The absolute number of Catholics over 5 years of age rose from 63.2 million in 1990 to 74.6 million in 2000. But their proportional share of the population dropped.
In the same period, Protestants increased to 5.1% of the population from 4.9%. Today there are 4.4 million members of Protestant communities, including fundamentalist groups.
Those data come from the National Institute of Statistics, Geography, and Information Science (INEGI), based on its census of 1990 and 2000, the Notimex news agency reported.
INEGI estimated the number of followers of various religions by surveying Mexicans older than 5, or a total of 84.7 million people, of whom 2.98 million professed no creed, according to the last census.
Mexico has the largest number of Catholics, after Brazil.
The Pope will fly from Guatemala to Mexico City on Tuesday. While in Mexico, the Holy Father will canonize Guadalupe visionary Juan Diego and beatify two Indian martyrs of Oaxaca.
