Editing Demographics of Mexico (section)

==Ethnic groups==
[[File:Inukshuk_Monterrey_1.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Children from the American Institute school in Monterrey mimic the pose of [[Inuit|Inuk]] artist Bill Nasogaluak's Inukshuk.]]
Although Mexico is an ethnically diverse country, for most of the 20th century and early 21st century the Mexican government has not conducted surveys regarding the ethnic origin of the population except for indigenous peoples. However, recently the Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography has begun conducting surveys to quantify the percentage of Afro-descendant Mexicans as well as Euro-descendant Mexicans living in the country.<ref>[http://www.inegi.org.mx/saladeprensa/boletines/2017/mmsi/mmsi2017_06.pdf "Resultados del Modulo de Movilidad Social Intergeneracional"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180709120023/http://www.inegi.org.mx/saladeprensa/boletines/2017/mmsi/mmsi2017_06.pdf|date=July 9, 2018}}, ''INEGI'', June 16, 2017, Retrieved on April 30, 2018.</ref>

Regardless of ethnicity, the majority of Mexicans are united under the same national identity.<ref name="autogenerated115">Wimmer, Andreas, 2002. ''Nationalist Exclusion and Ethnic Conflict: Shadows of Modernity'', Cambridge University Press page 115</ref> This is the product of an ideology strongly promoted by Mexican academics such as [[Manuel Gamio]] and [[José Vasconcelos]] known as [[mestizaje]], whose goal was that of Mexico becoming a [[La Raza Cósmica|racially]] and [[Indigenismo|culturally]] homogeneous country.<ref name="Knight, Alan 1990. pp. 78">{{Cite book |last=Knight |first=Alan |date=1990 |chapter=4. Racism, Revolution and ''indigenismo'': Mexico 1910–1940 |title=The Idea of Race in Latin America, 1870–1940 |editor-first=Richard |editor-last=Graham |pages=78–85}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated115"/><ref name="census">{{cite book |last1=Hall Steckel |first1=Richard |last2=R. Haines |first2=Michael |title=A population history of North America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BPdgiysIVcgC&pg=PA621 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2000 |page=621 |isbn=978-0-521-49666-7 |access-date=June 19, 2022 |archive-date=January 8, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108212002/https://books.google.com/books?id=BPdgiysIVcgC&pg=PA621#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> The ideology's influence was reflected in Mexico's national censuses of 1921 and 1930: in the former, which was Mexico's first-ever national census (but second-ever if the census made in colonial times is taken into account)<ref name=aleph>{{cite web |last1=Lerner |first1=Victoria |title=Consideraciones sobre la población de la Nueva España (1793–1810) |trans-title=Considerations on the population of New Spain (1793–1810) |url=http://aleph.org.mx/jspui/bitstream/56789/29809/1/17-067-1968-0327.pdf |publisher=El Colegio de México |location=Mexico City |language=es |access-date=June 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181113062234/http://aleph.org.mx/jspui/bitstream/56789/29809/1/17-067-1968-0327.pdf |archive-date=November 13, 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref> that considered race, approximately 60% of Mexico's population identified as Mestizos,<ref name="somosprimos.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.somosprimos.com/schmal/schmal.htm|title=John P. Schmal, SomosPrimos.com|publisher=somosprimos.com|access-date=June 19, 2022|archive-date=September 20, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080920002624/http://www.somosprimos.com/schmal/schmal.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref name="EL MESTIZAJE Y LAS CULTURAS REGIONALES"/>

Unlike other [[Latin America|Latin American]] countries, [[Mexico]] does not have a dominant ethnic group at the national level since many areas have different ethnic groups in majority and minority. Several genetic and anthropological studies have shown that the miscegenation in [[Mexico]] is very diverse and different in each region of the country, for example, in the central and southern regions where a large part of the Mesoamerican cultures flourished and where there was a great fusion between Spaniards and Amerindians, a mostly balanced mestizaje is noted, while in the northern and western regions of the country it is predominantly of the European type because the native populations existed in a much smaller number, which led to those territories being inhabited mainly by whites, so each region of the Mexican territory is different in society, culture and traditions.<ref>{{Cite web |date=6 June 2009 |title=Genoma destapa diferencias de mexicanos |url=https://expansion.mx/actualidad/2009/06/04/genoma-destapa-diferencias-de-mexicanos |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200204043953/https://expansion.mx/actualidad/2009/06/04/genoma-destapa-diferencias-de-mexicanos |archive-date=4 February 2020 |access-date=9 May 2020 |website=Expansión |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=''Civilización en el norte de México'', Vol. 1 | isbn=978-968-36-1092-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lg9G5cTAofEC&dq=mestizaje+en+el+norte+de+mexico&pg=PA69 | last1=García | first1=María Teresa Cabrero | date=1989 }}</ref>

During most of the 20th century these censuses' results were taken as fact, with extraofficial international publications often using them as a reference to estimate Mexico's racial composition,<ref name="Factbook">{{cite web|title=North America: Mexico|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/mexico/|work=The World Factbook|access-date=April 11, 2014|author=Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)|location=Ethnic groups|quote=mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 60%, Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian 30%, white 9%, other 1%|archive-date=January 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126164719/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/mexico|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/377246/mestizo |title=mestizo (people) |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=October 30, 2010 |archive-date=November 18, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101118152548/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/377246/mestizo |url-status=live }}</ref> but in recent time historians and academics have claimed that said results are not accurate, as in its efforts to homogenize Mexico, the government inflated the Mestizo label's percentage by classifying a good number of people as such regardless of whether they were of actual mixed ancestry or not,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pla Brugat |first1=Dolores |title=Más desindianización que mestizaje. Una relectura de los censos generales de población |journal=Dimensión Antropológica |year=2011 |volume=53 |issue=September–December |pages=69–91 |url=https://www.dimensionantropologica.inah.gob.mx/?p=7401 |access-date=June 4, 2020 |trans-title=More deindianization than miscegenation. A rereading of the general population censuses |publisher=Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia |location=Mexico City |language=es |archive-date=December 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201206022341/https://www.dimensionantropologica.inah.gob.mx/?p=7401 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Mexicosinmestizaje">[https://descargacultura.unam.mx/app1?sharedItem=6730790 "México sin mestizaje: una reinterpretación de nuestra historia"], ''UNAM'', 2016. Retrieved March 13, 2019.</ref><ref name="redalyc">{{cite web|url=http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/105/10503808.pdf |title=Al respecto no debe olvidarse que en estos países buena parte de las personas consideradas biológicamente blancas son mestizas en el aspecto cultural, el que aquí nos interesa (p. 196) |publisher=Redalyc.org |date=March 16, 2005 |access-date=June 27, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022220348/http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/105/10503808.pdf |archive-date=October 22, 2013 }}</ref><ref name="Bartolomé 1996:2">Bartolomé, Miguel Alberto. (1996) "Pluralismo cultural y redefinicion del estado en México". in Coloquio sobre derechos indígenas, Oaxaca, IOC.[http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/iard4010/documents/Pluralismo_cultural_y_redefinicion_del_estado_en_Mexico.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616113126/http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/iard4010/documents/Pluralismo_cultural_y_redefinicion_del_estado_en_Mexico.pdf|date=June 16, 2010}} p. 2</ref> pointing out that an alteration so drastic of population trends compared to earlier censuses such as 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%)<ref name="aleph" /> is not possible.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Anchondo |first1=Sandra |last2=de Haro |first2=Martha |title=El mestizaje es un mito, la identidad cultural sí importa |trans-title=Miscegenation is a myth, cultural identity does matter |url=http://istmo.mx/2016/07/04/el-mestizaje-es-un-mito-la-identidad-cultural-si-importa/ |magazine=ISTMO |publisher=IPADE Business School |access-date=June 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20171010154747/http://istmo.mx/2016/07/04/el-mestizaje-es-un-mito-la-identidad-cultural-si-importa/ |archive-date=October 10, 2017 |language=es |date=July 4, 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="MexicoRacista1">{{cite book|first=Federico|last=Navarrete Linares|title=Mexico Racista|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FC_4CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT86|access-date=February 23, 2018|date=2016|publisher=Penguin Random house Grupo Editorial Mexico|isbn=9786073143646|page=86|archive-date=September 27, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927200437/https://books.google.com/books?id=FC_4CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT86#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

Another factor to consider is that the term mestizo since 1930 is not a racial identity but a cultural one since all Mexicans who did not speak indigenous languages were classified as mestizos by the government, so under this definition it is possible for a Mexican to be simultaneously "culturally" mestizo and "racially" indigenous, white, black etc. Traditionally, Mexico has defined itself as a multicultural nation or as José Vasconcelos (1925) said, the "melting pot of all races" both culturally and ethnically.<ref>{{Cite book |title=La Raza Cósmica |year=1925}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lara |first1=Fernando Luiz |last2=Hernández |first2=Felipe |title=Spatial Concepts for Decolonizing the Americas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F9BJEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA139 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars |page=141 |publication-date=19 October 2021 |isbn=978-1-5275-7653-7}}</ref> 

<gallery mode="nolines" widths="300" heights="280" style="text-align:center;" caption="Maps of ethnic groups in Mexico (2020 census)">
File:Distribution_of_indigenous_people_in_Mexico,_2020.svg|alt=|[[Indigenous Mexicans]]
File:Distribution_of_afro_descendant_people_in_Mexico,_2020.svg|alt=|[[Black Mexicans]]
</gallery>

===Mestizo Mexicans===
{{main|Mestizos in Mexico}}
[[File:General Porfirio Díaz.JPG|thumb|upright|President [[Porfirio Diaz]] was of Mestizo descent.]]
A large majority of Mexicans have been classified as "Mestizos", meaning in modern Mexican usage that they neither identify fully with any indigenous culture nor with a Spanish cultural heritage, but rather identify as having cultural traits incorporating elements from both indigenous and Spanish traditions. By the deliberate efforts of post-revolutionary governments, the "Mestizo identity" was constructed as the base of the modern Mexican national identity, through a process of cultural synthesis referred to as ''mestizaje'' {{IPA|es|mestiˈsaxe|}}. Mexican politicians and reformers such as [[José Vasconcelos]] and [[Manuel Gamio]] were instrumental in building a Mexican national identity upon this concept, <ref name="Wade 1981:32">Wade (1981:32)</ref>{{full citation needed|date=April 2025}}<ref>Knight (1990:78–85)</ref> which were designed with the main goal of "helping" indigenous peoples to achieve the same level of progress as the rest of society by transforming indigenous communities into Mestizo ones, eventually assimilating them into the Mestizo Mexican society.{{sfn|Bartolomé|1996|page=5}}

