethnicity and race
The following estimates were prepared by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía:
Demographics of Mexico | Estimates
Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review. Demographic statistics according to the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated. Demographic statistics according to Mexico's National Institute of Statistics.
Demographics of Mexico | Other demographic statistics
European Mexicans are Mexican citizens of full or majority European descent. Europeans began arriving in Mexico during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and continued immigrating to the country during colonial and independent Mexico. According to 20th and 21st century academics, large scale intermixing between the European immigrants and the native Indigenous peoples would produce a Mestizo group which would become the overwhelming majority of Mexico's population by the time of the Mexican revolution. However, according to church registers from the colonial times, the majority (73%) of Spanish men married with Spanish women. Said registers also put in question other narratives held by contemporary academics, such as European immigrants who arrived to Mexico being almost exclusively men or that "pure Spanish" people were all part of a small powerful elite as Spaniards were often the most numerous ethnic group in the colonial cities as there were menial workers and people in poverty who were of complete Spanish origin.
Demographics of Mexico | Mexicans of European descent
Today, Mexico accounts for about 42% of all Mennonites in Latin America. Mennonites in the country stand out because of their light skin, hair and eyes. They are a largely insular community that speaks Plautdietsch and wear traditional clothing. They own their own businesses in various communities in Chihuahua, and account for about half of the state's farm economy, standing out in cheese production. Immigration was restricted by governments after Diaz's but never stopped entirely during the 20th century. Between 1937 and 1948, more than 18,000 Spanish Republicans arrived as refugees from the Nationalists and Francoist Spain. Their reception by the Mexican criollo elite was mixed but they manage to experience success as most of these newcomers were educated as scholars and artists.
White Mexicans | Examples of White ethnic groups in Mexico
The Mestizaje ideology, which has blurred the lines of race at an institutional level has also had a significative influence in genetic studies done in Mexico: As the criteria used in studies to determine if a Mexican is Mestizo or indigenous often lies in cultural traits such as the language spoken instead of racial self-identification or a phenotype-based selection there are studies on which populations who are considered to be Indigenous per virtue of the language spoken such as Nahua peoples from the state of Veracruz show a higher degree of European genetic admixture than the one populations considered to be Mestizo report in other studies.
Mestizos in Mexico | Population genetics
According to the 2011 Census, the racial composition of the population was:
Anzoátegui | Race and ethnicity
In that time, more people from the United States have been added to the population of Mexico than Mexicans to that of the United States, according to government data in both nations. Mexico's northern and western regions have the highest percentages of European population, according to the American historian Howard F. Cline the majority of Mexicans in these regions have no native admixture and their aspect resemble that of northern Spaniards. In the north and west of Mexico, the indigenous tribes were substantially smaller than those found in central and southern Mexico, and also much less organized, thus they remained isolated from the rest of the population or even in some cases were hostile towards Mexican colonists.
White Latin Americans | Mexico
As example the 2015 intercensal survey considered as Indigenous Mexicans and Afro-Mexicans altogether individuals who self-identified as "part Indigenous" or "part African" thus, said people technically would be Mestizos. Similarly, White Mexicans were quantified based on physical traits and appearance, thus technically a Mestizo with a percentage of Indigenous ancestry that was low enough to not affect his or her primarily European phenotype was considered to be white. Finally the remaining ethnicities, for being of a rather low number or being faiths have more permissive classification criteria, therefore a Mestizo could claim to belong to one of them by practicing the faith, or by having an ancestor who belonged to said ethnicities.
Demographics of Mexico | The present day
Because of the diversity of Mexico and the influx of immigrants from almost every region in the country, there are no accurate estimates on ethnicity or race of the current population. The heavy influx of immigrants to the city and municipality of Tijuana has led to job creation in the form of over 700 twin-plant (maquiladora) factories, which serve as the basis of employment for the majority of the working-class people in northern Mexico. The high poverty level in Tijuana is attributed to the city's "magnet status" for people who have come from the poorer south of the nation and citizens from other nations seeking to escape from extreme poverty.
