2020 Mexican census

The 2020 Population and Housing Census (Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020) was the 14th population census conducted in Mexico. It was carried out by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) from 2 to 27 March 2020 and recorded a total of 126,014,024 inhabitants, a growth of 12.5% over the 112.3 million reported in the 2010 census.

Objective

The goal of the 2020 Population and Housing Census was to obtain information on the size, structure and spatial distribution of the population, on its main sociodemographic and cultural variables, and on the characteristics of the nation's housing stock. The data obtained are to be used to allocate government spending, to determine electoral apportionment, to calculate population projections, to set sampling frameworks for household surveys, to quantify poverty and marginalization, to determine the limits of metropolitan areas, and as inputs for demographic research, market analyses, and workforce profiling.

Method

Midnight on 15 March 2020 was selected as the reference time and date for the census. Between 2 and 27 March, a total of almost 147,000 interviewers were deployed across 189,432 inhabited settlements.

A responsible adult was identified at each household, to whom one of two questionnaires was administered, with the responses recorded on dedicated mobile-computing devices. Paper questionnaires were available as a fall-back option, and households where the interviewers were unable to gain access after a third visit were invited to submit their reponses online or via telephone. A label with a QR code was placed on all dwellings where the census had been successfully taken. For most respondents, the 38-question basic basic was used; the extended questionnaire, with 103 questions, was applied to a probabilistic sample of 4 million households. Special operations were used for members of the foreign service and for residents of shelters, hospitals, prisons, etc., and the homeless.

Questionnaires

The 38-question basic questionnaire was intended to ascertain, with respect to each habitual resident of the household, the following details:

• Name.
• Sex.
• Age.
• Relationship to head of household.
• Place of birth
• Self-identification as Afro-Mexican or Afrodescendant
• Health service entitlement.
• Religion.
• Disability: type and degree.
• Ability to speak an Indigenous language.
• Ability to speak the Spanish language.
• Currently in education.
• Highest completed level of education.
• Ability to read and write.
• State or foreign country of residence in 2015.
• Municipality of residence in 2015.
• Reason for relocation.
• Marital status
• Economic activity (employment status).
• Number of live births.
• Number of deceased offspring.

And, with respect to the dwelling:

• Type (house on own plot, house on shared plot, duplex, apartment, etc.)
• Floor type (earth, cement, wood/tile/etc.)
• Number of bedrooms.
• Number of rooms.
• Availability of electricity.
• Availability of mains water.
• Availability of non-mains water
• Equipment for storing water
• Availability of a sanitation system.
• Availability of water in the sanitation system.
• Availability of drainage and discharge site.
• Household appliances and means of transport.
• Information and communications technologies.

The extended questionnaire explored the respondents and their dwellings in greater detail. With respect to the occupants, additional questions inquired into such issues as their nationality, place of birth registration, ability to understand an Indigenous language and self-identification as Indigenous, earnings and other income, travel time to work/school and mode of transport, international migration history, and adequacy of meals. Additional questions about the dwelling covered topics such as roof/wall construction methods, type and location of the food preparation area and fuel used, number of lightbulbs, refuse separation and disposal, ownership (owner-occupier, tenant, etc.), title deeds, mortgages and home loans.

Results

For the census, the INEGI visited 43,903,443 dwellings, of which 35,233,462 (80.3%) were inhabited; the remainder were either uninhabited (built but not currently occupied) or classified as "temporary use": holiday homes, temporary accommodation, etc. Interviews were conducted at 35,219,141 inhabited households (95.5%).

Population

Of the total recorded population of 126,014,024, the breakdown by sex was 51.2% female and 48.8% male. The average age was 29 years, up from 26 in the 2010 census and 22 in 2000; the state of Chiapas, with an average age of 24, and Mexico City, with 35, represented the extreme cases. The population growth rate was 1.2%, down from 1.4% in 2010. Almost half the population (48.4%) lived in settlements of 100,000 inhabitants or more. There were 50 dependent persons per 100 persons of working age, broken down as 38 aged under 15 and 12 aged 65 and over.

The foreign-born population totalled 1,212,252, with the leading countries being the United States (797,266), Guatemala (56,810) and Venezuela (52,948). Domestically, the state with the highest 2015–2020 net migration rate was Quintana Roo (+6.8%), with Guerrero having the lowest (-42.%).

The census reported 7,364,645 people aged 3 and over who spoke an Indigenous language (6.1%), down from 6.6% in 2010. Of that total, 865,972 (11.8%) could not speak Spanish, against 15.9% in 2010. The highest proportions of Indigenous-language speakers were recorded in Oaxaca (31.2%), Chiapas (28.2%) and Yucatán (23.7%), with Jalisco, Colima, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas, Guanajuato and Aguascalientes reporting totals below 1%. Nahuatl and Maya were the Indigenous languages with the largest numbers of speakers. Of the Indigenous-language speakers, 60.3% lived in settlements of fewer than 2,500 inhabitants. Afro-Mexicans and Afrodescendants numbered 2,576,213 (2% of the total population), and 7.4% of them spoke an Indigenous language.

The illiteracy rate stood at 4.7%, down from 6.9% in 2010 and 9.5% in 2000, and ranged from 26% among those aged 75 and older to 15% among the 15–29 age group. The states with the highest numbers of illiterate inhabitants were Veracruz, Chiapas and the State of Mexico, with Baja California Sur, Colima and Aguascalientes having the lowest. In percentage terms, illiteracy was highest in Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca, and lowest in Mexico City, Nuevo León and Coahuila.

Roman Catholics accounted for 77.7% of the total population (down from 82.7% in 2010). Protestants and Evangelicals totalled 11.2% (against 7.5% in 2010), while 8.1% said they had "no religion" (an increase from 4.7% in the 2010 census).

Housing

Tables

See also

• Censo General de Población y Vivienda
• Population and housing censuses by country

External links

• (PDF). INEGI. 2021.
• ekenes.github.io

​