As the Mestizo identity promoted by the government is more of a cultural identity, it has achieved a strong influence in the country and has caused many people who may not qualify as "Mestizos" in its original sense to be counted as such in Mexico's demographic investigations and censuses, with many people who may be considered "White" being historically classified as Mestizos.<ref name="Lizcano Fernández 2005">{{cite journal |last1=Lizcano Fernández |first1=Francisco |title=Composición Étnica de las Tres Áreas Culturales del Continente Americano al Comienzo del Siglo XXI |trans-title=Ethnic Composition of the Three Cultural Areas of the American Continent at the Beginning of the XXI Century |language=es |journal=Convergencia |date=August 2005 |volume=12 |issue=38 |pages=185–232 |url=http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1405-14352005000200185 |access-date=November 17, 2020 |archive-date=September 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922054604/https://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1405-14352005000200185 |url-status=live }}</ref> A similar situation occurs regarding the distinctions between Indigenous peoples and Mestizos: while the term ''Mestizo'' is sometimes used in English with the meaning of a person with mixed indigenous and European blood, In Mexican society an indigenous person can be considered mestizo.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bartolomé |first1=Miguel Alberto |title=Pluralismo cultural y redefinicioń del estado en México |trans-title=Cultural pluralism and redefinition of the state in Mexico |language=es |date=1996 |publisher=Departamento de Antropologia, Universidade de Brasilia |oclc=605212355 |page=2 |quote=En primer lugar cabe destacar que en México la pertenencia racial no es un indicador relevante ni suficiente para denotar una adscripción étnica específica. [...] Por lo tanto es relativamente factible realizar el llamado tránsito étnico, es decir que un indígena puede llegar a incorporarse al sector mestizo a través de la renuncia a su cultura tradicional y si sus condiciones materiales se lo permiten. }}</ref> and a person with none or a very low percentage of indigenous genetic heritage would be considered fully indigenous either by speaking an indigenous language or by identifying with a particular indigenous cultural heritage.<ref>{{cite book|last=Knight|first=Alan|editor=Richard Graham|title=The Idea of Race in Latin America: 1870–1940|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AjK65boWTxwC&pg=PA73|access-date=July 17, 2013|date=September 1, 2010|publisher=[[University of Texas Press]]|isbn=978-0-292-78888-6|page=73}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Schaefer |editor-first= Richard T. |year=2008|title=Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Society |page=900|publisher=Sage|isbn=978-1-4129-2694-2|quote=In New Spain, there was no strict idea of race (something that continued in Mexico). The Indians that had lost their connections with their communities and had adopted different cultural elements could "pass" and be considered mestizos. The same applied to Blacks and castas.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Wade|first=Peter|title=Race And Ethnicity In Latin America|url=https://archive.org/details/raceethnicityinl0000wade|url-access=registration|access-date=July 17, 2013|date=May 20, 1997|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=978-0-7453-0987-3}}</ref> In certain areas of Mexico the word Mestizo has a different meaning: in the Yucatán peninsula it has been used to refer to the Maya-speaking populations living in traditional communities, because during the caste war of the late 19th century those Maya who did not join the rebellion were classified as Mestizos<ref name="Bartolomé 1996:2"/> whereas in the state of Chiapas the word "Ladino" is used instead of "mestizo".<ref>Wade (1997:44–47)</ref>

[[File:GAE_-_Ajax_-_52787520422_(cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Edson Álvarez|Edson Omar Álvarez]], Mexican football player.]]

Given that the word Mestizo has different meanings in Mexico, estimates of the Mexican Mestizo population vary widely. According to the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', which uses a biology-based approach, around three-fifths of the Mexican population is Mestizo<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Mexico- Ethnic groups|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Mexico/Ethnic-groups|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|access-date=October 1, 2016|archive-date=October 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011224953/https://www.britannica.com/place/Mexico/Ethnic-groups|url-status=live}}</ref> while a culture-based criteria estimates a percentage as high as 90%.<ref name="EL MESTIZAJE Y LAS CULTURAS REGIONALES">{{Cite web|url=http://www.nacionmulticultural.unam.mx/Portal/Izquierdo/BANCO/Mxmulticultural/Elmestizajeylasculturas-elmestizaje.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130823015618/http://www.nacionmulticultural.unam.mx/Portal/Izquierdo/BANCO/Mxmulticultural/Elmestizajeylasculturas-elmestizaje.html|url-status=dead|title=en el censo de 1930 el gobierno mexicano dejó de clasificar a la población del país en tres categorías raciales, blanco, mestizo e indígena, y adoptó una nueva clasificación étnica que distinguía a los hablantes de lenguas indígenas del resto de la población, es decir de los hablantes de español.|archive-date=August 23, 2013}}</ref> Paradoxically, the word "Mestizo" has long been dropped from popular Mexican vocabulary with the word even having pejorative connotations, further complicating attempts to quantify Mestizos via self-identification,{{sfn|Bartolomé|1996|page=2}} recent research based on self-identification indeed has observed that many Mexicans do not identify as mestizos<ref name="Schwartz-Marín & Silva-Zolezzi 2010">{{cite journal |last1=Schwartz-Marín |first1=Ernesto |last2=Silva-Zolezzi |first2=Irma |title="The Map of the Mexican's Genome": overlapping national identity, and population genomics |journal=Identity in the Information Society |date=December 2010 |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=489–514 |doi=10.1007/s12394-010-0074-7 |s2cid=144786737 |doi-access=free |hdl=10871/33766 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> and would not agree to be labeled as such,<ref name="Clute Journals">R. Martínez & C. De La Torre (2008): [https://www.clutejournals.com/index.php/JDM/article/download/4993/5084 "Racial Appearance And Income In Contemporary Mexico, pag 9 note 1"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806021728/https://www.clutejournals.com/index.php/JDM/article/download/4993/5084 |date=August 6, 2021 }}, ''Journal of Diversity Management'', 2008. Retrieved April 1, 2021.</ref> with "static" racial labels such as White, Indian, Black etc. being more commonly used.<ref name="mestizajeenmexico">{{cite web |title=El mestizaje en Mexico |language=es |trans-title=The miscegenation in Mexico |first=Federico |last=Navarrete Linares |url=http://enp4.unam.mx/amc/libro_munioz_cota/libro/cap4/lec10_federiconavarreteelmestizaje.pdf |access-date=July 31, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801102632/http://enp4.unam.mx/amc/libro_munioz_cota/libro/cap4/lec10_federiconavarreteelmestizaje.pdf |archive-date=August 1, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Guadalajara_mariachis.jpg|thumb|A group of mariachi musicians in [[Guadalajara]], [[Jalisco]].]]
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 claimed in 1972 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.<ref name="Población negra de México">{{cite book|author1= Gonzalo Aguirre-Beltran|title=La población negra de México: estudio etnohistórico|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KFsSAQAAIAAJ&q=Euromestizo|access-date=March 13, 2019|date=1972|publisher=Fondo de Cultura Económica|isbn=9789681609122|page=267}}</ref><ref name="ConciseMexico">{{cite book|author1= Michael Werner|title=Concise Encyclopedia of Mexico|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MOI4CQAAQBAJ&q=euromestizo&pg=PA117|access-date=March 13, 2019|date=2001|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135973773|page=117}}</ref> 

Other historians, however, point that Aguirre-Beltran's numbers tend to have inconsistencies and take too many liberties (it is pointed out in the book ''Ensayos sobre historia de la población. México y el Caribe 2'' published in 1998 that on 1646, when according to historic registers the mestizo population was of 1% he estimates it to be 16.6% already, with this being attributed to him interpreting the data in a way convenient for a historic narrative),<ref name="Racismomestizaje">[https://cuadrivio.net/racismo-falso-mestizaje-y-desigualdad-social-en-mexico/ "Racismo, falso mestizaje y desigualdad social en México"]{{Dead link|date=August 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, ''Revista Cuadrivio'', 2016. Retrieved March 13, 2019.</ref><ref name="Mexicosinmestizaje" /> often omitting data of New Spain's northern and western provinces.<ref name="EnsayospoblaciónMéxico2">{{cite book|author1=Sherburne Friend Cook|author2=Woodrow Borah|title=Ensayos sobre historia de la población. México y el Caribe 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSCVztyTANcC&pg=PA188|access-date=March 13, 2019|date=1998|publisher=Siglo XXI|isbn=9789682301063|page=188}}</ref> His self-made classifications thus, although could be plausible, are not useful for precise statistical analysis.<ref name="EnsayospoblaciónMéxico3">{{cite book|author1=Sherburne Friend Cook|author2=Woodrow Borah|title=Ensayos sobre historia de la población. México y el Caribe 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSCVztyTANcC&pg=PA197|access-date=March 13, 2019|date=1998|publisher=Siglo XXI|isbn=9789682301063|page=197}}</ref> 

[[File:Folkloremexicano.jpg|thumb|Mexican folklore in [[La Coruña]], [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]], ([[Spain]]).]]
According 21st-century historians, Aguirre Beltran also disregards facts such as the population dynamics of New Spain being different depending on the region at hand (i.e. miscegenation could not happen in a significant amount in regions where the native population was openly hostile until the early 20th century, such as most of New Spain's internal provinces, which nowadays are the northern and western regions of Mexico),<ref name="Mexicosinmestizaje" /> 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 favoring Europeans for marriage even if they were from a lower socioeconomic level than them being common.<ref name="MinerosYcomerciantes">{{cite book|author1=David A. Branding|author2=Woodrow Borah|title=Mineros y comerciantes en el México borbónico (1763–1810)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LYH_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PT156|access-date=January 27, 2018|date=1975|publisher=Fondo de Cultura Económica|isbn=9789681613402|page=156}}</ref><ref name="Racismomestizaje" /><ref name="Mexicosinmestizaje" /> 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.<ref name="HistoriadeMexico">{{cite book|author1= Gloria M. Delgado de Cantú|title=Historia de Mexico, Legado Historico Y Pasado Reciente|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WbYYZiMANjEC&pg=PA99|access-date=March 13, 2019|date=2004|publisher=Pearson Educación|isbn=9702605237|page=99}}</ref>

===Indigenous peoples===
{{Main|Indigenous peoples of Mexico}}
[[File:BenitoJuarez.jpg|thumb|upright|President [[Benito Juarez]] was of [[Zapotec peoples|Zapotec]] ancestry. He became the first Amerindian president in the Americas.]]