Tijuana | Demographics
Historically, the U.S. states with the largest Mexican/Hispanic/Latino populations were primarily located in the Southwestern states, Texas, and Florida. However, the percentage of the Hispanic/Latino population has dramatically increased in many U.S. states both inside and outside the Southwest in recent decades. aThere are other estimates on this page which are a little different. These estimates here come from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Historical racial and ethnic demographics of the United States | Mexican (1910–1930) and Hispanic/Latino (1940–2010) population as a percentage of the total population by U.S. region and state
Surveys that account for phenotypical traits and have performed actual field research suggest rather higher percentages: using the presence of blond hair as reference to classify a Mexican as white, the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico calculated the percentage of said ethnic group at 23%. With a similar methodology, the American Sociological Association obtained a percentage of 18.8% having its higher frequency on the North region (22.3%–23.9%) followed by the Center region (18.4%–21.3%) and the South region (11.9%). Another study made by the University College London in collaboration with Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History found that the frequencies of blond hair and light eyes in Mexicans are of 18% and 28% respectively, surveys that use as reference skin color such as those made by Mexico's National Council to Prevent Discrimination and Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography reported a percentages of 47% in 2010 and 49% in 2017 respectively.
White Latin Americans | Mexico
Estimates of Mexico's white population differ greatly in both, methodology and percentages given, extra-official sources such as The World Factbook and Encyclopedia Britannica, which use the 1921 census results as the base of their estimations calculate Mexico's White population as only 9% or between one tenth to one fifth (the results of the 1921 census, however, have been contested by various historians and deemed inaccurate). Surveys that account for phenotypical traits and have performed actual field research suggest rather higher percentages: using the presence of blond hair as reference to classify a Mexican as white, the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico calculated the percentage of said ethnic group at 23%.
Demographics of Mexico | Mexicans of European descent
However, this is not the case when it comes to European Mexicans, as there are instances in which states that have been shown through scientific research to have a considerably high European ancestry are reported to have very small white populations in the 1921 census, with the most extreme case being that of the state of Durango, where the aforementioned census asserts that only 0.01% of the state's population (33 persons) self-identified as "white" while modern scientific research shows that the population of Durango has similar genetic frequencies to those found on European peoples (with the state's Indigenous population showing almost no foreign admixture either).
Demographics of Mexico | 1921 census
Aside from the original Spanish colonists, many Europeans immigrated to Mexico in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Non-Spanish immigrant groups included British, Irish, Italian, German, French and Dutch. Large numbers of Middle Eastern immigrants arrived in Mexico during the same period, mostly from Syria and Lebanon. Asian immigrants, mostly Chinese, some via the United States, settled in northern Mexico, whereas Koreans settled in central Mexico. During the 1970s and 1980s Mexico opened its doors to immigrants from Latin America, mainly political refugees from Chile, Cuba, Peru, Colombia and Central America. The PRI governments, in power for most of the 20th century, had a policy of granting asylum to fellow Latin Americans fleeing political persecution in their home countries.
Demographics of Mexico | Immigration to Mexico
Extant research suggests that geographic location plays a more significative role on determining the genetic makeup of the average Indigenous person than cultural traits do, an example of this is the indigenous population of Tlapa in the state of Guerrero that despite for the most part speaking Spanish and having the same cultural customs non-indigenous Mexicans have, shows an indigenous ancestry of 95%. In contrast, Nahua-speaking Indigenous peoples from the state of Veracruz have a mean European ancestry of 42% and an African ancestry of 22%.
Mexicans | Genetic studies
Afro-Mexicans are an ethnic group that predominate in certain areas of Mexico. Such as the Costa Chica of Oaxaca and the Costa Chica of Guerrero, Veracruz (e.g. Yanga) and in some towns in northern Mexico. The existence of blacks in Mexico is unknown, denied or diminished in both Mexico and abroad for a number of reasons: their small numbers, heavy intermarriage with other ethnic groups and Mexico's tradition of defining itself as a "mestizaje" or mixing of European and indigenous. Mexico did have an active slave trade since the early Spanish period but from the beginning, intermarriage and mixed race offspring created an elaborate caste system.
