Mexicans of European descent

European Mexicans are Mexican citizens of European descent. Mexico does not have a racial census, but estimates from different international organizations of this ethnic group as a segment of the country's population range from 9% according to The World Factbook to as high as 10-20% (approximately one-tenth to one-fifth) according to Encyclopædia Britannica. Another group in Mexico, the "mestizos", includes people with varying amounts of European ancestry, with some having a European admixture higher than 90%. However, the criteria for defining mestizo varies from study to study, and in Mexico a large number of white people have been historically classified as mestizos because the Mexican government defines ethnicity on cultural standards as opposed to racial ones.

Europeans began arriving in Mexico during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire; the descendants of the conquistadors and new arrivals from Spain formed an elite but never a majority of the population. Intermixing would produce a mestizo group which would become the majority by the time of Independence, but power remained firmly in the hands of the elite, called "criollo."