Religious Beliefs and Practices in Mexico National Survey (2016)

The objective of the survey was to gain an understanding of the religious beliefs and practices of the Mexican people, including different regions with regard to major religions. A questionnaire was designed around four thematic sections: (1) changing religion, (2) identity and religious commitment, (3) religious practices, and (4) key beliefs and perceptions on religion and the public sphere.

The sample was designed to ensure compatibility between (1) the principal religious groups, according to the INEGI 2010 census (e.g., Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals, Biblical non-Evangelicals, and the unaffiliated), (2) Mexican regions that are mapped according to their degree of religious change, and (3) the country's urban/rural populations.

The universe of the study consisted of four population groups defined by their religious affiliations. The sample includes 3,000 cases, with a reliability rate of 95 percent and a standard error of +/- 2.5 percent. The sample covered 155 towns in the country's 32 districts (31 states and Mexico City). Stratified random sample with probability proportional to size was used for the sample. Oversampling was used to ensure the representativeness of non-Catholic groups and to generate statistically reliable subsamples for meaningful comparisons.