Demographics of Mexico | Afro-Mexicans
White Mexicans are for the most part descendants of Spanish immigrants who arrived mainly from northern regions of Spain such as Cantabria, Navarra, Galicia and the Basque Country; however in the 19th and 20th century many non-Iberian immigrants arrived to the country, either motivated by economic opportunity (Americans, Canadians, English), government programs (Italians, Irish, Germans) or political motives such as the French during the Second Mexican Empire. In the 20th century, international political instability was a key factor to drive immigration to Mexico; in this era Greeks, Romanians, Portuguese, Armenians, Poles, Russians, Lebanese, Palestinians and Jews, along with many Spanish refugees fleeing the Spanish Civil War, also settled in Mexico whereas in the 21st century, due to Mexico's economic growth, immigration from Europe has increased (mainly France and Spain), people from the United States have arrived as well, nowadays making up more than three-quarters of Mexico's roughly one million legal migrants.
White Latin Americans | Mexico
Surveys that account for phenotypical traits and have performed actual field research suggest rather higher percentages: using the presence of blond hair as reference to classify a Mexican as white, the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico calculated the percentage of said ethnic group at 23%. With a similar methodology, the American Sociological Association obtained a percentage of 18.8% having its higher frequency on the North region (22.3%–23.9%) followed by the Center region (18.4%–21.3%) and the South region (11.9%). Another study made by the University College London in collaboration with Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History found that the frequencies of blond hair and light eyes in Mexicans are of 18% and 28% respectively, surveys that use as reference skin color such as those made by Mexico's National Council to Prevent Discrimination and Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography reported a percentages of 47% in 2010 and 49% in 2017 respectively.
Mexicans | White Mexicans
Today, there is no definitive census that quantifies Mexico's white population, with estimations from different publications varying greatly, ranging from just 9% of the total to 47%, with this figure being based on phenotypical traits instead of self-identification of ancestry. The lack of a clear defining line between white and mixed race Mexicans has made the concept of race relatively fluid, with descent being more of a determining factor than biological traits. Even though there is large variation in phenotypes among Mexicans, European looks are still strongly preferred in Mexican society, with lighter skin receiving more positive attention as it is associated with higher social class, power, money and modernity.
White Mexicans | In today's society
Mexicans who are biologically Mestizos are primarily of European and Native American ancestry. The third largest component is African, partly a legacy of slavery in New Spain (which saw the importation of possibly up to 100,000 black slaves). However, geneticists theorize that in the central valleys of Mexico which did not have any presence of slaves, African admixture may have come from Spanish colonists and not African slaves themselves, as said ancestry is predominantly of North African origin. Depending on the region, some may have small traces of Asian admixture due to the thousands of Filipinos and "Chinos" (Asian slaves of diverse origin, not just Chinese) that arrived on the "Nao de China".
Mestizos in Mexico | Population genetics
Such transformation of the word is not a casualty but the result of a concept known as "mestizaje", which was promoted by the post-revolutionary Mexican government in an effort to create a united Mexican ethno-cultural identity with no racial distinctions. It is because of this that sometimes the Mestizo population in Mexico is estimated to be as high as 93% of the Mexican population. Per the 2010 US Census, the majority (52.8%) of Mexican Americans identified as being White. The remainder identified themselves as being of "some other race" (39.5%), "two or more races" (5.0%), Native American (1.4%), black (0.9%), and Asian / Pacific Islander (0.4%).
Mexican Americans | Race and ethnicity
Contrary to popular belief, Mexico's government does conduct ethnic censuses on which a Mexican has the choice of identify as "White", the results, however, remain unpublished. Instead the Mexican government does publish results regarding the frequencies of different phenotypical traits in Mexicans such as skin color, and in discourses and investigations regarding problematics such as racism has opted for splitting Mexicans on "light skinned Mexicans" and "dark skinned Mexicans" rather than on "White Mexicans" and "Mestizo Mexicans". Other studies use the presence of light hair colors (particularly blond) to calculate Mexico's white population. Mexico's northern and western regions have the highest percentages of White population, with the majority of the people not having native admixture or being of predominantly European ancestry, resembling in aspect that of northern Spaniards.
