Mexico: indigenous and Afro-descendant population and households 2020

In 2020, roughly 7.4 million inhabitants aged three or older spoke an indigenous language in Mexico. In the case of Afro-descendants or Afro-Mexicans, a total of 2.6 million people defined themselves as such.

Indigenous families in Mexico

Mexico is one of the countries with the largest share of indigenous language speakers in Latin America. The number of indigenous households stood at 2.9 million in 2020. This figure includes all family units where at least one member or their ancestors declared speaking an indigenous language. Native ethnicities in Mexico generally endure higher and more severe poverty levels. Indigenous people are also in a more vulnerable socio-economic situation. For instance, more than 30 percent of the indigenous population in Mexico lagged in education, almost double the share of non-indigenous population.

Mexico's Afro-descendants

Thanks to its millennia-long indigenous ancestry, Mexico is a multiethnic country that amasses one of the richest cultural heritages in the world. During colonial times, millions of slaves from the African continent were brought to Mexican territory. Their contribution to today's Mexican identity is sometimes overlooked. In 2020, around one million households in the country had at least one member who self-perceived as an Afro-descendant, or had ancestors with this ethnicity. Guerrero and Oaxaca are nowadays the states with the largest share of Afro-Mexicans.