Today indigenous peoples make up approximately 30 percent of the population, and people of European ancestry, primarily Spanish, make up about nine percent of the population. About two percent of all Mexicans are immigrants from abroad. Africans contributed to the original racial mixture when approximately 120,000 slaves were brought to the region between 1519 and 1650. By the end of the colonial period, as many as 200,000 Africans may have entered New Spain. Blacks intermarried with Native Americans and mestizos and live on both the west and east coasts. Their primary influence is centered around the Gulf Coast port of Veracruz. Native Americans are concentrated in the regions of Mexico where indigenous civilizations were located at the time of the conquest.

The vast majority of Mexicans, about 90 percent, are Catholic. The states that are the least Catholic generally have the highest percentages of Protestants. Mexico's 1917 constitution guarantees freedom of religion. Major constitutional reforms in 1992 eliminated many of the severe restrictions on the Catholic Church and other religions.