White Mexicans | Distribution and estimates
The following table is a compilation of (when possible) official nationwide surveys conducted by the Mexican government who have attempted to quantify different Mexican ethnic groups. Given that for the most part each ethnic group was estimated by different surveys, with different methodologies and years apart rather than on a single comprehensive racial census, some groups could overlap with others and be overestimated or underestimated. Of all the ethnic groups that have been surveyed Mestizos are notably absent, which is likely due to the label's fluid and subjective definition, which complicates its precise quantification. However, it can be safely assumed that Mestizos make up at least the remaining 30% unassessed percentage of Mexico's population with possibilities of increasing if the methodologies of the extant surveys are considered.
Mexicans | Present day
The opposite also happens, as there instances on which populations considered to be Mestizo show genetic frequencies very similar to continental European peoples in the case of Mestizos from the state of Durango or to European derived Americans in the case of Mestizos from the state of Jalisco. Regardless of the criteria used, all the autosomal DNA studies made coincide on there being a significant genetic variation depending of the region analyzed, with southern Mexico having prevalent Amerindian and small but higher than average African genetic contributions, the central region of Mexico shows a balance between Amerindian and European components, with the later gradually increasing as one travels northwards and westwards, where European ancestry becomes the majority of the genetic contribution up until cities located in the Mexico–United States border, where studies suggest there is a significant resurgence of Amerindian and African admixture.
White Mexicans | Genetic research
European Mexican - estimated by the government in 2010 as 47% of the population (56 million) using phenotypical traits (skin color) as the criteria. If the criteria used is the presence of blond hair, it is 18% - 23%.
European emigration | Mexico
Ethnically, Mexican Americans are a diverse population, including those of European ancestry, Indigenous ancestry, a mixture of both, and Mexicans of Middle Eastern descent (mainly Lebanese). The Mexican population is majority Mestizo, which in colonial times meant to be a person of half European and half Native American ancestry. Nonetheless the meaning of the word has changed through time, currently being used to refer to the segment of the Mexican population who does not speak indigenous languages, thus in Mexico, the term "Mestizo" has become a cultural label rather than a racial one, it is vaguely defined and includes people who does not have Indigenous ancestry, people who does not have European ancestry as well as people of African ancestry.
Mexican Americans | Race and ethnicity
This system broke down in the very late Spanish period and after Independence the legal notion of race was eliminated. The creation of a national Mexican identity, especially after the Mexican Revolution, emphasized Mexico's indigenous and European past actively or passively eliminating its African one from popular consciousness. The majority of Mexico's native Afro-descendants are "Afromestizos." Individuals with significantly high amounts of African ancestry make up a very low percentage of the total Mexican population, the majority being recent black immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere in the Americas. According to the Intercensal survey carried out by the Mexican government, Afro-Mexicans make up 1.2% of Mexico's population, the Afro-Mexican category in the Intercensal survey includes people who self-identified solely as African and people who self-identified as partially African.
Demographics of Mexico | Afro-Mexicans
According to the "Encyclopædia Britannica", which uses a biology-based approach, between one half and two thirds of the Mexican population is Mestizo. A culture-based estimate gives the percentage of Mestizos as high as 90%. The use of variated methods and criteria to quantify the number of Mestizos in Mexico is not new: Since several decades ago, many authors have analyzed colonial censuses data and have made different conjectures respecting the ethnic composition of the population of colonial Mexico/New Spain. There are Historians such as Gonzalo Aguirre-Beltrán who claim that practically the totality of New Spain's population, in reality, were Mestizos, using to back up his claims arguments such as that affairs of Spaniards with non-Europeans due to the alleged absence of female European immigrants were widespread as well as there being a huge desire of Mestizos to "pass" as Spaniards, this because Spanishness was seen as a symbol of high status.
Demographics of Mexico | Mestizo
The Mexican population is predominantly Catholic (82.7% of the population aged five and older, according to the 2010 census), although the percentage representing those who attend church on a weekly basis is lower (46%). About 7.6% of the population was classified as Protestant or Evangelical, 2.5% were classified as "Non-Evangelical Biblical" (a classification that groups Adventists, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses), 0.05% as practicing Jews, and 4.6% without a religion. The largest group of Protestants are Pentecostals and Charismatics (classified as Neo-Pentecostals). The states with the highest percentage of professing Catholics are central states, namely Guanajuato (96.4%), Aguascalientes (95.6%) and Jalisco (95.4%), whereas southeastern states have the lowest percentage of Catholics, namely Chiapas (63.8%), Tabasco (70.4%) and Campeche (71.3%).
