Editing Demographics of Mexico (section)

==Languages==
{{Main|Languages of Mexico}}

{{Pie chart
|thumb = right
|caption = Languages in Mexico (by percentage):<ref name="CIATONGA"/>
|label1 = Spanish   
|value1 = 92.7
|color1 = Red
|label2 = Spanish and indigenous languages 
|value2 =5.7
|label3 =  [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|indigenous]] 
|value3= 0.8
|color3 = Blue
|label4 = unspecified 
|value4= 0.8
}}

Spanish is the ''de facto'' official [[language]] in Mexico, being spoken by 98.3% of the population.<ref>{{cite web|title=Encuesta Intercensal 2015|publisher=INEGI, México|url=http://www.inegi.org.mx/est/contenidos/proyectos/encuestas/hogares/especiales/ei2015/doc/eic_2015_presentacion.pdf|access-date=December 17, 2015|archive-date=December 10, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151210230740/http://www.inegi.org.mx/est/contenidos/proyectos/encuestas/hogares/especiales/ei2015/doc/eic_2015_presentacion.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Mexican Spanish]] is spoken in a variety of dialects, accents and variations in different regions across the country. Some indigenous languages are still being spoken by around 5% of Mexicans according to the latest census, in 2003 the [[Ley General de Derechos Lingüísticos de los Pueblos Indígenas|General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples]] recognized 68 indigenous languages as "national languages", with the "same validity" in all territories and contexts where they are spoken. The indigenous language with the greatest number of speakers is [[Nahuatl]] (1,586,884 speakers in 2010 or 1.5% of the nation's population), followed by [[Yucatec Maya language|Yucatec Maya]] (796,405 speakers in 2010 0.8%) spoken [[Yucatán Peninsula]], Mixtecas languages (494,454), Tzeltal (474,298), Zapotecas languages (460,683), Tzotzil (429,168), Otomí (288,052), Totonaca (250,252) Mazateco (230,124), Chol (222,051) and 1,462,857 speakers of other languages. After half a century of rural-to-urban migration, in Mexico City and other major cities large districts and sections use both written and spoken Amerindian languages. Approximately 7,364,645 Mexicans (6.1% of the population) speak an indigenous language according to the 2020 Mexican Census.<ref name="2021 est" />

During the first half of the 20th century the government promoted a policy of ''castellanización'', that is, promoting the use of Spanish as a way to integrate indigenous peoples into Mexican society. Later, this policy changed, and since the 1980s the government has sponsored bilingual and intercultural education in all indigenous communities. This policy has mainly been successful in large communities with a significant number of speakers. While some languages, with less than 1,000 speakers, are still facing extinction.

The second most spoken language in Mexico, however, is English. It is used extensively at border areas, tourist centers and large metropolitan areas, a phenomenon arguably caused by the economic integration of North American under the [[North American Free Trade Agreement]] (NAFTA) and the immigration phenomenon and the return of workers and their families from the United States.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Delacroix |first1=Jacques |last2=Nikiforov |first2=Sergey |year=2009 |title=If Mexicans and Americans Could Cross the Border Freely |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24562214 |journal=The Independent Review |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=101–133 |jstor=24562214 |issn=1086-1653 |access-date=August 11, 2022 |archive-date=August 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220811191006/https://www.jstor.org/stable/24562214 |url-status=live }}</ref> In border cities, American TV and radio waves in English (and Spanish) are received as much Spanish-speaking radio and TV stations from Mexico on the US side of the border, thus a bilingual cross-cultural exchange is at work. Among the languages brought to the country by immigrants are the [[Venetian language|Venetian]] of [[Chipilo]], and [[Mennonite Low German]] spoken in [[Durango]] and [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua]].