Religion in Mexico

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Overview

Mexico is an overwhelmingly Catholic country with 95% of the population following some branch of Christianity. Even so, Christianity is not the official religion of this medical tourism center.  In fact, Mexico differs from many other Latin American countries in that there is no official religion here. The constitution has provided for strict limitations on the church, as well as restricting the intrusion of the state in church matters.  

Among the Christians, the majority follow Roman Catholicism with 89% of the country’s population pledging allegiance to the Pope. In fact, Mexico is home to the second largest Catholic population in the world, second only to Brazil, another medical tourism hub.  

About 6% of Mexico population is Protestant. Of these, the Charismatics and Pentecostals (with a total of 1.37 million followers) are the largest groups. There are more than a million Jehovah’s Witnesses, and 600,000 Seventh-Day Adventists. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also claims 1 million members, mainly in the border cities of north eastern Mexico.  

Other minority groups include members of the Eastern Orthodox Church, whose members include mostly immigrants.  

Other Religions

There is a small community of Mexican Jews, numbering 45,000 according to the last census. The earliest Jews in Mexico date back to Hernando Cortes’ conquest of the Aztecs in 1521.  Cortes was accompanied by several Jews and Moslems who had converted to Catholicism.  These converts, called Conversos, brought with them their original religion, which they secretly continued to practice.  

Moslems in Mexico are primarily congregated in expatriate communities (Arab & Turkish neighborhoods). However, there are a small group of Moslems among the native tribes in the southernmost state of Chiapas.  

Most indigenous Mexicans follow Catholicism, although some practice a fusion of Catholic rituals with native customs. About 3 million people in this medical tourism center are not affiliated with any religion.

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