Demographics of Mexico | Religion
Although Asian Mexicans make up less than 1% of the total population of modern Mexico, they are nonetheless a notable minority. Due to the historical and contemporary perception in Mexican society of what constitutes Asian culture (associated with the Far East rather than the Near East), Asian Mexicans are of East, South and Southeast Asian descent and Mexicans of West Asian descent are not considered to be part of the group. For more info, see the Middle Eastern Mexicans section. Asian immigration began with the arrival of Filipinos to Mexico during the Spanish period. For two and a half centuries, between 1565 and 1815, many Filipinos and Mexicans sailed to and from Mexico and the Philippines as sailors, crews, slaves, prisoners, adventurers and soldiers in the Manila-Acapulco Galleon assisting Spain in its trade between Asia and the Americas.
Demographics of Mexico | Asian Mexicans
The creation of a national Mexican identity, especially after the Mexican Revolution, emphasized Mexico's indigenous and European past; it passively eliminated the African ancestors and contributions. Most of the African-descended population was absorbed into the surrounding Mestizo (mixed European/indigenous) and indigenous populations through unions among the groups. Evidence of this long history of intermarriage with Mestizo and indigenous Mexicans is also expressed in the fact that in the 2015 inter-census, 64.9% (896,829) of Afro-Mexicans also identified as indigenous. It was also reported that 9.3% of Afro-Mexicans speak an indigenous language. The states with the highest self-report of Afro-Mexicans were Guerrero (6.5% of the population), Oaxaca (4.95%) and Veracruz (3.28%).
Mexico | Ethnicity and race
The first data for New Mexico was a 5% sample in 1940 which estimated non-Hispanic whites at 50.9%. Hispanics do not constitute a race but an ethnic and cultural group: of respondents who listed Hispanic origin, some listed White race, roughly half gave responses tabulated under "Some other race" (e.g. giving a national origin such as "Mexican" or a designation such as "Mestizo" as race), and much smaller numbers listed Black, Native American, or Asian race. In U.S. censuses since 1990, self-identification has been the primary way to identify race. Presumption of race based on countries or regions given in the ancestry question is used only when a respondent has answered the ancestry question but not the race question.
Majority minority | Data collection
Since the early sixteenth century with the arrival of the Spanish, Mexico has received immigrants from Europe, Africa (as colonial-era enslaved immigrants), the Americas (e.g., the United States, Canada, Colombia, Guatemala, Argentina, Honduras, Cuba, Brazil, and El Salvador), the Middle East and from Asia. Not only today, millions of their descendants still live in Mexico and can be found working in different professions and industries. According to the 2010 National Census, there are 961,121 foreign-born people registered with the government as living in Mexico, the majority of whom are US citizens. This is almost double the 492,617 foreign-born residents counted in the 2000 Census.
Immigration to Mexico | Introduction
The following table is a compilation of (when possible) official nationwide surveys conducted by the Mexican government who have attempted to quantify different Mexican ethnic groups. Given that for the most part each ethnic group was estimated by different surveys, with different methodologies and years apart rather than on a single comprehensive racial census, some groups could overlap with others and be overestimated or underestimated. Of all the ethnic groups that have been surveyed, Mestizos are notably absent, which is likely due to the label's fluid and subjective definition, which complicates its precise quantification. However, it can be safely assumed that Mestizos make up at least the remaining 30% unassessed percentage of Mexico's population with possibilities of increasing if the methodologies of the extant surveys are considered.
White Mexicans | Present day
American Mexicans () are Mexican citizens who are either born in, or descended from migrants from the United States and its territories. This can include people of non-Hispanic European, African American, Native American, Asian American, Pacific Islander or Hispanic (of any race) backgrounds. Americans are a significant demographic group in Mexico. Over 75% of immigrants to Mexico are estimated to come from the United States, and Mexico hosts the largest number of US emigrants. Many members of the American Mexican community have dual nationality, and among them are entrepreneurs, businessmen, sports professionals, entertainers, artists, religious ministers, academics, and students. The largest community of Americans outside their country lives in Jalisco and hovers around 30,000 citizens.