The 2003 [[Ley General de Derechos Lingüísticos de los Pueblos Indígenas|General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples]] recognizes 62 [[languages of Mexico|indigenous languages]] as "national languages" which have the same validity as Spanish in all territories in which they are spoken.<ref name="diputados.gob.mx">[http://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/257.pdf "Ley General de Derechos Lingüísticos de los Pueblos Indígenas"]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080611011220/http://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/257.pdf |date=11 June 2008}}</ref> The recognition of indigenous languages and the protection of indigenous cultures is granted not only to the ethnic groups indigenous to modern-day Mexican territory, but also to other North American indigenous groups that migrated to Mexico from the [[United States]], such as the [[Kikapú]]<ref name="Kikapú">{{cite web|url=http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=1398|title=Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas – México|publisher=National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples|access-date=14 January 2018|archive-date=2007-09-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926233925/http://cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=1398|url-status=dead}}</ref> in the 19th century and those who immigrated from [[Guatemala]] in the 1980s.<ref name="cdi.gob.mx">{{cite web|url=http://cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=1378 |title=Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas – México |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926232909/http://cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=1378 |archive-date=26 September 2007}}</ref> The category of "indígena" (indigenous) in Mexico has been defined based on different criteria throughout history. This means that the percentage of the Mexican population defined as "indigenous" varies according to the definition applied. It can be defined narrowly according to linguistic criteria, including only people that speak an Indigenous language. Based on this criterion, approximately 6.1% of the population is Indigenous.<ref name="2021 est">{{cite web |title=Censo Población y Vivienda 2020 |url=https://www.inegi.org.mx/programas/ccpv/2020/ |website=inegi.org.mx |publisher=INEGI |access-date=January 26, 2021 |archive-date=February 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220214192634/https://www.inegi.org.mx/programas/ccpv/2020/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="inegi1">{{cite web|url=http://www.inegi.gob.mx/est/contenidos/espanol/rutinas/ept.asp?t=mlen01&c=3325 |title=Indicadores seleccionados sobre la población hablante de lengua indígena, 1950 a 2005 |website=Inegi.gob.mx |access-date=December 10, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118010024/http://www.inegi.gob.mx/est/contenidos/espanol/rutinas/ept.asp?t=mlen01&c=3325 |archive-date=January 18, 2012 }}</ref> Nonetheless, activists for the rights of indigenous peoples have referred to the usage of this criterion for census purposes as "statistical genocide."<ref>Knight (1990:73–74)</ref><ref>Bartolomé (1996:3–4)</ref>

[[File:Yalitza Aparicio Oscars 2019.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Actress [[Yalitza Aparicio]], daughter of a [[Mixtec]] father and [[Triqui]] mother.]]
Other surveys made by the Mexican government do count as Indigenous all persons who speak an indigenous language and people who do not speak indigenous languages nor live in indigenous communities but self-identify as Indigenous. According to these 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 [[National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Mexico)|INEGI]] (Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography), state that there are 15.7&nbsp;million indigenous people in Mexico of many different ethnic groups,<ref name="CDI1">{{cite web |url=http://www.cdi.gob.mx/cedulas/sintesis_resultados_2005.pdf |title=Síntesis de Resultados |publisher=Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas |year=2006 |access-date=December 22, 2010 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192903/http://www.cdi.gob.mx/cedulas/sintesis_resultados_2005.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> which constitute 14.9% of the population in the country,<ref>Defined as persons who live in a household where an indigenous language is spoken by one of the adult family members, and or people who self identified as indigenous ("Criteria del hogar: De esta manera, se establece, que los hogares indígenas son aquellos en donde el jefe y/o el cónyuge y/o padre o madre del jefe y/o suegro o suegra del jefe hablan una lengua indígena y también aquellos que declararon pertenecer a un grupo indígena."[http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=272&Itemid=58] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191225095213/http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=272&Itemid=58|date=December 25, 2019}})AND persons who speak an indigenous language but who do not live in such a household (Por lo antes mencionado, la Comisión Nacional Para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas de México (CDI) considera población indígena (PI) a todas las personas que forman parte de un hogar indígena, donde el jefe(a) del hogar, su cónyuge y/o alguno de los ascendientes (madre o padre, madrastra o padrastro, abuelo(a), bisabuelo(a), tatarabuelo(a), suegro(a)) declaro ser hablante de lengua indígena. Además, también incluye a personas que declararon hablar alguna lengua indígena y que no forman parte de estos hogares [http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=38&Itemid=54] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501220616/http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=38&Itemid=54|date=May 1, 2011}})</ref> with 1.2% not speaking Spanish.<ref>{{cite web|title=Población De 5 Años Y Más Por Entidad Federativa, Sexo Y Grupos Lengua Indígena Quinquenales De Edad, Y Su Distribución Según Condición De Habla Indígena Y Habla Española|publisher=INEGI, México|url=http://www.inegi.gob.mx/prod_serv/contenidos/espanol/bvinegi/productos/censos/poblacion/2000/definitivos/Nal/tabulados/00li01.pdf|access-date=December 13, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080102103605/http://www.inegi.gob.mx/prod_serv/contenidos/espanol/bvinegi/productos/censos/poblacion/2000/definitivos/Nal/tabulados/00li01.pdf|archive-date=January 2, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cdi.gob.mx|title=Comision Nacional Para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indigenas – México|website=Cdi.gob.mx|access-date=August 29, 2017|archive-date=January 17, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117013050/http://www.cdi.gob.mx/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The states with the greatest percentage of people who speak an Amerindian language or identify as Amerindian are [[Yucatán]] (59%), [[Oaxaca]] (48%), [[Quintana Roo]] (39%), [[Chiapas]] (28%), [[Campeche]] (27%), [[Hidalgo (state)|Hidalgo]] (24%), [[Puebla]] (19%), [[Guerrero]] (17%), [[San Luis Potosí]] (15%) and [[Veracruz]] (15%). Oaxaca is the state with the greatest number of distinct indigenous peoples and languages in the country.
{| class="wikitable floatright" style="width: 22em; font-size: 85%; text-align: left;"
|+Largest indigenous peoples<ref>Source: CDI (2000) [http://cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=660] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190915035252/http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=660|date=September 15, 2019}}</ref>
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center" | ''Mayas in [[Chiapas]]''
|-
! style="background:#efefef;" align="center" | Group
! style="background:#efefef;" align="center" | Number
|-
|[[Nahua peoples]] (Nawatlaka)
| align="right" |2,445,969
|-
|[[Maya peoples|Maya]] (Maaya)
| align="right" |1,475,575
|-
|[[Zapotec peoples|Zapotec]] (Binizaa)
| align="right" |777,253
|-
|[[Mixtec]] (Ñuu sávi)
| align="right" |726,601
|-
|[[Otomi people|Otomí]] (Hñähñü)
| align="right" |646,875
|-
|[[Totonac]] (Tachihuiin)
| align="right" |411,266
|}

The latest intercensal survey carried out by the Mexican government in 2015 reports that 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.<ref name="beta.inegi.org.mx">[http://www.beta.inegi.org.mx/contenidos/proyectos/enchogares/especiales/intercensal/2015/doc/eic2015_resultados.pdf "Encuesta Intercensal 2015"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170422033628/http://www.beta.inegi.org.mx/contenidos/proyectos/enchogares/especiales/intercensal/2015/doc/eic2015_resultados.pdf |date=April 22, 2017 }}, "[[INEGI]]", Mexico, December 2015. Retrieved April 28, 2017.</ref> Finally, according to the 2020 national Mexican census, 19.4% of the population self-identified as Indigenous<ref name="2020 Census">{{cite web |title=Censo Población y Vivienda 2020 |url=https://www.inegi.org.mx/programas/ccpv/2020/ |publisher=INEGI |access-date=26 January 2021 |archive-date=14 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220214192634/https://www.inegi.org.mx/programas/ccpv/2020/ |url-status=live}}</ref> and 11.8 million people, or 9.36% of the Mexican population lived in what is designated as "Indigenous households" (households where someone spoke an indigenous language).<ref name="Censo2020">{{Cite web |title=Informeanual sobre la situación de pobreza y rezago social 2022 |trans-title=Annual report on the situation of poverty and social backwardness 2022 |url=https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/696544/15_MEX.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240118155757/https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/696544/15_MEX.pdf |archive-date=January 18, 2024 |url-status=live |website=[[Secretariat of Welfare]] |access-date=October 7, 2024}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="float: center;"
|-
! colspan="8" |Percentage of population aged 3 years or older that considers themselves Indigenous by state (2020 census)
|-
! State
! Percentage
|-
! colspan="8" |{{color|green|Between 50% and 100%}}
|-
||{{flagicon|Oaxaca}} [[Oaxaca]]|| 69.2%
|-
||{{flagicon|Yucatán}} [[Yucatán]]|| 65.2%
|-
! colspan="8" |{{color|#0BDA51|Between 20% and 50%}}
|-
||{{flagicon|Campeche}} [[Campeche]]|| 47.3%
|-
||{{flagicon|Chiapas}} [[Chiapas]]|| 36.8%
|-
||{{flagicon|Hidalgo}} [[Estado de Hidalgo|Hidalgo]]|| 36.7%
|-
||{{flagicon|Quintana Roo}} [[Quintana Roo]]|| 33.2%
|-
||{{flagicon|Puebla}} [[Puebla]]|| 33.2%
|-
||{{flagicon|Guerrero}} [[Guerrero]]|| 33.1%
|-
||{{flagicon|Veracruz}} [[Veracruz]]|| 26.9%
|-
||{{flagicon|Morelos}} [[Morelos]]|| 24.5%
|-
||{{flagicon|Tabasco}} [[Tabasco]]|| 21.4%
|-
||{{flagicon|Michoacán}} [[Michoacán]]|| 20.8%
|-
||{{flagicon|San Luis Potosí}} [[San Luis Potosí]]|| 20.3%
|-
! colspan="8" |{{color|#FAD201|Between 10% and 20%}}
|-
! scope="row" |{{flagicon|Mexico}} '''[[United Mexican States]]'''|| '''19.4%'''
|-
||{{flagicon|Tlaxcala}} [[Tlaxcala]]|| 16.5%
|-
||{{flagicon|Nayarit}} [[Nayarit]]|| 15.9%
|-
||{{flagicon|Estado de México}} [[Estado de México|México]]|| 15.7%
|-
||{{flagicon|Sonora}} [[Sonora]]|| 13.3%
|-
||{{flagicon|Colima}} [[Colima]]|| 13.2%
|-
||{{flagicon|Querétaro}} [[Querétaro]]|| 13.2%
|-
||{{flagicon|Baja California Sur}} [[Baja California Sur]]|| 11.9%
|-
||{{flagicon|Chihuahua}} [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua]]|| 10.5%
|-
! colspan="8" |{{color|orange|Between 5% and 10%}}
|-
||{{flagicon|Sinaloa}} [[Sinaloa]]|| 9.4%
|-
||{{flagicon|Ciudad de México}} [[Mexico City]]|| 9.3%
|-
||{{flagicon|Durango}} [[Durango]]|| 8.9%
|-
||{{flagicon|Baja California}} [[Baja California]]|| 8.0%
|-
||{{flagicon|Jalisco}} [[Jalisco]]|| 7.0%
|-
||{{flagicon|Tamaulipas}} [[Tamaulipas]]|| 6.7%
|-
||{{flagicon|Nuevo León}} [[Nuevo León]]|| 6.4%
|-
||{{flagicon|Guanajuato}} [[Guanajuato]]|| 6.4%
|-
||{{flagicon|Aguascalientes}} [[Aguascalientes]]|| 6.2%
|-
! colspan="8" |{{color|red|Between 0% and 5%}}
|-
||{{flagicon|Zacatecas}} [[Zacatecas]]|| 4.9%
|-
||{{flagicon|Coahuila}} [[Coahuila]]|| 2.1%
|-
| colspan="8" style="text-align:left;" |<small>Source: Mexican census 2020 [[Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía|INEGI]].<ref name="2020 Census" /></small>
|}

===White Mexicans===
{{main|White Mexicans}}
[[File:Retrato de familia Fagoaga Arozqueta - Anónimo ca.1730.jpg|thumb|An 18th-century portrait of the Fagoaga Arozqueta family, an upper-class family of [[Basque people|Basque]] descent from Mexico City.]]

