Религия в Мексике: История и современное состояние.

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Christianity is the predominant religion in Mexico, with Catholicism being its largest denomination representing around 78% Buddhism and Islam have both made limited inroads through immigration and conversion.

The Mexican Constitution of 1917 imposed limitations on the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico and sometimes codified state intrusion into religious matters. The government does not provide financial contributions to the religious institutions, nor does the Roman Catholic Church participate in public education. Christmas is a national holiday and every year during Easter and Christmas all schools in Mexico, public and private, send their students on vacation. In a major reversal of the Mexican state's restrictions on religion, the constitution was amended in 1992 lifting almost all restrictions on the religions, including granting all religious groups legal status, conceding them limited property, and lifting restrictions on the number of priests in the country. Until recently, priests did not have the right to vote, and even now they cannot be elected to public office.

Sources: Based on Pew Center Research (including historical percentages of Catholicism) and the National Institution of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) both historical Census and specially 2010 and 2020 Census, according to WorldDataValue and Latinobarómetro, Catholicism grew since 1995 or end 90s, in fact almost 30% of Mexicans are involved in religious denomination changes one, twice or more times, near 70% has been always Catholic affiliated (compared to 82% in 1960) and near 3% has been from other religion or none.

Historically the Catholic Church in Mexico is the oldest established church, established in the early sixteenth century. At independence, the Catholic Church kept its status as the only permissible church in Mexico. In the mid nineteenth century, Mexican liberals curtailed the exclusive standing of the church, and Protestant missionaries, mainly from the United States, legally evangelized in Mexico. Other Christian denominations have grown in Mexico, dating from the twentieth century. With the growth of immigration from the Middle East, Eastern Catholic churches were established. Evangelical Protestant churches have expanded their reach significantly from the late twentieth century.

There are some Mexicans practicing Eastern Orthodoxy in Mexico, mainly foreign born people. The Orthodox Church in America has a diocese in Mexico established through mass conversions, as well as through immigration and missionary activity. The Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch also has a presence in Mexico, through its Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Mexico, Venezuela, Central America and the Caribbean.

There are also a number of Seventh day Adventists (488,946 people).

The first LDS missionaries in Mexico arrived in 1875 (although the original Mormons came to Mexico in the 1840s in Utah, when it was a Mexican territory). In 1885, 400 Mormon colonists moved to Mexico. In 1993 the Mexican government formally registered the LDS Church. This allowed the church to own property in Mexico. The 2010 Census reported 314,932 Mormons.

La Luz del Mundo is a Charismatic Christian denomination with international headquarters in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Its flagship church in Guadalajara is said to be the largest non Catholic house of worship in Latin America.

The Pew Research Center estimated that there were 111,000 Muslims in Mexico in 2010. Islam is mainly practiced by Lebanese Mexicans and other Arab Mexicans, with only a few non Arab Mexicans. There is also a growing population of Muslims among indigenous populations in Chiapas.

The presence of Jews in Mexico dates back to 1521, when Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs, accompanied by several Conversos. According to the last national census by the INEGI, there are now more than 67,000 Mexican Jews, roughly 95% of whom live in the Greater Mexico City area. In 1919 letters from the head of the religion, `Abdu'l Bahá, were published mentioning Mexico as one of the places Bahá'ís should take the religion to. Following further pioneers moving there and making contacts the first Mexican to join the religion was in 1937, followed quickly by the first Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly of all Latin America being elected in 1938. With continued growth the National Spiritual Assembly was first elected in 1961. The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated almost 38,000 Bahá'ís in 2005.

Approximately 108,701 Buddhists are counted in Mexico. Also one of six Tibet Houses in the world – Casa Tibet México – is located in Mexico City. It is used by the Dalai Lama and other leaders of Tibetan Buddhism to preserve and share Tibetan culture and spirituality. Alejandro Jodorowsky has stated that he discovered Zen Buddhism in the 1960s while in Mexico. There are also two institutions from Theravada Buddhism tradition, the Theravada Buddhist Monastery and the Vipassana House of Meditation. There are at least 30 Buddhist groups in Mexico.

There are about 800 Indian families in Mexico, constituting about 900 NRIs. Most of them are recent arrivals in the country. There is a big presence of recently arrived Indians working for Tata Consultancy Services in Guadalajara, Querétaro and Mexico City. Mexico has a non discriminatory policy with regard to the grant of its citizenship. The spouse of a Mexican national would generally not face any problem in acquiring local citizenship. But although quite a few NRIs have married Mexicans, they have retained their Indian citizenship. A Sai Baba temple and a Vaishnav temple have been constructed in Mexico City by the Sangam Organisation.

There are around 8,000 Sikhs in Mexico. Most of them are of Punjabi origin.

It's important to specify that irreligion and atheism in Mexico is complex to measure because many Catholics and part of Protestants leads a secular life patterns, and some religious studies with a particular purpose can reports differents percent of unaffiliated people, the National Census in 2010 reported 4.7% having no religion, as well as, World Population Review estimated 38% of non religious. Although, according to INEGI, the number of atheists grows annually by 5.2%, while the number of Catholics grows by 1.7%. Majority of population is Theistic but religious particing is very much lower as the expected on a very christian religious continent, recent surveys have shown that around 3% of Catholics attend church daily and 44% attend church at least once a week.