American immigration to Mexico | Introduction
Spanish descendants make up the largest group of Europeans in Mexico and a majority of Mexicans have some degree of Spanish descent. Most of their ancestors arrived during the colonial period but further hundreds of thousands have since then immigrated, especially during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. According to CIA World Factbook, whites make up 10% of Mexico's population. The Encyclopædia Britannica states those of predominantly European descent make up closer to one-sixth (≈17%) of the Mexican population.
Spaniards in Mexico | Demographics
miscegenation couldn't happen in a significative amount in regions on which the native population was openly hostile until early 20th century, such as most of New Spain's internal provinces, which nowadays are the northern and western regions of Mexico), or that historic accounts made by investigators at the time consistently observed that New Spain's European population was notoriously concerned with preserving their European heritage, with practices such as inviting relatives and friends directly from Spain or favouring Europeans for marriage even if they were from a lower socioeconomic level than them being common. Newer publications that do cite Aguirre-Beltran's work take those factors into consideration, stating that the Spaniard/Euromestizo/Criollo ethnic label was composed on its majority by descendants of Europeans albeit the category may have included people with some non-European ancestry.
Demographics of Mexico | Mestizo
Ethnologue reports that 400,000 Mexicans speak Arabic. The Arab Mexican population consists of Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians, whose families arrived in Mexico after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. The majority of them are Christian but some are Muslims. Business tycoon and billionaire Carlos Slim Helú is the best-known Mexican of this immigrant group, as he is currently ranked by Forbes as one of the richest people in the world. His parents, Maronite Christians, immigrated to Mexico from Lebanon.
Immigration to Mexico | Arab
According to this criteria, the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas, or CDI in Spanish) and the INEGI (Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography), state that there are 15.7 million indigenous people in Mexico of many different ethnic groups, which constitute 14.9% of the population in the country. Finally, according to the latest intercensal survey carried out by the Mexican government in 2015, Indigenous people make up 21.5% of Mexico's population. In this occasion, people who self-identified as "Indigenous" and people who self-identified as "partially Indigenous" were classified in the "Indigenous" category altogether.
Demographics of Mexico | Indigenous peoples
The same study found that Mexico's haplogroup was most similar to the European group with 81 percent of haplotypes shared, followed by the Asian haplogroup with 74 percent and the African haplogroup with 64 percent. The investigators also noted that the African admixture did not generally come from African slaves brought by Europeans to the Americas, but rather, it was already a part of the genetic admixture of the Iberian colonists.
Ethnic groups in Latin America | Mexico
In consequence, today people of very different phenotypes make up the Mestizo population in Mexico independently of whether they are mixed race or not. However, since the term carries a variety of socio-cultural, economic, racial, and genetic meanings, estimates of the Mexican Mestizo population vary widely. According to the "Encyclopædia Britannica", which uses as base the results of the 1921 census, between one half and two thirds of the Mexican population is Mestizo. Considering "Mestizaje" is the national ideology of Mexico, this means all Mexicans who are not indigenous and partake in the nation's culture could be considered "Mestizo" by virtue of them being culturally Mexican regardless of their racial background, i.e.
Mestizos in Mexico | Introduction
Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI)
Demographics of Mexico | Registered births and deaths
Prior to the European conquest of the Americas the demographics of Latin America was naturally 100% American Indian. Today those who identify themselves as Native Americans are small minorities in many countries. For example, the CIA lists Argentina's native population at 0.9%, Brazil's at 0.4%, and Uruguay's at 0%. However, the range varies widely from country to country in Latin America with some countries having significantly larger Amerindian minorities. According to official statistics—as reported by the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples or CDI—Amerindians make up 10–14% of the population of Mexico. The early conquest of Latin America was primarily carried out by male soldiers and sailors from Spain and Portugal.
Miscegenation | Background
Sometimes, nonetheless, "White Mexican" is used. Europeans began arriving in Mexico during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire; and while during the colonial period most European immigration was Spanish (mostly from northern provinces such as Cantabria, Navarra, Galicia and the Basque Country,), in the 19th and 20th centuries European and European-derived populations from North and South America did immigrate to the country. According to 20th- and 21st-century academics, large-scale intermixing between the European immigrants and the native Indigenous peoples produced a Mestizo group which would become the overwhelming majority of Mexico's population by the time of the Mexican Revolution.
