Mexico's Self-Ascribed Indigenous People in the 2010 Census: Ethnic Revitalization or Census Overestimation?

Based on the results of the 2010 Mexican population and housing census, the population self-identified as indigenous totaled more than 15 million, or 15 percent of the national population that year. This figure almost tripled in the 2000-2010 period and became the highest census volume of the indigenous population since 1930. This article discusses different possible explanations for the phenomenon, such as the revitalization of ethnicity, the different formulations of census questions, census quality and population growth. The accumulation of evidence points to the fact that the formulation of the 2010 question, by referring the ethnic condition to "culture", was more permissive for the population to self-identify as indigenous and overestimated its volume.