White Mexicans are [[Mexicans]] of total or predominantly [[Europe|European]] or [[West Asia|West Asian]] ancestry.<ref name="nacionmulticultural.unam.mx">[http://www.nacionmulticultural.unam.mx/Portal/Izquierdo/BANCO/Mxmulticultural/Elmestizajeylasculturas-elmestizaje.html en el año de 1808 aproximadamente el 60% de la población de lo que sería México pertenecía a la categoría étnica de indígena, el 18% eran europeos o de origen europeo (de los cuales la inmensa mayoría eran criollos nacidos en México)] {{webarchive| url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130823015618/http://www.nacionmulticultural.unam.mx/Portal/Izquierdo/BANCO/Mxmulticultural/Elmestizajeylasculturas-elmestizaje.html |date=August 23, 2013 }}.</ref> Spaniards and other 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 [[Ethnic groups in Europe|European immigrants]] and the native [[Indigenous peoples of Mexico|Indigenous peoples]] would produce a Mestizo group which would become the overwhelming majority of Mexico's population by the time of the [[Mexican Revolution]].<ref name="fnavarrete">{{cite web |url= http://www.nacionmulticultural.unam.mx/Portal/Izquierdo/BANCO/Mxmulticultural/Elmestizajeylasculturas-elmestizaje.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130823015618/http://www.nacionmulticultural.unam.mx/Portal/Izquierdo/BANCO/Mxmulticultural/Elmestizajeylasculturas-elmestizaje.html |archive-date= August 23, 2013 |title=El mestizaje y las culturas |first=Federico |last=Navarrete |work=México Multicultural |publisher=[[UNAM]] |location=Mexico |language=es |trans-title=Mixed race and cultures |access-date=July 19, 2011 }}</ref> However, according to church registers from the [[Viceroyalty of New Spain|colonial times]], the majority 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<ref name="EnsayospoblaciónMéxico">{{cite book|author1=Sherburne Friend Cook|author2=Woodrow Borah|title=Ensayos sobre historia de la población. México y el Caribe 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSCVztyTANcC&pg=PA223|access-date=September 12, 2017|date=1998|publisher=Siglo XXI|isbn=9789682301063|page=223|archive-date=September 27, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927200437/https://books.google.com/books?id=DSCVztyTANcC&pg=PA223#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Hardin |first1=Monica Leagans |title=Household and Family in Guadalajara, Mexico, 1811 1842: The Process of Short Term Mobility and Persistence |year=2006 |url=http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-4271 |page=62 |access-date=November 17, 2020 |archive-date=December 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201206200746/http://fsu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fsu:182427 |url-status=live }}</ref> as there were menial workers and people in poverty who were of complete Spanish origin.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=San Miguel |first1=G. |title=Ser mestizo en la nueva España a fines del siglo XVIII: Acatzingo, 1792 |trans-title=To be 'mestizo' in New Spain at the end of the XVIIIth century. Acatzingo, 1792 |language=es |journal=Cuadernos de la Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales. Universidad Nacional de Jujuy |date=November 2000 |issue=13 |pages=325–342 |url=http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1668-81042000000100018 |access-date=September 26, 2018 |archive-date=October 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023172608/http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1668-81042000000100018 |url-status=live }}</ref> This ethnic group contrasts with the Afro-Mexican and Indigenous Mexican groups in the fact that phenotype (hair color, skin color etc.) is often used as the main criterion to delineate it.<ref name=huffpost>[https://www.huffingtonpost.com.mx/2017/06/26/por-estas-razones-el-color-de-piel-de-los-mexicanos-determina-su_a_23001217/ "Por estas razones el color de piel determina las oportunidades de los mexicanos"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622011146/https://www.huffingtonpost.com.mx/2017/06/26/por-estas-razones-el-color-de-piel-de-los-mexicanos-determina-su_a_23001217/ |date=June 22, 2018 }}, ''Huffington post'', July 26, 2017. Retrieved April 30, 2018.</ref><ref name=Universal>[http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/articulo/nacion/sociedad/2017/06/16/presenta-inegi-estudio-que-relaciona-color-de-piel-con "Presenta INEGI estudio que relaciona color de piel con oportunidades"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180501102534/http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/articulo/nacion/sociedad/2017/06/16/presenta-inegi-estudio-que-relaciona-color-de-piel-con |date=May 1, 2018 }}, ''El Universal'', June 16, 2017. Retrieved April 30, 2018.</ref><ref name="nacionmulticultural.unam.mx"/>

[[File:Ricardo Peralta (NASA photo).jpg|left|thumb|upright|[[Ricardo Peralta y Fabi]] mechanical engineer and former astronaut trainee.]]

Estimates of Mexico's white population differ greatly in both, methodology and percentages given, extra-official sources such as [[The World Factbook]] or Latinobarómetro which use the 1921 census results as the base of their estimations calculate this population as only 10%,<ref name=CIA-Factbook>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/mexico/|title=The World Factbook: North America: Mexico: People and Society|publisher=The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)|quote=mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 62%, predominantly Amerindian 21%, Amerindian 7%, other 10% (mostly European)|access-date=August 23, 2017|archive-date=January 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126164719/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/mexico|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Latinobarometro |url=https://www.latinobarometro.org/lat.jsp |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=www.latinobarometro.org}}</ref> the results of the 1921 census however, have been contested by various historians and are deemed inaccurate nowadays.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Federico |last1=Navarrete|title=Mexico Racista|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FC_4CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT86|access-date=23 February 2018|date=2016|publisher=Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Mexico|isbn=9786073143646|page=86|archive-date=27 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927200437/https://books.google.com/books?id=FC_4CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT86#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>  Field surveys that use the presence of blond hair as reference to classify a Mexican as white such as one by the [[Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana|Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico]] calculated the percentage of said ethnic group at 23%,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ortiz-Hernández |first1=Luis |last2=Compeán-Dardón |first2=Sandra |last3=Verde-Flota |first3=Elizabeth |last4=Flores-Martínez |first4=Maricela Nanet |title=Racism and mental health among university students in Mexico City |journal=Salud Pública de México |date=April 2011 |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=125–133 |doi=10.1590/S0036-36342011000200005 |pmid=21537803 |doi-access=free }}</ref> 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%).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Villarreal |first1=Andrés |title=Stratification by Skin Color in Contemporary Mexico |journal=American Sociological Review |year=2010 |volume=75 |issue=5 |pages=652–678 |doi=10.1177/0003122410378232 |jstor=20799484 |s2cid=145295212 }}</ref> Another study made by the [[University College London]] in collaboration with Mexico's [[Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia|National Institute of Anthropology and History]] found that the frequencies of blond hair and light eyes in Mexicans are of 18% and 28% respectively,<ref name="Ruiz-Linares et al, 2014"/> surveys that use as reference skin color such as those made by Mexico's [[National Council to Prevent Discrimination]] and the [[National Institute of Statistics and Geography]] reporting results that estimate them at about one-third of the country's population.<ref name=ENADIS2017-1>{{cite web |url=http://www.cndh.org.mx/sites/all/doc/OtrosDocumentos/Doc_2018_061.pdf |title=Encuesta Nacional sobre Discriminación 2017 |work=CNDH |date=6 August 2018 |access-date=10 August 2018 |archive-date=10 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810235454/http://www.cndh.org.mx/sites/all/doc/OtrosDocumentos/Doc_2018_061.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.conapred.org.mx/documentos_cedoc/21_Marzo_DiaIntElimDiscRacial_INACCSS.pdf|title=21 de Marzo: Día Internacional de la Eliminación de la Discriminación Racial|trans-title=21 March: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination|language=es|publisher=[[National Council to Prevent Discrimination|CONAPRED]]|location=Mexico|page=7|date=2017|access-date=23 August 2017|archive-date=25 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525133622/http://www.conapred.org.mx/documentos_cedoc/21_Marzo_DiaIntElimDiscRacial_INACCSS.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="conapred.org.mx">{{cite web |title=Encuesta Nacional Sobre Discriminación en Mexico |work=CONAPRED |place=Mexico |date=June 2011 |url=http://www.conapred.org.mx/userfiles/files/Enadis-2010-RG-Accss-002.pdf |access-date=28 April 2017 |archive-date=8 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108095738/http://www.conapred.org.mx/userfiles/files/Enadis-2010-RG-Accss-002.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="DISC-RACIAL 2011">{{cite web |title=Documento Informativo Sobre Discriminación Racial en México |url=http://www.conapred.org.mx/documentos_cedoc/Dossier%20DISC-RACIAL.pdf |work=CONAPRED |place=Mexico |date=21 March 2011 |access-date=28 April 2017 |archive-date=25 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525133620/http://www.conapred.org.mx/documentos_cedoc/Dossier%20DISC-RACIAL.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="MMSI2">{{cite web |title=Visión INEGI 2021 Julio Santaella Castell |url=http://bibliodigitalibd.senado.gob.mx/bitstream/handle/123456789/3525/JASC%2520IBD%2520MMSI%25202016%2520V1.0.pdf?sequence=6&isAllowed=y |work=INEGI |date=3 July 2017 |access-date=30 April 2018 |archive-date=21 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190121234012/http://bibliodigitalibd.senado.gob.mx/bitstream/handle/123456789/3525/JASC%2520IBD%2520MMSI%25202016%2520V1.0.pdf?sequence=6&isAllowed=y |url-status=live}}</ref>

A study performed in hospitals of Mexico City suggests that socioeconomic factors influence the frequency of [[Mongolian spot]]s among newborns, as evidenced by the higher prevalence of 85% in newborns from a public institution, typically associated with lower socioeconomic status, compared to a 33% prevalence in newborns from private hospitals, which generally cater to families with higher socioeconomic status.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Magaña |first1=Mario |last2=Valerio |first2=Julia |last3=Mateo |first3=Adriana |last4=Magaña-Lozano |first4=Mario |title=Alteraciones cutáneas del neonato en dos grupos de población de México |trans-title=Skin lesions two cohorts of newborns in Mexico City |language=es |journal=Boletín médico del Hospital Infantil de México |date=April 2005 |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=117–122 |url=http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1665-11462005000200005 |access-date=March 13, 2019 |archive-date=June 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210630042947/http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1665-11462005000200005 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Mongolian spot appears with a very high frequency (85–95%) in Asian, Native American, and African children.<ref>{{cite book|page=90| edition=3, illustrated|year=1999|access-date=May 17, 2014|publisher=Lippincott Williams & Wilkins| author=Miller| title=Nursing Care of Older Adults: Theory and Practice| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nJ3pBEh1osMC&q=ines+mongolian+spot|isbn=978-0781720762}}</ref> The skin lesion reportedly almost always appears on South American<ref name="med">{{EMedicine| article| 1068732|Congenital Dermal Melanocytosis (Mongolian Spot)}}</ref> and Mexican children who are racially [[Mestizo]]s,<ref>{{cite book|page=197|year=2012|access-date=May 17, 2014| publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|editor1=Lawrence C. Parish|editor2=Larry E. Millikan| others=M. Amer, R.A.C. Graham-Brown, S.N. Klaus, J.L. Pace|title=Global Dermatology: Diagnosis and Management According to Geography, Climate, and Culture| url=https://books.google.com/books?jid=2JXwBwAAQBAJ&q=spanish+mongolian+spot&pg=PA197|isbn=978-1461226147}}</ref> while having a very low frequency (5–10%) in Caucasian children.<ref name="tokyo">{{cite web|url=http://www.tokyo-med.ac.jp/genet/msp/about.htm|title=About Mongolian Spot|work=tokyo-med.ac.jp|access-date=October 1, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081208184218/http://www.tokyo-med.ac.jp/genet/msp/about.htm|archive-date=December 8, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> According to the [[Mexican Social Security Institute]] (shortened as IMSS) nationwide, around half of Mexican babies have the Mongolian spot.<ref>[http://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/822893.html "Tienen manchas mongólicas 50% de bebés"] {{Webarchive| url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200601130338/https://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/822893.html |date=June 1, 2020 }}, ''El Universal'', January 2012. Retrieved July 3, 2017.</ref>

[[File:DeniseDresserG.JPG|thumb|left|175px|[[Denise Dresser]] is a prominent Mexican political scientist, author, and commentator.]]