White people | Mexico
According to 20th and 21st century academics, large scale intermixing between the European immigrants and the native Indigenous peoples would produce a Mestizo group which would become the overwhelming majority of Mexico's population by the time of the Mexican Revolution. However, according to church and censal registers from the colonial times, the majority (73%) of Spanish men married with Spanish women. Said registers also put in question other narratives held by contemporary academics, such as European immigrants who arrived to Mexico being almost exclusively men or that "pure Spanish" people were all part of a small powerful elite, as Spaniards were often the most numerous ethnic group in the colonial cities and there were menial workers and people in poverty who were of complete Spanish origin.
White Mexicans | Introduction
The opposite also happens, as there instances on which populations considered to be Mestizo show genetic frequencies very similar to continental European peoples in the case of Mestizos from the state of Durango or to European derived Americans in the case of Mestizos from the state of Jalisco.
Mestizos in Mexico | Population genetics
The Demographics of Mexico are important to understanding why the country created this program for the elderly. Since 1975, the median age of the Mexican population has risen significantly. In 2015, the median age of the population was 27.4 years. Also, from 2004 to 2015, the portion of the population aged 65 years and over increased gradually.
Instituto Nacional de las Personas Adultas Mayores | Demography
Nonetheless, sometimes "White Mexican" is used. Estimates of Mexico's white population differ greatly in both methodology and percentages given; unofficial sources such as the "World Factbook" and "Encyclopædia Britannica", which use the 1921 census results as the base of their estimations, calculate the White Mexican population as only 9% or between one tenth to one fifth of the population. The results of the 1921 census, however, have been contested by various historians and deemed inaccurate. Surveys that account for phenotypical traits and have performed actual field research suggest rather higher percentages: using the presence of blond hair as reference to classify a Mexican as white, the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico calculated the percentage of said ethnic group within the institution at 23%.
White Mexicans | Introduction
Mexico City is also home to large communities of expatriates and immigrants from the rest of North America (U.S. and Canada), from South America (mainly from Argentina and Colombia, but also from Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela), from Central America and the Caribbean (mainly from Cuba, Guatemala, El Salvador, Haiti and Honduras); from Europe (mainly from Spain, Germany and Switzerland, but also from Czech Republic, Hungary, France, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania), from the Middle East (mainly from Egypt, Lebanon and Syria); and recently from Asia-Pacific (mainly from China, Japan, Pakistan, India and South Korea). Historically since the era of New Spain, many Filipinos settled in the city and have become integrated in Mexican society.
Mexico City | Nationality
While the national annual growth rate was still positive (1.0%) in the early years of the 2000s, the national net migration rate was negative (-4.75/1000 inhabitants), given the former strong flow of immigrants to the United States; an estimated 5.3 million undocumented Mexican immigrants lived in the United States in 2004 and 18.2 million American citizens in the 2000 Census declared having Mexican ancestry. However, as of recent years in the 2010s, the net migration rate reached 0, given the strong economy of Mexico, changes in US Immigration Policy & Enforcement, US Legislative and CFR-8 decisions, plus the (then) slowly recovering US economy, causing many of its former residents to return.
Demographics of Mexico | Demographic dynamics
According to the 2011 Census, the racial composition of the population was:
Guárico | Race and ethnicity
Said authors claim that the Mexican society went through a "more cultural than biological mestizaje process" sponsored by the state in its efforts to unify the Mexican population which resulted in the inflation of the percentage of the Mestizo Mexican group at the expense of the identity of the other races that exist in Mexico. In recent times the Mexican government has decided to conduct new ethnic surveys and censuses, also widening the criteria to classify the ethnicities who were already considered such as the Indigenous Mexican one, which was previously reserved to people who lived in indigenous communities or spoke an indigenous language.
Mexico | Official censuses
Those in the mountains are closer culturally to those living on the Gulf Coast, with the latter having more in common with cultures found in the west of Mexico and the central highlands .
