Languages of Mexico

Overview

Mexico boasts of incredible linguistic diversity with no fewer than 62 national languages.  The Constitution of this medical tourism center declares the country a “pluricultural nation,” and acknowledges the right of the country’s indigenous people to preserve their languages.  

Spanish

Spanish is the de facto official language of the country, and is spoken by 100 million people.  In fact, Mexico has the largest Spanish-speaking population in the world.  Even with the widespread popularity of Spanish, it has not been recognized as the official language of the county.  

Native Languages

Mexico also happens to have one of the largest Native American dialect-speaking populations in the world, second only to Peru.  There are a total of 6 million people here who speak a Native American dialect.  Even though this is an impressive number, it is still a smaller percentage of the population than the Amerindian language-speaking population of Guatemala, Paraguay, or even Panama.  

There are more than 60 Amerindian languages that have been recognized as national languages in this medical tourism center. About one percent of the population speaks only Amerindian languages, while at least 7 percent speak at least one Amerindian language.  The most popular native languages are Maya, Nahuatl, Otomi, Zapotec, and Mixtec.  Among these, the Nahuatl language is the most widely spoken, with over a million speakers.  

Other Languages

After Spanish, English is the most popular non-indigenous language spoken here (mostly near the border cities and major urban centers).  Other languages include French, German, Chinese, Korean, and Arabic all of which are mostly spoken by immigrants who tend to settle in the towns and cities. These languages are rarely heard in the interiors of this medical tourism hub.  Many of these languages are more popular than indigenous languages, but they do not have official recognition or protection.

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