Mexico's northern and western regions have the highest percentages of [[White people|white]] population, with the majority of the people not having native admixture or being of predominantly European ancestry.<ref name="UnitedStatesandMexico">{{cite book|author1=Howard F. Cline|title=THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ybZVAAAAMAAJ&q=well+built|access-date=May 18, 2017|date=1963|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|isbn=9780674497061|page=104|archive-date=May 27, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230527215846/https://books.google.com/books?id=ybZVAAAAMAAJ&q=well+built|url-status=live}}</ref> In the north and west of Mexico the indigenous tribes were substantially smaller and unlike those found in central and southern Mexico they were mostly nomadic, therefore remaining isolated from colonial population centers, with hostilities between them and Mexican colonists often taking place.<ref name="MesoZac">[https://www.mesoweb.com/es/articulos/sub/Zacatecas.pdf "Nómadas y sedentarios, El pasado prehispánico de Zacatecas"], ''Mesoweb'', Mexico, page 10, retrieved on July 7, 2024.</ref> This eventually led the northeast region of the country to become the region with the highest proportion of whites during the [[Viceroyalty of New Spain|Spanish colonial period]] albeit recent migration waves have been changing its demographic trends.<ref name="Transición">[https://paradigmaeconomico.uaemex.mx/article/download/22617/16871/ "Transición migratoria y demográfica de México. Nuevos patrones"], page 17, retrieved on September 12, 2024.</ref>

[[File:Mennonite Family - Campeche - Mexico - 02.jpg|thumb|A [[Mennonite]] family in Campeche.]]
While the majority of European immigration to Mexico has been Spanish with the first wave starting with the colonization of America and the last one being a consequence of the [[Spanish Civil War]] of 1937,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyenespanol.com/espanol/tdih.jsp?day=15329380&month=15329369|title=History TV Schedule – History|website=Historyenespanol.com|access-date=August 29, 2017|archive-date=March 15, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315033101/http://www.historyenespanol.com/espanol/tdih.jsp?day=15329380&month=15329369|url-status=live}}</ref> immigrants from other European countries have arrived to Mexico as well. During the [[Second Mexican Empire]], the immigration was mostly French. Then, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, spurred by government policies of [[Porfirio Díaz]], migrants came mainly from Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, taking advantage of the liberal policies then valid in Mexico, and went into merchant, industrial and educational ventures while others arrived with no or limited capital, as employees or farmers.<ref name="DuránMerk2012">{{cite conference |last1=Durán-Merk |first1=Alma J. |date=July 2012 |title=European migrants as 'ambassadors of modernization'? The case of the Germans in Yucatán during the henequen boom |conference=54th International Congress of Americanists |url=https://opus.bibliothek.uni-augsburg.de/opus4/2545 |access-date=April 2, 2021 |archive-date=September 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927200444/https://opus.bibliothek.uni-augsburg.de/opus4/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2545 |url-status=live }}</ref> Most settled in Mexico City, Veracruz, Yucatán, and [[Puebla]]. Significant numbers of German immigrants also arrived during and after the First and Second World Wars.<ref name="Palma Mora 2005">{{cite journal |last1=Palma Mora |first1=Mónica |title=Asociaciones de inmigrantes extranjeros en la ciudad de México: Una mirada a fines del siglo XX |trans-title=Associations of foreign immigrants in Mexico City: A look at the end of the 20th century |language=es |journal=Migraciones Internacionales |date=December 2005 |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=29–57 |url=http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1665-89062005000200002 |access-date=November 17, 2020 |archive-date=December 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201206192159/http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1665-89062005000200002 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="religiosa">{{cite journal |last1=Enciso |first1=Fernando S. Alanís |title=Los extranjeros en México, la inmigración y el gobierno: ¿tolerncia o intolerancia religiosa?, 1821–1830 |trans-title=Foreigners in Mexico, immigration, and the government: religious tolerance or intolerance?, 1821–1830 |language=es |journal=Historia Mexicana |year=1996 |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=539–566 |jstor=25139003 }}</ref> Additionally, small numbers of White Americans, Croats, Greeks, Poles, Romanians, Russians, and [[Ashkenazi Jews]] came.<ref name="religiosa" /> The European Jewish immigrants joined the [[Sephardic]] community that lived in Mexico since colonial times, though many lived as [[Crypto-Judaism|Crypto-Jews]], mostly in the northern states of [[Nuevo León]] and [[Tamaulipas]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gitlitz |first1=David |title=Nexos entre los cripto-judíos coloniales y contemporáneos |trans-title=Nexus between colonial and contemporary crypto-Jews |language=es |journal=Revista de humanidades: Tecnológico de Monterrey |volume=5 |year=1998 |pages=187–212 }}</ref> Some communities of European immigrants have remained isolated from the rest of the general population since their arrival, among them the German-speaking [[Russian Mennonite|Mennonites from Russia]] of [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua]] and [[Durango]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.purochihuahua.com/menonitas.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040606191931/http://www.purochihuahua.com/menonitas.html |archive-date=June 6, 2004 |title=Los Menones de Chihuahua |website=Puro Chihuahua |language=es}}</ref> and the [[Veneto]]s of [[Chipilo]], Puebla<!-- DO NOT LINK, see [[MOS:GEOLINK]] for further guidance -->, which have retained their original languages.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Venetan/Dialects/Chipilo.html|title=El dialecto veneto de Chipilo |first=Eduardo|last=Montagner|website=Orbilat.com|access-date=April 3, 2007|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110606110821/http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Venetan/Dialects/Chipilo.html |archive-date=June 6, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Afro-Mexicans===
{{See also|Afro-Mexicans}}
[[File:Vicente Ramón Guerrero Saldaña.png|left|upright|alt=Painting of Vicente Guerrero, major figure during the late Mexican War of Independence, abolitionist and second President of Mexico, was an Afro-Mexican.|thumb|[[Vicente Guerrero]], major figure during the late Mexican War of Independence and second President of Mexico, was an Afro-descendent. His father was [[Mestizos in Mexico|Mestizo]] and his mother was [[Afro-Mexicans|Black]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Vincent|first=Theodore G|title=The Legacy of Vicente Guerrero, Mexico's First Black Indian President|year=2001|publisher=University Press of Florida|isbn=978-0-8130-2422-6}}</ref>]]

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, Veracruz|Yanga]]) and in some towns in northern Mexico, mainly in [[Múzquiz Municipality]], Coahuila. The existence of individuals of Sub-Saharan African descent in Mexico has its origins in the slave trade that took place during colonial times and that did not end until 1829 after the consummation of the Mexican independence. The institution was not as prominent as elsewhere in the Americas and was already in decay by the late 1700s, which led to the number of free black people eventually surpassing that of enslaved ones. Although Mexico did not abolish slavery immediately after independence, the expansion of Anglo-American settlement in Texas with their Black slaves became a point of contention between the US and Mexico. The northern territory had been claimed by the [[Spanish Empire]] but not settled beyond a few missions. The Mexican government saw a solution to the problem of Indian attacks in the north by inviting immigration by US Americans. Rather than settling in the territory contested by northern Indian groups, the Anglo-Americans and their Black slaves established farming in eastern Texas, contiguous to US territory in Louisiana. Mexican President [[Anastasio Bustamante]], concerned that the US would annex Texas, sought to limit Anglo-American immigration in 1830 and mandated no new slaves in the territory.<ref>Menchaca, Martha. ''Recovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans''. Austin: University of Texas Press 2001.</ref><ref>Henderson, Timothy J. ''A glorious defeat: Mexico and its war with the United States''. New York: Macmillan 2007.</ref>

[[File:Lupita_Nyong'o_by_Gage_Skidmore_4.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Lupita Nyong'o|Lupita Amondi Nyong'o]], Afro-Mexican actress.]] 

Historically, the presence of this ethnic group within the country has been difficult to assess for a number of reasons: their small numbers, heavy intermarriage with other ethnic groups, and Mexico's tradition of defining itself as a Mestizo society or mixing of European and indigenous only.<ref> {{cite web|url=https://minorityrights.org/communities/afro-mexicans/#:~:text=Moreover%2C%20an%20important%20anti%2Ddiscrimination,Mexicans%20as%20an%20ethnic%20group.|title= Afro-Mexicans in Mexico - Minority Rights Group}}</ref> Nowadays this ethnic group also includes people from Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere in the Americas who have been arriving in recent migration waves to the country.<ref name="Transición" />

The majority of Mexico's Afro-descendants are ''Afromestizos'', i.e. "mixed-race".According to the intercensal survey carried out in 2015, 1.2% of the population self-identified as Afro-Mexican<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.inegi.org.mx/est/contenidos/proyectos/encuestas/hogares/especiales/ei2015/doc/panorama_sociodemografico_2015.pdf |date=2015 |title=Panorama sociodemográfico de México |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304103300/http://www.inegi.org.mx/est/contenidos/proyectos/encuestas/hogares/especiales/ei2015/doc/panorama_sociodemografico_2015.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016 |publisher=[[INEGI]]}}</ref> with 64.9% (896,829) of them also identifying as indigenous and 9.3% being speakers of [[Languages of Mexico|indigenous languages]].<ref name="beta.inegi.org.mx" /> In the 2020 census survey carried out by the Mexican government, Afro-Mexicans were reported to make up 2.04% of the country's population.<ref name="2021 est" />