Querétaro | Demographics
A second wave of immigrants has come to Mexico as a result of the economic crises experienced by some countries in the region. The Argentine community is quite significant estimated to be somewhere between 11,000 and 30,000. Due to the 2008 Financial Crisis and the resulting economic decline and high unemployment in Spain, many Spaniards have been emigrating to Mexico to seek new opportunities. For example, during the last quarter of 2012, a number of 7,630 work permits were granted to Spaniards.
Demographics of Mexico | Immigration to Mexico
However, the census had the particularity that, unlike racial/ethnic census in other countries, it was focused in the perception of cultural heritage rather than in a racial perception, leading to a good number of white people to identify with "Mixed heritage" due to cultural influence. In 1921, Mexico City had less than one million inhabitants. Up to the 1990s, the Federal District was the most populous federal entity in Mexico, but since then, its population has remained stable at around 8.7 million. The growth of the city has extended beyond the limits of the city to 59 municipalities of the State of Mexico and 1 in the state of Hidalgo.
Mexico City | Demographics
Demographics of Mexico
Outline of Mexico | Demography of Mexico
Indigenous peoples of Mexico (), Native Mexicans () or Mexican Native Americans (), are those who are part of communities that trace their roots back to populations and communities that existed in what is now Mexico prior to the arrival of Europeans. The number of indigenous Mexicans is judged using the political criteria found in the 2nd article of the Mexican constitution. The Mexican census does not report racial-ethnicity but only the "cultural-ethnicity" of indigenous communities that preserve their indigenous languages, traditions, beliefs, and cultures. According to the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples ("Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas", or CDI in Spanish) and the INEGI (official census institute), in 2015, 25,694,928 people in Mexico self-identify as being indigenous of many different ethnic groups, which constitute 21.5% of Mexico's population.
Indigenous peoples of Mexico | Introduction
Various authors theorize that the reason for these inconsistencies may lie in the Mestizo identity promoted by the Mexican government, which reportedly led to people who are not biologically Mestizos to identify as such.
Mexicans | 1921 census
Afro-Mexican culture is strongest in the communities of the Costa Chica of Oaxaca and Costa Chica of Guerrero.
Mexico | Ethnicity and race
Albeit not as numerous or with a history as long as genetic research in the country, studies regarding the presence of different phenotypical traits (hair color, hair shape, eye color etc.) in Mexicans have been made. Those studies have recently gained the attention of Mexico's government which has begun conducting its own nationwide investigations, with the aim of document dynamics and inequalities on interactions between Mexicans of different ethnicities/races as well as to have a more concise idea of the ethnic composition of the country (a field that has been long neglected at an institutional level in Mexico). The results of these studies effectively refute misconceptions regarding Mexico's population, showing that Mexico is an exceptionally diverse country, where any color or type of trait can be found with ease in any region.
Mexicans | Phenotypical research
The remaining population became more homogeneous and politically active during the New Deal — which largely excluded Mexican Americans — and the World War II era, which brought about the guest-worker Bracero Program.
Mexican Americans | Introduction
The metropolitan areas with the largest populations of people with Mexico-related origins are: Montreal (15,195; 0.9%), Greater Toronto Area (15,160; 0.3%), Vancouver (10,965; 0.5%), Calgary (4,865; 0.4%), Edmonton (3,630; 0.3%), Ottawa (3,165; 0.3%).
Mexican Canadians | Demographics
Further analysis of the two censuses found that the population of the capital was older and had more women. Women migrated to the capital in higher numbers than men from the surrounding countryside.
History of Mexico City | Racial composition
As of 2016, Mexicans made up 53% of the total population of Latino foreign-born Americans. Mexicans are also the largest foreign-born population, accounting for 25% of the total foreign-born population, as of 2017. The United States is home to the second-largest Mexican community in the world, second only to Mexico itself, and comprising more than 24% of the entire Mexican-origin population of the world. Mexican American families of indigenous heritage have been in the country for at least 15,000 years, and mestizo Mexican American history spans more than 400 years, since the 1598 founding of Spanish New Mexico. Spanish subjects of New Spain in the Southwest included New Mexican Hispanos and Pueblo Indians and Genizaros, Tejanos, Californios and Mission Indians have existed since the area was part of New Spain.
Mexican Americans | Introduction