🇲🇽 European vs Indigenous ancestry across Mexico

On average, people in this cohort are ~45% Spanish & Portuguese and ~41% Amerindian, but the balance shifts by region. Northern Nuevo León reaches the highest European share (~62.3% Iberian), while southern Oaxaca clusters show the highest Indigenous share (~86.2%).

Broadly, the north and northeast lean more European, the south (Oaxaca/Chiapas) and Yucatán lean strongly Indigenous, and the Central Mexican Highlands sit in between with mixed proportions. The model also flags Indigenous communities with very little Iberian admixture, confirming that high Indigenous ancestry remains concentrated in the south and southeast.

Takeaway: Mexico’s regional DNA shows a clear north–south gradient — more European ancestry in the north, more Indigenous ancestry in the south and Yucatán, with the central highlands in the middle.

Source: Micheletti et al., 2025. Bayesian inference of population structure using identity-by-descent-based stochastic block models.