{| class="wikitable" style="float: center;"
|-
! colspan="8" |Percentage of population aged 3 years or older that considers themselves Afro-Mexican by state (2020 census)
|-
! State
! Percentage
|-
! colspan="8" |{{color|#FAD201|Between 5% and 10%}}
|-
||{{flagicon|Guerrero}} [[Guerrero]]|| 8.6%
|-
! colspan="8" |{{color|orange|Between 2.5% and 5%}}
|-
||{{flagicon|Oaxaca}} [[Oaxaca]]|| 4.7%
|-
||{{flagicon|Baja California Sur}} [[Baja California Sur]]|| 3.3%
|-
||{{flagicon|Yucatán}} [[Yucatán]]|| 3.0%
|-
||{{flagicon|Quintana Roo}} [[Quintana Roo]]|| 2.8%
|-
||{{flagicon|Veracruz}} [[Veracruz]]|| 2.7%
|-
! colspan="8" |{{color|red|Between 0% and 2.5%}}
|-
||{{flagicon|Campeche}} [[Campeche]]|| 2.1%
|-
! scope="row" |{{flagicon|Mexico}} '''[[United Mexican States]]'''|| '''2.04%'''
|-
||{{flagicon|Ciudad de México}} [[Ciudad de México|México D. F.]]|| 2.0%
|-
||{{flagicon|San Luis Potosí}} [[San Luis Potosí]]|| 2.0%
|-
||{{flagicon|Coahuila}} [[Morelos]]|| 1.9%
|-
||{{flagicon|Colima}} [[Colima]]|| 1.9%
|-
||{{flagicon|Querétaro}} [[Querétaro]]|| 1.8%
|-
||{{flagicon|Guanajuato}} [[Morelos]]|| 1.8%
|-
||{{flagicon|Estado de México}} [[Estado de México|México]]|| 1.7%
|-
||{{flagicon|Puebla}} [[Puebla]]|| 1.7%
|-
||{{flagicon|Baja California}} [[Baja California]]|| 1.7%
|-
||{{flagicon|Nuevo León}} [[Nuevo León]]|| 1.7%
|-
||{{flagicon|Jalisco}} [[Jalisco]]|| 1.7%
|-
||{{flagicon|Chihuahua}} [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua]]|| 1.6%
|-
||{{flagicon|Hidalgo}} [[Hidalgo (state)|Hidalgo]]|| 1.6%
|-
||{{flagicon|Aguascalientes}} [[Aguascalientes]]|| 1.6%
|-
||{{flagicon|Tabasco}} [[Tabasco]]|| 1.6%
|-
||{{flagicon|Michoacán}} [[Michoacán]]|| 1.5%
|-
||{{flagicon|Sonora}} [[Sonora]]|| 1.5%
|-
||{{flagicon|Coahuila}} [[Coahuila]]|| 1.5%
|-
||{{flagicon|Sinaloa}} [[Sinaloa]]|| 1.4%
|-
||{{flagicon|Tlaxcala}} [[Tlaxcala]]|| 1.3%
|-
||{{flagicon|Tamaulipas}} [[Tamaulipas]]|| 1.2%
|-
||{{flagicon|Chiapas}} [[Chiapas]]|| 1.0%
|-
||{{flagicon|Zacatecas}} [[Zacatecas]]|| 1.0%
|-
||{{flagicon|Durango}} [[Durango]]|| 0.9%
|-
||{{flagicon|Nayarit}} [[Nayarit]]|| 0.8%
|-
| colspan="8" style="text-align:left;" |<small>Source: Mexican census 2020 [[Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía|INEGI]].<ref name="2020 Census" /></small>
|}

===Arab Mexicans===
{{Main|Arab Mexicans}}
[[File:Susana_Harp_en_CU.jpg|thumb|left|[[Susana Harp]] Mexican singer and currently serves as a senator.]]
An Arab Mexican is a Mexican citizen of [[Arabic]]-speaking origin who can be of various ancestral origins. The vast majority of Mexico's 1.1 million Arabs are from either Lebanese, Syrian, Iraqi, or [[Palestine (region)|Palestinian]] background.<ref name=Ita2005>{{cite journal |last1=Ita |first1=Rosa E. Garcia |title=Los árabes de México: Asimilación y herencia cultural |trans-title=The Arabs of Mexico. Assimilation and cultural heritage |language=es |journal=CONfines de relaciones internacionales y ciencia política |date=December 2005 |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=107–109 |url=http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1870-35692005000200010 |access-date=November 17, 2020 |archive-date=December 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201206192216/http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1870-35692005000200010 |url-status=live }}</ref> Immigration of Arabs in Mexico has influenced Mexican culture, in particular food, where they have introduced [[Kibbeh]], [[Tabbouleh]] and even created recipes such as ''[[Tacos Árabes]]''. By 1765, [[Phoenix dactylifera|Dates]], which originated from the Middle East, were introduced into Mexico by the Spaniards.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rivera |first1=D. |last2=Johnson |first2=D. |last3=Delgadillo |first3=J. |last4=Carrillo |first4=M. H. |last5=Obón |first5=C. |last6=Krueger |first6=R. |last7=Alcaraz |first7=F. |last8=Ríos |first8=S. |last9=Carreño |first9=E. |title=Historical evidence of the Spanish introduction of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L., Arecaceae) into the Americas |journal=Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution |year=2012 |volume=60 |issue=4 |pages=1437–1439, 1444–1445 |doi=10.1007/s10722-012-9932-5 |s2cid=24146736 |url=https://pubag.nal.usda.gov/download/60761/pdf |access-date=May 8, 2022 |archive-date=June 16, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616052526/https://pubag.nal.usda.gov/download/60761/pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> The fusion between Arab and Mexican food has highly influenced the [[Yucatán (state)|Yucatecan]] cuisine.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.discoverymexico.com/Culture/Arab-Influence-in-Yucatecan-Cuisine/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080316235742/http://www.discoverymexico.com/Culture/Arab-Influence-in-Yucatecan-Cuisine/|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 16, 2008|title=Arab Influence in Yucatecan Cuisine – Mexico Culture – Arab Influence in Yucatecan Cuisine, Culture|date=March 16, 2008|website=Discoverymexico.com|access-date=August 29, 2017}}</ref>
[[File:Carlos_Slim_Helú.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Engineer [[Carlos Slim]]]]
Arab immigration to Mexico started in the 19th and early 20th centuries.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Velcamp|first=Theresa Alfaro|year=2005|title=Review of Arab Immigration in Mexico in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Assimilation and Arab Heritage: A Century of Palestinian Immigration into Central America: A Study of Their Economic and Cultural Contributions, Roberto Marín-Guzmán|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3879733|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|volume=37|issue=2|pages=266–269|doi=10.1017/S0020743805232063|jstor=3879733|issn=0020-7438|access-date=January 20, 2021|archive-date=January 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127231239/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3879733|url-status=live}}</ref> Roughly 100,000 Arabic-speakers settled in Mexico during this time period. They came mostly from [[Lebanon]], Syria, [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], and [[Iraq]] and settled in significant numbers in [[Nayarit]], [[Puebla]], Mexico City and the northern part of the country (mainly in the states of [[Baja California]], [[Tamaulipas]], [[Nuevo León]], [[Sinaloa]], Chihuahua, [[Coahuila]], and [[Durango]], as well as the city of [[Tampico]] and [[Guadalajara]]. During the 1948 Israel-Lebanon war and the Six-Day War, thousands of Lebanese left [[Lebanon]] for Mexico. They first arrived in [[Veracruz]]. Although Arabs made up less than 5% of the total immigrant population in Mexico during the 1930s, they constituted half of the immigrant economic activity.<ref name=Ita2005/> Another concentration of Arab-Mexicans is in [[Baja California]] facing the U.S.-Mexican border, esp. in cities of [[Mexicali, Baja California|Mexicali]] in the [[Imperial Valley (California)|Imperial Valley]] U.S./Mexico, and [[Tijuana, Baja California|Tijuana]] across from San Diego with a large [[Arab American]] community (about 280,000), some of whose families have relatives in Mexico. 45% of Arab Mexicans are of [[Lebanese people|Lebanese]] descent.

[[File:Salma Hayek 2004.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Salma Hayek]], actress and film producer.]]

The majority of Arab-Mexicans are Christians who belong to the [[Maronite Church]], [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]], [[Eastern Orthodox Churches|Eastern Orthodox]] and [[Eastern Rite Catholic Churches]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-536840/Marin-Guzman-Roberto-and-Zidane.html|title=Find Local Contractors – Home Remodeling Contractors on Ecnext|website=goliath.ecnext.com|access-date=July 3, 2017|archive-date=May 16, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110516214343/http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-536840/Marin-Guzman-Roberto-and-Zidane.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and a scant number are [[Muslims]], The term "Arab Mexican" may include ethnic groups that do not in fact identify as Arab. The inter-ethnic marriage in the Arab community, regardless of religious affiliation, is very high; most community members have only one parent of Arab ancestry. As a result, the Arab community in Mexico shows marked [[language shift]] away from Arabic. Only a few speak any Arabic, and such knowledge is often limited to a few basic words. Instead, the majority, especially those of younger generations, speak Spanish as a first language. Today, the most common Arabic [[surnames]] in Mexico include Nader, Hayek, Ali, Haddad, Nasser, Malik, Abed, Mansoor, Harb, and Elias.

===Asian Mexicans===
{{main|Asian Mexicans}}
[[File:Kavka_Shishido_at_MTV_VMAJ_2014.jpg|left|200px|thumb|[[Kavka Shishido]], drummer and vocalist.]]

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 typically refers to those of [[East Asian]] descent, and may also include those of [[South Asian|South]] and [[Southeast Asian]] descent while Mexicans of [[West Asian]] descent are referred to as [[#Arab Mexicans|Arab Mexicans]].

Asian immigration began with the arrival of [[Filipinos]] to Mexico during the colonial period. For two and a half centuries, between 1565 and 1815, many Filipinos and Mexicans sailed back and forth between Mexico and the Philippines as crews, prisoners, adventurers and soldiers in the [[Manila-Acapulco Galleon]] assisting Spain in its trade between Asia and the Americas. Also, on these voyages, thousands of Asian individuals (mostly males) were brought to Mexico as slaves and were called "Chino",<ref name="Seijas">{{cite book|author= Tatiana Seijas| title= Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico: From Chinos to Indian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YCWjAwAAQBAJ&q=Asians+in+Mexico&pg=PA21 | date= 2014|publisher= [[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=9781107063129 | page=21}}</ref> which means Chinese, although in reality they were of diverse origins, including Koreans, Japanese, Malays, Filipinos, Javanese, Cambodians, Timorese, and people from Bengal, India, Ceylon, Makassar, Tidore, Terenate, and China.<ref>{{cite book|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=1984|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hhNfVshMw64C&q=slaves+acapulco+chinese+filipinos+japanese+malays&pg=PA21|volume=2 of The Cambridge History of Latin America: Colonial Latin America. I-II|page=21|title=The Cambridge History of Latin America|isbn=978-0521245166|edition=illustrated, reprint|author=Leslie Bethell|editor=Leslie Bethell}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|publisher=[[University of Arizona Press]]|year=2013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mMY4-ffumwUC&q=slaves+acapulco+chinese+japanese&pg=PA134|page=134|title=The Affinity of the Eye: Writing Nikkei in Peru|isbn=978-0816599875|author=Ignacio López-Calvo|others=Fernando Iwasaki}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|publisher=[[Duke University Press]]|year=2002|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1PDVdU4YZWgC&q=slaves+manila+chinese+japanese+acapulco&pg=PA200|page=200|title=Cultures in Contact: World Migrations in the Second Millennium|isbn=978-0822384076|author=Dirk Hoerder|others=Andrew Gordon, Alexander Keyssar, Daniel James|access-date=October 4, 2020|archive-date=February 25, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240225183853/https://books.google.com/books?id=1PDVdU4YZWgC&q=slaves+manila+chinese+japanese+acapulco&pg=PA200#v=snippet&q=slaves%20manila%20chinese%20japanese%20acapulco&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> A notable example is the story of [[Catarina de San Juan]] (Mirra), an Indian girl captured by the Portuguese and sold into slavery in Manila. She arrived in [[New Spain]] and eventually she gave rise to the "[[China Poblana]]".

