Population and Housing Census 2020: There Are 126 Million Inhabitants in Mexico

January
27, 2021

4 min read

• Mexico ranks 11th in population worldwide.
• We are a total of 126,014,024 people.
• 51.2% are women and 48.8% men.
• The state of Mexico is the most populated federal entity with 16 million inhabitants, while Colima is the least populated, with 731, 391 inhabitants.

The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) released the results of the 2020 Population and Housing Census corresponding to the 2020 Population and Housing Census, which was carried out from March 2 to 27, 2020. Here are the results.

Population

• The total population in Mexico is 126,014,024 inhabitants. Of these, 64 540 634 are women (51.2%) and 61 473 390 are men (48.8%). Mexico ranks 11th in population worldwide, below Japan and above Ethiopia and remains in the same place compared to 2010.
• Regarding the distribution of the population by federal entity, the most populated entities are the state of Mexico, with almost 17 million inhabitants, Mexico City, where 9.2 million people reside, and Jalisco with 8.3 million people. In contrast, Campeche, Baja California Sur and Colima are the entities with the least population, with amounts of 928,000, 798,000 and 731,000 people respectively.
• The country has been observing a gradual aging process, although it is still young, this is reflected in the median age, which went from 26 to 29 years in the last decade, that is, in 2020, half of the population is 29 years old or younger. The aging process is also evident in the population pyramid, which has a tendency to reduce its base, while it continues to widen both in the center and in the upper part, which means that the proportion of girls, boys and adolescents has decreased and the proportion of adults and older adults has increased.

Migration

The population born in another country and living in Mexican territory amounts to 1,212,252 people, of which 797,266 (65.8%) were born in the United States of America. On the other hand, in the last five years 550,085 people came to reside in Mexico from other countries, mainly from the United States, Venezuela and Colombia.

Disability

The 2020 Census data indicate that in the country there are 20,838,108 people with some limitation, disability or mental problem or condition, which represent 16.5% of the population. Of these, 13,934,448 (11.1%) are people with some kind of limitation, 6,179,890 (4.9%) are people with disabilities and 1,590,583 (1.3%) have some mental problem or condition.

Education

From 2000 to 2020, the population aged 15 and over who cannot read or write an errand has dropped by almost 1.5 million people. In particular, 5.4 million people with this characteristic were registered in 2010 and there are currently 4,456,431, representing 4.7% of the population aged 15 years and over.

For its part, the average schooling of the population aged 15 years and over continues to increase, according to the results of the Census, in 2020 it is 9.7 years, one year more than that reported in 2010, this is equivalent to little more than high school finished.

Economic characteristics

According to the results of the 2020 Census, 62 out of every 100 people aged 12 and over are economically active. The economic participation rate is 75.8 for men and 49.0 for women.

The 2020 Census shows that in Mexico there are 37,891,261 people aged 12 and over who are not economically active, of these, 43.9% are engaged in household chores, 34.7% are students, 9.0% are retired or pensioners and 3.6% present a physical or mental limitation that prevents them from working.

Marital situation

According to the results, out of every 100 people aged 12 and over, 35.4 are married, 34.2 are single, 18.3 live in common law and the rest are separated, divorced or widowed. The percentage of the married population had a decrease of 5.1 percentage points, while the percentage of the population in common law union increased by 3.9 percentage points compared to 2010.

Religion

The Population and Housing Census 2020 allows to know some cultural characteristics of the population, the census questionnaire included a question about religion and through the use of this it is known that in Mexico 77.7% of the population declares themselves Catholic, 11.2% declares themselves Protestant or evangelical Christian, 0.2% declare another religion, 2.5% declare themselves a believer without having a religious affiliation and 8.1% declare themselves without religion.

living place

Regarding the amount of inhabited private homes, in the last decade there was an increase of 6.6 million, going from 28.6 to 35.2 million, which represents an average annual growth rate of 2.2% in the period. An average of 3.6 people reside in each private home, an average that has been decreasing over the last two decades, presenting a value of 4.4 in 2000 and 3.9 in 2010.

Of every 100 inhabited private homes, 96.2 have a cement floor or some other covering and only 3.5 have a dirt floor; 96.3 has piped water. Likewise, the 2020 Census reflects that 91.1% of inhabited private homes have a television, 87.6% a refrigerator, 87.5% a cell phone, 72.8% a washing machine, 52.1% have internet, 46.5% have their own car or truck, 37.6% have a computer, laptop or tablet and 37.5% have a fixed telephone line.

43.3% of the homes have pay television service, 18.8% have pay-TV movies, music or videos or online and 11.5% have a video game console.

The results of the 2020 Population and Housing Census can be consulted on the internet, on the Inegi website http://censo2020.mx/