Indigenous peoples of Mexico are those who are part of communities that trace their roots back to populations and communities that existed in what is now Mexico before the arrival of Europeans. According to the National Indigenous Institute (INI) and the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (CDI), in 2012 the indigenous population was approximately 15 million people, divided into 68 ethnic groups. The 2020 Censo General de Población y Vivienda reported 11.8 million people living in households where someone speaks an indigenous language, and 23,232,391 people, or 19.41% of the total population, self-identify as indigenous.

The indigenous population is distributed throughout the territory of Mexico but is especially concentrated in the Sierra Madre del Sur, the Yucatán Peninsula, the Sierra Madre Oriental, the Sierra Madre Occidental, and neighboring areas. Most of Mexico’s indigenous population is geographically concentrated in about one-third of Mexico’s states. The states with the largest indigenous population are Oaxaca and Yucatán, with the latter having the highest percentage of indigenous population in its own territory.  The Five states with the largest share of the reported national indigenous population are Oaxaca; Yucatán, Campeche, Chiapas, and Hidalgo. 

The States wise Indigenous Population and Speaker of Indigenous-Language 

Largest Indigenous Groups

The ten largest indigenous language groups are Náhuatl (22.7% of indigenous language speakers), Maya (13.5%), Zapoteco (7.6%), Mixteco (7.3%) Otomí (5.3%), Tzeltal (5.3%), Tztotzil (4.3%), Totonaca (3.9%), Mazateco (3.2%) and Chol (2.4%).(3). The larger languages include several very distinct variants.