[[File:Luis_Nishizawa_(crop).jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Luis Nishizawa]] was a Mexican artist.]]
These early individuals are not very apparent in modern Mexico for two main reasons: the widespread ''[[mestizaje]]'' of Mexico during the Spanish period and the common practice of ''Chino'' slaves to "[[Passing (racial identity)|pass]]" as ''Indios'' (the indigenous people of Mexico) to attain freedom. 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.<ref name="Buchenau">{{cite journal |last1=Buchenau |first1=Jürgen |title=Small Numbers, Great Impact: Mexico and Its Immigrants, 1821–1973 |journal=Journal of American Ethnic History |year=2001 |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=23–49 |doi=10.2307/27502710 |pmid=17605190 |jstor=27502710 |s2cid=29111441 }}</ref>

===Romani Mexicans===
{{main article|Romani Mexicans}}
[[Romani people]] have settled in Mexico since the colonial era.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/mexico/articles/romani-heritage-a-glimpse-into-mexicos-misunderstood-gypsy-community/|title= Romani Heritage: A Glimpse Into Mexico's Misunderstood Gypsy Community|date= February 21, 2018|access-date= September 9, 2021|archive-date= September 9, 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210909111728/https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/mexico/articles/romani-heritage-a-glimpse-into-mexicos-misunderstood-gypsy-community/|url-status= live}}</ref> There are around 50,000 [[Vlax Romani]] in Mexico.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/14567/MX|title=Romani, Vlax in Mexico|first=Joshua|last=Project|website=joshuaproject.net|access-date=July 8, 2019|archive-date=July 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190708230607/https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/14567/MX|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Official censuses===
[[File:Arcelia_Ramírez.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Arcelia Ramírez]] Mexican actress]]
Historically, population studies and censuses have never been up to the standards that a population as diverse and numerous such as Mexico's require: the first racial census was made in 1793, being also Mexico's (then known as [[Viceroyalty of New Spain|New Spain]]) first ever nationwide population census. Since only part of its original datasets survive, most of what is known of it comes from essays made by researchers who back in the day used the census' findings as reference for their own works. 

More than a century would pass until the Mexican government conducted a new racial census in 1921 (some sources assert that the census of 1895 included a comprehensive racial classification;<ref name="fnavarrete" /> however, according to the historic archives of [[National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Mexico)|Mexico's National Institute of Statistics]], that was not the case).<ref name="Mexico 2017">[http://www.beta.inegi.org.mx/proyectos/ccpv/1895 "censo General de la Republica Mexicana 1895"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810035109/http://www.beta.inegi.org.mx/proyectos/ccpv/1895/ |date=August 10, 2017 }}, "[[INEGI]]", Mexico. Retrieved July 24, 2017.</ref> While the 1921 census was the last time the Mexican government conducted a census that included a comprehensive racial classification, in recent years it has conducted nationwide surveys to quantify most of the ethnic groups who inhabit the country as well as the social dynamics and inequalities between them.

====1793 census====
Also known as the "Revillagigedo census" from the name of the Count who ordered that it be conducted, this census was the first nationwide population census of Mexico (then known as the [[Viceroyalty of New Spain]]). Most of its original datasets have reportedly been lost, so most of what is known about it nowadays comes from essays and field investigations made by academics who had access to the census data and used it as reference for their works, such as Prussian geographer [[Alexander von Humboldt]]. 

Each author gives different estimations for each racial group in the country although they do not vary greatly, with Europeans ranging from 18% to 22% of New Spain's population, Mestizos from 21% to 25%, Indians from 51% to 61%, and Africans from 6,000 and 10,000. 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. For the same reasons, the number of Indigenous Mexicans presents the greatest variation range between publications, as in some cases their numbers in a given location were estimated rather than counted, leading to possible overestimations in some provinces and possible underestimations in others.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lerner |first1=Victoria |title=Consideraciones sobre la población de la Nueva España (1793–1810): Según Humboldt y Navarro y Noriega |trans-title=Considerations on the population of New Spain (1793–1810): According to Humboldt and Navarro and Noriega |language=es |journal=Historia Mexicana |year=1968 |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=327–348 |jstor=25134694 }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="float:center; text-align:center;"
|-
!Intendecy or territory
!European population (%)
!Indigenous population (%)
!Mestizo population (%)
|-
|align="left"| [[State of Mexico|México]] (only the [[State of Mexico]] and [[Mexico City]])
| 16.9%
| 66.1%
| 16.7%
|-
|align="left"| [[Puebla]]
| 10.1%
| 74.3%
| 15.3%
|-
|align="left"| [[Oaxaca]]
| 06.3%
| 88.2%
| 05.2%
|-
|align="left"| [[Guanajuato]]
| 25.8%
| 44.0%
| 29.9%
|-
|align="left"| [[San Luis Potosí]]
| 13.0%
| 51.2%
| 35.7%
|-
|align="left"| [[Zacatecas]]
| 15.8%
| 29.0%
| 55.1%
|-
|align="left"| [[Durango]]
| 20.2%
| 36.0%
| 43.5%
|-
|align="left"| [[Sonora]]
| 28.5%
| 44.9%
| 26.4%
|-
|align="left"| [[Yucatán]]
| 14.8%
| 72.6%
| 12.3%
|-
|align="left"| [[Guadalajara]]
| 31.7%
| 33.3%
| 34.7%
|-
|align="left"| [[Veracruz]]
| 10.4%
| 74.0%
| 15.2%
|-
|align="left"| [[Michoacán|Valladolid]]
| 27.6%
| 42.5%
| 29.6%
|-
|align="left"| [[New Mexico|Nuevo México]]
|  ~
| 30.8%
| 69.0%
|-
|align="left"| [[Baja California|Vieja California]]
|  ~
| 51.7%
| 47.9%
|-
|align="left"| [[Alta California|Nueva California]]
|   ~
| 89.9%
| 09.8%
|-
|align="left"| [[Coahuila]]
| 30.9%
| 28.9%
| 40.0%
|-
|align="left"| [[Nuevo León]]
| 62.6%
| 05.5%
| 31.6%
|-
|align="left"| [[Nuevo Santander]]
| 25.8%
| 23.3%
| 50.8%
|-
|align="left"| [[Texas]]
| 39.7%
| 27.3%
| 32.4%
|-
|align="left"| [[Tlaxcala]]
| 13.6%
| 72.4%
| 13.8%
|-
|}
~<small>Europeans are included within the Mestizo category.</small>

Regardless of the possible inaccuracies related to the counting of Indigenous peoples living outside of the colonized areas, the effort that New Spain's authorities put into considering them as subjects is worth mentioning, as censuses made by other colonial or post-colonial countries did not consider American Indians to be citizens or subjects; for example, the censuses made by the [[Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata]] would only count the inhabitants of the colonized settlements.<ref name=scarecrow>''Historical Dictionary of Argentina''. London: Scarecrow Press, 1978. pp.&nbsp;239–40.</ref> Another example is the censuses made by the United States, which did not include Indigenous peoples living among the general population until 1860, and indigenous peoples as a whole until 1900.<ref>[https://www.archives.gov/research/census/native-americans/1790-1930.html "American Indians in the Federal Decennial Census"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201120144444/https://www.archives.gov/research/census/native-americans/1790-1930.html |date=November 20, 2020 }}. Retrieved July 25, 2017.</ref>

====1921 census====
[[Image:Pancho Villa, el presidente provisional Eulalio Gutiérrez y Emiliano Zapata1.jpg|thumb|[[Eulalio Gutiérrez]] (1881–1939), flanked by [[Pancho Villa|Francisco "Pancho" Villa]] (1878–1923) and [[Emiliano Zapata]] (1879–1919). Gutiérrez was appointed provisional President of Mexico by the [[Convention of Aguascalientes]], a move that [[Venustiano Carranza]] (1859–1920) found intolerable. In the ensuing war, Obregón fought for Carranza against the convention.]]
Made right after the consummation of the Mexican revolution, the social context in which this census was conducted makes it particularly unique, as the government of the time was in the process of rebuilding the country and was looking to unite all Mexicans in a single national identity. The 1921 census' final results in regards to race, which assert that 59.3% of the Mexican population self-identified as Mestizo, 29.1% as Indigenous, and only 9.8% as White, were then essential in cementing the ''mestizaje'' ideology (which asserts that the Mexican population as a whole is product of the admixture of all races), which shaped Mexican identity and culture through the 20th century and remains prominent nowadays, with extraofficial international publications such as ''[[The World Factbook]]'' using the 1921 census as a reference to estimate Mexico's racial composition up to this day.<ref name="Factbook"/>

