PEOPLE OF MEXICO

At the time of the Spanish conquest in the early 1500s, numerous advanced Native American civilizations existed in Mexico. Among the most important were the Maya, who resided in the southern and southeastern part of what is now Mexico, including the present states of Chiapas, Quintana Roo, and Yucatán. Central Mexico was dominated by the Aztecs, who had developed an extensive capital surrounded by a lake at Tenochtitlán, Mexico City’s present site.

The Spanish ultimately conquered the Native American civilizations and extended their control over the entire region, calling it New Spain. Unlike British settlers in North America, the Spaniards quickly intermarried with the indigenous people, producing a growing population of mestizos, or people of mixed European and Native American ancestry. By the end of the 19th century, mestizos had become the largest ethnic group in the population.

After World War II (1939-1945), which saw the beginning of a period of sustained industrial growth, Mexicans migrated rapidly from rural communities (under 2,500 population) to large urban centers. Many of these people moved to the Federal District, which includes the capital of Mexico City and was home to approximately one-fifth of Mexico’s citizens in 1997. During this postwar period the relatively unpopulated northern states also attracted numerous immigrants, as the economic base of frontier cities such as Ciudad Juárez and Monterrey grew rapidly.

Mexico’s population grew rapidly after 1940, when improved living standards and preventive health-care measures produced a dramatic increase in longevity and a decrease in infant mortality. At the 1980 federal census, Mexico’s population stood at 66,246,833. By the 1990 census, the nation’s population had grown to 81,249,645. In 2003 Mexico had an estimated population of 104,907,991. Population density averaged 53 persons per sq km (138 per sq mi). The lowest density in the mid-1990s was in the state of Baja California Sur (5 persons per sq km/13 per sq mi), and the highest was in the Federal District (5,660 persons per sq km/14,652 per sq mi). Those states witnessing the greatest rates of population growth from 1950 to 1990 were Baja California Sur, Mexico, and Quintana Roo. In 2003 the birth and death rates were 22 and 5 per thousand, respectively.

After President Luis Echeverría Álvarez took office in 1970, he argued that rapid population growth would make it difficult for the government to generate positive rates of economic growth per capita. The Mexican economy had not been creating enough new jobs to provide all of its people with employment. The situation was made worse by the fact that an increasing portion of Mexico’s population was under the age of 16, and therefore dependent on the economically active population for support. Consequently, the government began providing family planning information and education. These efforts, complemented by private programs and the increasing levels of education that resulted from migration to urban areas, contributed to a significant decline in population growth rates. These rates dropped from highs of around 3.7 percent per year in the 1970s to 1.4 percent in 2003.

Internal migration has led to a substantial shift in population from rural to urban centers. In 1970 approximately 23 percent of Mexico’s population was living in cities of 100,000 or more people. By 1997 these large cities accounted for 44 percent of the population, indicating that large cities nearly doubled in size in two decades. Mexicans continue to migrate to the cities to seek employment opportunities, as well as better educational opportunities and access to health care.

Mexico’s population is composed primarily of mestizos, who are approximately 60 percent of the population. Indigenous peoples make up approximately 30 percent of the population, and people of European ancestry, primarily Spanish, make up about nine percent of the population. About two percent of all Mexicans are immigrants from abroad. Africans contributed to the original racial mixture when approximately 120,000 slaves were brought to the region between 1519 and 1650. By the end of the colonial period, as many as 200,000 Africans may have entered New Spain. Blacks intermarried with Native Americans and mestizos and live on both the west and east coasts. Their primary influence is centered around the Gulf Coast port of Veracruz.

A variety of factors are used to identify an individual as indigenous in Mexico, including customs, language, dress, food, and residence. The Mexican government prefers to use language as its primary determinant when counting the number of Native Americans in the population. About eight percent of all Mexicans speak an indigenous language. Among these citizens, census data demonstrate a significant decline in the percentage who speak only an indigenous language, from 28 percent in 1970 to 16 percent in 1990.

Native Americans are concentrated in the regions of Mexico where indigenous civilizations were located at the time of the conquest. These regions are mainly in central, southern, and southeastern Mexico. For example, the state of Yucatán, where the Maya civilization was important, has the highest concentration of Mexicans who speak a Native American language (44 percent). The state of Oaxaca is second with 39 percent, followed by Yucatán’s neighboring states of Quintana Roo and Chiapas, with 32 percent and 26 percent respectively. The central states of Hidalgo and Puebla also have significant proportions of Native Americans.

Spanish control of Mexico led to the dominance of Spanish, the official language. As many as 100 Native American languages are still spoken in Mexico, but no single alternative language prevails. Eighty percent of those Mexicans who speak an indigenous language also speak Spanish. The most important of the Native American languages is Nahuatl. It is the primary language of more than a million Mexicans and is spoken by nearly one-fourth of all Native Americans in the country. This is followed by Maya, used by 14 percent of Native Americans, and Mixteco and Zapoteco, each spoken by about seven percent of Native Americans. No other indigenous language is spoken by more than five percent of Mexico’s Native Americans. See also Native American Languages.

During the colonial period, the Spanish colonizers imposed the Roman Catholic religion on the indigenous population. They did not permit the exercise of any other religions, including Protestantism and Judaism. Consequently, the population has remained largely Catholic, although in practice Native American and rural versions of Catholicism differ considerably from the typical European and urban forms of the religion. These differences occurred because rural and indigenous peoples were never fully converted to Christianity, and because local priests and bishops tolerated the combination of some indigenous practices with the rites of Catholicism.

Mexico’s 1917 constitution guarantees freedom of religion. Major constitutional reforms in 1992 eliminated many of the severe restrictions on the Catholic Church and other religions. Reforms included the repeal of measures that had prevented clergy from voting. Although still prohibited from direct involvement in political affairs, Catholic bishops have recently become more vocal in criticizing economic policies and human rights abuses.

About 89 percent of the Mexican population identifies itself as Catholic, but in recent years Protestant religions have become more important, particularly in rural regions and among Native Americans. Most of the growth in Protestant religions has occurred among evangelical sects. Protestants account for approximately 3 percent of the population.

The states that are the least Catholic generally have the highest percentages of Protestants. In the state of Chiapas 16 percent of the population is Protestant and 13 percent claims no religious affiliation. Tabasco, which persecuted priests in the 1930s and implemented severe restrictions on the Catholic Church, has a Protestant population of approximately 15 percent. The states of Campeche and Quintana Roo have Protestant populations of 14 and 12 percent, respectively.

Although religious attendance declined significantly in the 20th century, religion is regaining its appeal among younger Mexicans. According to public opinion surveys in the late 1990s, many Mexican Catholics who do not regularly attend church still describe themselves as quite religious.