Mexico’s 2020 census recorded a large Catholic majority, substantial Protestant and evangelical communities and millions of people who reported no religion. Local practices reveal another aspect of religious life. In parts of the Yucatán Peninsula, families prepare food and other offerings for the dead in a tradition known as Janal Pixán. A census response can tell us which affiliation someone reports. A regional ceremony tells us how people remember relatives, use sacred objects and mark the year. Both belong in an account of religion in Mexico. INEGI national census results INAH account of the Janal Pixán exhibition
What Mexico’s census found
INEGI, Mexico’s national statistics institute, recorded about 97.9 million Catholics in 2020, or 77.7 percent of the population. The broad Protestant and evangelical Christian category accounted for 14.1 million people, or 11.2 percent. About 10.2 million people reported no religion. Another 3.1 million were classified as believers without a religious affiliation. The separate categories show that the census can register belief even when someone gives no name for a religious community. INEGI national census results INEGI’s documentation of the religion question
The figures also include smaller groups. INEGI reports nearly 59,000 people in the Jewish category and about 8,000 in the Islamic category. It distinguishes traditions with ethnic roots, traditions with African roots and spiritualist groups. These headings organize answers to a population questionnaire. Their breadth varies. A category can encompass different congregations, practices and histories, and the census does not ask how frequently everyone in a category worships. INEGI national census results INEGI’s documentation of the religion question
Why the picture changes in Chiapas
In Chiapas, the same census recorded 53.9 percent of the population as Catholic and 32.4 percent as Protestant or evangelical Christian. Another 12.5 percent reported no religion. The balance among the three categories was therefore quite different from the national distribution. The figures change again within the state. INEGI reports that over half of residents in Tenejapa and San Juan Cancuc were in the Protestant or evangelical Christian category. These municipal figures show how quickly a national average can lose its explanatory value when the question concerns a specific community. INEGI national census results INEGI census results for Chiapas
Legal status and population size answer separate questions. Article 24 of Mexico’s constitution protects freedom of ethical conviction, conscience and religion, including participation in religious observances within the limits set out by law. Article 130 sets out the principle of separation between the state and churches. Those rules concern public institutions and individual freedoms. The census describes the affiliations of the people who live under that framework. A church can be the majority affiliation in a census without becoming the religion of the state. INEGI national census results Mexican Constitution, articles 24 and 130
What the Day of the Dead looks like locally
UNESCO inscribed the Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008. Its account describes observances around the end of October and the beginning of November, when some families lay flower petals, candles and offerings along the route between cemeteries and homes. The listing concerns practices in Indigenous communities. The materials and sequence of events can vary with local history and with the family preparing the offerings. UNESCO heritage entry INAH account of the Janal Pixán exhibition
In a photographic exhibition on Janal Pixán in Quintana Roo, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History described an offering with regional flowers, candles, vessels for burning incense, a palm arch and a green cross. The exhibit gives a specific example from the Yucatán Peninsula of how the memory of the dead takes a material form. The cross appears alongside objects made and arranged locally. An observer could recognise one of those objects and still need the people who prepare the offering to explain how it is used. INAH account of the Janal Pixán exhibition
The history also depends on which practice is being traced. INAH documents observances for All Saints and All Souls in churches founded after the Spanish conquest. Its historical account also discusses Indigenous practices and disagreements over the relationship between precolonial commemorations and the later festival. A Catholic date on the calendar, food brought to a grave and a family’s understanding of the dead each have a history. It takes local and historical evidence to explain how those elements came together in a given place. UNESCO heritage entry INAH study of the Day of the Dead
Who documents the celebration also affects what readers see. A heritage listing describes the significance of a practice and can show how it is passed on. A museum exhibition brings selected photographs and objects into a public setting. The census puts a question about affiliation to households across Mexico. Neither the listing nor the exhibition counts how many families prepare an offering. The three kinds of records can be read together while keeping the limits of each in view. INEGI’s documentation of the religion question UNESCO heritage entry INAH account of the Janal Pixán exhibition
Conclusion
Mexico’s Catholic majority is a national finding that sits alongside marked local differences, visible in the figures for Chiapas. Constitutional protections describe how religion and conscience relate to the state. Regional observances such as Janal Pixán show what people do with inherited practices and materials. Each source answers a different question, and together they explain more about religion in Mexico than an account built around a single tradition or origin. INEGI national census results INEGI census results for Chiapas INAH account of the Janal Pixán exhibition Mexican Constitution, articles 24 and 130
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