Nonetheless, in recent times, the census' results have been subjected to scrutiny by historians, academics and social activists alike, who assert that such drastic alterations on demographic trends with respect to the 1793 census are impossible and cite, among other statistics, the relatively low frequency of marriages between people of different continental ancestries in colonial and early independent Mexico.<ref>[https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20171010154747/http://istmo.mx/2016/07/04/el-mestizaje-es-un-mito-la-identidad-cultural-si-importa/ "El mestizaje es un mito, la identidad cultural sí importa"] ''Istmo'', Mexico. Retrieved July 25, 2017.</ref> It is claimed that the ''mestizaje'' process sponsored by the state was more "cultural than biological", which resulted in the numbers of the Mestizo Mexican group being inflated at the expense of the identity of other races.<ref>[http://www.dimensionantropologica.inah.gob.mx/?p=7401 "Más desindianización que mestizaje. Una relectura de los censos generales de población"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731145159/http://www.dimensionantropologica.inah.gob.mx/?p=7401 |date=July 31, 2017 }} ''[[Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia|INAH]]'', Mexico. Retrieved July 25, 2017.</ref> Controversies aside, this census constituted the last time the [[Mexican Government]] conducted a comprehensive racial census with the breakdown by states being the following (foreigners and people who answered "other" not included):<ref>[http://www.inegi.org.mx/prod_Serv/contenidos/espanol/bvinegi/productos/censos/poblacion/1921/EUM/RCGH21I.pdf DEPARTAMENTO DE LA ESTADISTICA NACIONAL] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304060335/http://www.inegi.org.mx/prod_Serv/contenidos/espanol/bvinegi/productos/censos/poblacion/1921/EUM/RCGH21I.pdf |date=March 4, 2016 }} CENSO GENERAL DE HABITANTES 1921 Census (Page: 62)</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="float:center; text-align:center;"
|-
!Federative Units
!Mestizo Population (%)
!Amerindian Population (%)
!White Population (%)
|-
|align="left"| [[Aguascalientes]]
| 66.12%
| 16.70%
| 16.77%
|-
|align="left"| [[Baja California Norte|Baja California<br />(Distrito Norte)]]
| 72.50%
| 07.72%
| 00.35%
|-
|align="left"| [[Baja California Sur|Baja California<br />(Distrito Sur)]]
| 59.61%
| 06.06%
| 33.40%
|-
|align="left"| [[Campeche]]
| 41.45%
| 43.41%
| 14.17%
|-
|align="left"| [[Coahuila]]
| 77.88%
| 11.38%
| 10.13%
|-
|align="left"| [[Colima]]
| 68.54%
| 26.00%
| 04.50%
|-
|align="left"| [[Chiapas]]
| 36.27%
| 47.64%
| 11.82%
|-
|align="left"| [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua]]
| 50.09%
| 12.76%
| 36.33%
|-
|align="left"| [[Durango]]
| 89.85%
| 09.99%
| 00.01%
|-
|align="left"| [[Guanajuato]]
| 96.33%
| 02.96%
| 00.54%
|-
|align="left"| [[Guerrero]]
| 54.05%
| 43.84%
| 02.07%
|-
|align="left"| [[Hidalgo (state)|Hidalgo]]
| 51.47%
| 39.49%
| 08.83%
|-
|align="left"| [[Jalisco]]
| 75.83%
| 16.76%
| 07.31%
|-
|align="left"| [[Mexico City]]
| 54.78%
| 18.75%
| 22.79%
|-
|align="left"| [[State of Mexico]]
| 47.71%
| 42.13%
| 10.02%
|-
|align="left"| [[Michoacán]]
| 70.95%
| 21.04%
| 06.94%
|-
|align="left"| [[Morelos]]
| 61.24%
| 34.93%
| 03.59%
|-
|align="left"| [[Nayarit]]
| 73.45%
| 20.38%
| 05.83%
|-
|align="left"| [[Nuevo León]]
| 75.47%
| 05.14%
| 19.23%
|-
|align="left"| [[Oaxaca]]
| 28.15%
| 69.17%
| 01.43%
|-
|align="left"| [[Puebla]]
| 39.34%
| 54.73%
| 05.66%
|-
|align="left"| [[Querétaro]]
| 80.15%
| 19.40%
| 00.30%
|-
|align="left"| [[Quintana Roo]]
| 42.35%
| 20.59%
| 15.16%
|-
|align="left"| [[San Luis Potosí]]
| 61.88%
| 30.60%
| 05.41%
|-
|align="left"| [[Sinaloa]]
| 98.30%
| 00.93%
| 00.19%
|-
|align="left"| [[Sonora]]
| 41.04%
| 14.00%
| 42.54%
|-
|align="left"| [[Tabasco]]
| 53.67%
| 18.50%
| 27.56%
|-
|align="left"| [[Tamaulipas]]
| 69.77%
| 13.89%
| 13.62%
|-
|align="left"| [[Tlaxcala]]
| 42.44%
| 54.70%
| 02.53%
|-
|align="left"| [[Veracruz]]
| 50.09%
| 36.60%
| 10.28%
|-
|align="left"| [[Yucatán]]
| 33.83%
| 43.31%
| 21.85%
|-
|align="left"| [[Zacatecas]]
| 86.10%
| 08.54%
| 05.26%
|}

When the 1921 census' results are compared with the results of Mexico's recent censuses<ref name="beta.inegi.org.mx"/> as well as with modern genetic research,<ref>[http://www.investigacionyciencia.es/revistas/investigacion-y-ciencia/matemticas-del-planeta-tierra-585/el-impacto-del-mestizaje-en-mxico-11442 "El impacto del mestizaje en México"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170622040134/http://www.investigacionyciencia.es/revistas/investigacion-y-ciencia/matemticas-del-planeta-tierra-585/el-impacto-del-mestizaje-en-mxico-11442 |date=June 22, 2017 }}, "Investigación y Ciencia", Spain, October 2013. Retrieved June 1, 2017.</ref> there is high consistency with respect to the distribution of Indigenous Mexicans across the country, with states located in south and south-eastern Mexico having both the highest percentages of population who self-identify as Indigenous and the highest percentages of Amerindian genetic ancestry. 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 [[Ethnic groups of Europe|European peoples]] (with the state's Indigenous population showing almost no foreign admixture either).<ref name="Wiley">{{cite journal|doi=10.1177/0091270006287586 | pmid=16638736 | volume=46 | issue=5 | title=CYP2D6Genotype and Phenotype in Amerindians of Tepehuano Origin and Mestizos of Durango, Mexico | year=2006 | journal=The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology | pages=527–536 | last1 = Sosa-Macías | first1 = Martha| s2cid=41443294 }}</ref> 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 be classified as such.<ref name="Lizcano Fernández 2005"/><ref>[http://www.nacionmulticultural.unam.mx/Portal/Izquierdo/BANCO/Mxmulticultural/Elmestizajeylasculturas-elmestizaje.html El mestizaje y las culturas regionales] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130823015618/http://www.nacionmulticultural.unam.mx/Portal/Izquierdo/BANCO/Mxmulticultural/Elmestizajeylasculturas-elmestizaje.html |date=August 23, 2013 }}.</ref>

====The present day====
[[File:MJK_13337_Ilse_Salas_(Museo,_Berlinale_2018).jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Ilse Salas]] has contributed significantly to representing contemporary Mexican society through film like "[[Las niñas bien]]" (The Good Girls) and [[Güeros]]]]Since the end of the [[Mexican Revolution]], the official identity promoted by the government for non-indigenous Mexicans has been the Mestizo one (a mix of European and indigenous culture and heritage),<ref name="fnavarrete" /> established with the original intent of eliminating divisions and creating a unified identity that would allow Mexico to modernize and integrate with the international community.<ref name="lealmart">{{Cite thesis |degree=PhD |title= For The Enjoyment of All:" Cosmopolitan Aspirations, Urban Encounters and Class Boundaries in Mexico City |author= Alejandra M. Leal Martínez |year=2011 |publisher=Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 3453017 }}</ref>  Even though nowadays the large majority of the country's population consider themselves Mexicans, differences on physical features and appearance continue playing an important role on everyday social interactions,<ref name="Navarrete">{{cite web|url=http://enp4.unam.mx/amc/libro_munioz_cota/libro/cap4/lec10_federiconavarreteelmestizaje.pdf|title=El mestizaje en Mexico|access-date=June 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801102632/http://enp4.unam.mx/amc/libro_munioz_cota/libro/cap4/lec10_federiconavarreteelmestizaje.pdf|archive-date=August 1, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Lizcano Fernández 2005"/> taking this into account, on recent time Mexico's government has begun conducting ethnic investigations to cuantify the different ethnic groups that inhabit the country with the aim of reducing social inequalities between them. According to these recent investigations, 19.4% of Mexico's population self-identify as Indigenous<ref name="INPI">{{cite web|access-date=2024-05-17 |title=Población indígena autoadscrita nacional y por entidad federativa-Muestra censal 2020 |url=https://www.inpi.gob.mx/indicadores2020/1-poblacion-indigena-autoadscrita-nacional-y-por-entidad-federativa-muestra-censal-2020.xlsx |website=Instituto Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> and 2.04% self-identify as Afro-Mexican,<ref name="INPI"/><ref>{{cite web|access-date=2023-10-25 |language=en |title=Infografía {{!}} Afrodescendientes en México {{!}} Wilson Center |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/infografia-afrodescendientes-en-mexico |website=www.wilsoncenter.org|date=July 25, 2022 }}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> there is no definitive census that quantifies White Mexicans, with estimates from the Mexican government and other contemporary sources reporting results that estimate them at about one-third of the country's population,<ref name=BritannicaMex>''About one third'' {{cite encyclopedia |title=Mexico: Ethnic groups |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Mexico/Ethnic-groups |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=March 8, 2024}}</ref><ref name=ENADIS2017-1 /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.conapred.org.mx/documentos_cedoc/21_Marzo_DiaIntElimDiscRacial_INACCSS.pdf|title=21 de Marzo: Día Internacional de la Eliminación de la Discriminación Racial|trans-title=21 March: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination|language=es|publisher=[[National Council to Prevent Discrimination|CONAPRED]]|location=Mexico|page=7|date=2017|access-date=23 August 2017|archive-date=25 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525133622/http://www.conapred.org.mx/documentos_cedoc/21_Marzo_DiaIntElimDiscRacial_INACCSS.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="conapred.org.mx" /> with this figure being based on phenotypical traits instead of self-identification of ancestry.

Generally speaking ethnic relations can be arranged on an axis between the two extremes of European and Amerindian cultural heritage, this is a remnant of the Spanish caste system which categorized individuals according to their perceived level of biological mixture between the two groups although in practice the classificatory system has become fluid, mixing socio-cultural traits with phenotypical traits allowing individuals to move between categories and define their ethnic and racial identities situationally,<ref name="Frudakis2008">{{cite book|last=Frudakis |first=Tony Nick|title=Molecular photofitting: predicting ancestry and phenotype using DNA|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9vXeydpj7VkC&pg=PA348|year=2008|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=978-0-12-088492-6|page=348}}</ref> the presence of considerable portions of the population with African and Asian heritage makes the situation more complex.{{sfn|Bartolomé|1996|page=2}}{{sfn|Knight|1990|p=74}} Even though there is a 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.<ref name="lealmart" /><ref name="Lizcano Fernández 2005" /> In contrast, Indigenous ancestry is often associated with having an inferior social class, as well as lower levels of education.<ref name="fnavarrete" /><ref name="jleff">{{cite journal |last1=Fortes de Leff |first1=Jacqueline |title=Racism in Mexico: Cultural Roots and Clinical Interventions1 |journal=Family Process |date=December 2002 |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=619–623 |doi=10.1111/j.1545-5300.2002.00619.x |pmid=12613120 }}</ref> These distinctions are strongest in [[Mexico City]], where the most powerful of the country's elite are located.<ref name="lealmart" />

[[File:Luismiguel9900.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Luis Miguel]], always referred to as ''The Sun of Mexico''.]]
Despite Mexico's government not using racial terms related to [[ethnic groups in Europe|European]] or [[white people]] officially for almost a century (resuming using such terms after 2010), the concepts of "white people" (known as ''güeros'' or ''blancos'' in [[Mexican Spanish]]) and of "being white" did not disappear <ref name=":1">Nutini, Hugo; Barry Isaac (2009). ''Social Stratification in central Mexico 1500 - 2000''. University of Texas Press, p. 55.</ref> and are still present in everyday Mexican culture: different idioms of race are used in Mexico's society that serve as mediating terms between racial groups. It is not strange to see street vendors calling a potential costumer ''Güero'' or ''güerito'', sometimes even when the person is not light-skinned. In this instance it is used to initiate a kind of familiarity, but in cases where social/racial tensions are relatively high, it can have the opposite effect.<ref name="lealmart" /> The lack of a clear dividing 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,<ref name="fnavarrete" /><ref name="lealmart" /> however 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 who identifies with a given ethnic group should be allowed to, even if biologically that person does not completely belong to that group.<ref name="Navarrete"/>