Demographics of Mexico
From Freepedia
Image:Mexico-demography.png Mexico, with its estimated population of 106 million in 2005, is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world, and the second-most populous country in Latin America after Portuguese-speaking Brazil. The population of Mexico is ethnically and culturally diverse.
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Ethnic groups
Mestizos
The largest ethnic group is the mestizos, constituting approximately 60% of Mexico's population. Mestizos are people of mixed Native American and European heritage.
Native Americans
Unmixed Native American peoples make up the second-largest group; official statistics put them at 10% of the population, but many believe the figure to be closer to 30%. The reason for the discrepancy is the federal government's policy of using spoken language rather than race as the basis of classification. But in Mexico, as in the United States and other countries in the Americas, most Native Americans no longer speak their native tongues. In Mexico this is partly a result of the government's own policy of cultural and linguistic assimilation, which has resulted in the "Hispanization" of many of the Native American populations.
Thus, many mestizos are in fact assimilated Native Americans, inflating the mestizo population estimate from 60% to as high as 80%. Meanwhile, the number of Native Americans continues to decline as more are assimilated and as the linguistic basis of classification remains the same.
In the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, and in the interior of the Yucatán Peninsula, the majority of the population is indigenous. Large indigenous minorities, including the Nahua, Tarasca, and Mixtec are also present in the central regions of Mexico. In northern Mexico the indigenous are a small minority and include the Tarahumara of Chihuahua and the Yaqui and Seri of Sonora.
Europeans
About 9% of the population, mostly in Mexico City, Sonora, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Chihuahua and other large metropolitan areas, is of unmixed white European descent. In addition to the Spanish colonists, French settlers arrived during the Mexican Empire (19th century) and Italians during the government of Porfirio Díaz, Americans, Yugoslavs and Germans arrived in Mexico after World War I. During the 1930s many Spanish refugees fleeing the Spanish Civil War arrived, mostly in Mexico City. Polish and Russian (Guadalupe, Baja California) refugees, Ashkenazic Jews among them, also settled during the war. The Jewish immigrants joined the Sephardic community that had lived in Mexico since the Spanish Inquisition.
Also of note are colonies of Mormons, Mennonites and Molokans, mainly in the northern states of Chihuahua and Durango. British immigrants also settled, mainly in mining areas, as well as French settlers in Santa Rosalía, Baja California Sur. Some believe that the British first brought Protestantism into Mexico. Greek immigration has been important as well, especially in the state of Sinaloa and its capital Culiacán.
Middle Easterners & Asians
Mexicans of Lebanese and Turkish descent are present in huge numbers, some Chinese and Filipinos arrived from the Philippines in colonial times. During the period of Asian Exclusion from the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Chinese, Japanese, and Korean immigrants settled in northern and western Mexico, especially Baja California. Mexicali is known for its relatively prominent concentration of people of Chinese descent. There are also Jewish Mexicans of Lebanese, Turkish or other Mediterranean descent, with common ancestral roots in Spain, and speak Ladino, which is closely related to Spanish.
Africans
Since colonial times, when thousands of Africans were brought as slaves, Mexico has had a significant number of people of black-African descent. While today Afro-Mexicans of relatively unmixed black-African ancestry, as well as Zambos and mulattos, represent about 0.5% of the population – a far cry from their proportion in colonial times – the general mestizo population has absorbed much of the strain. Genetic research shows it to be present now in most Mexicans.
Most of Mexico's blacks live in the states of Veracruz, Guerrero, and Yucatán. Major populations also exist in Mexico's larger cities, such as Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Tijuana. In addition to those present since the colonial era, many African-Americans seeking to escape racial discrimination in the United States during the early 20th century emigrated to Mexico.
Other Latin Americans
Mexico is also the destination for many other Latin American groups: mostly Argentines, but also Brazilians, Nicaraguans, Cubans, and Colombians. The PRI governments in power for most of the 20th century had a policy of granting asylum to fellow Latin Americans fleeing political persecution in their home countries.
Attitudes toward race
While most non-indigenous Mexicans consider themselves mestizo, and while there are no longer rigid racial lines dividing the population, light skin and European features tend to be valued, particularly in the mass media. Events in recent years involving the issue of human rights in Chiapas have increased awareness of issues such as racism and discrimination toward the indigenous communities of Mexico.
Population growth and migration
Mexico's population doubled between 1970 and 2000. However, in recent years the rate of population growth has slowed. Fertility rates are still high in rural areas and among the indigenous population. Migration to the United States has also become significant, with the number of Mexican citizens resident abroad reaching as many as 9 million, mostly in the United States but also in Canada. Mexico City is by far the largest city in the country, with a population of about 21 million. Guadalajara, Jalisco, and Monterrey, Nuevo León, are the two next-largest metropolitan areas, followed by Puebla, Puebla, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Tijuana, Baja California, and León, Guanajuato.
Demographic statistics
Population: 106,202,903 (2005 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years:
31.1% (male 16,844,400/female 16,159,511)
15-64 years:
63.3% (male 32,521,043/female 34,704,093)
65 years and over:
5.6% (male 2,715,010/female 3,258,846) (2005 est.)
Median Age:
total:
24.93 years
male:
24.04 years
female:
25.85 years (2005 est.)
Population growth rate: 1.17% (2005 est.)
Birth rate: 21.01 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Death rate: 4.73 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Net migration rate: -4.57 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth:
1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years:
1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years:
0.94 male(s)/female
65 years and over:
0.83 male(s)/female
total population:
0.96 male(s)/female (2005 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
total:
20.91 deaths/1,000 live births
male:
22.85 deaths/1,000 live births
female:
18.88 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population:
75.19 years
male:
72.42 years
female:
78.1 years (2005 est.)
Total fertility rate: 2.45 children born/woman (2005 est.)
Nationality:
noun:
Mexican(s)
adjective:
Mexican
Ethnic groups: mestizo (mixed native American and white) 60%, Native American or predominantly Native American 30%, white 9%, other 1%
Religions: Roman Catholic 89%, Protestant 6%, other 5%
Languages: Spanish (official), Nahuatl, various Maya, and other indigenous languages
Literacy:
definition:
age 15 and over can read and write
total population:
92.2%
male:
94%
female:
90.5% (2003 est.)
External links
- UN: Fertility in Mexico: Trends and Forecasts
- Mexico population bureau CONAPO (Spanish)
- Mexican government fertility calculation since 1976 (Spanish)
