Violence across Mexico has forced people from more than half a million households to leave their homes over the past five years, according to newly released figures from the country’s national statistics agency. The data provides one of the broadest official snapshots so far of the scale of Mexico’s internal displacement crisis, which has largely remained undocumented at the national level.
Figures released this week by Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) show that between October 2020 and October 2025, people from about 510,000 households were forced to move to another part of the country because of violence. The displacement affected an estimated 1.6 million people, including those who left their homes and others who remained behind and were affected by the disruption.
The figures cover cases in which people moved within Mexico and do not include those who crossed the border into the United States. They also do not account for people displaced before October 2020, suggesting that the overall number of people who have been forced from their homes by violence over a longer period could be substantially higher.
The newly released statistics are significant because Mexico has previously lacked comprehensive government data on internal displacement linked to criminal violence. Civil society organisations, independent agencies and state governments have gathered information on the issue, but those efforts have generally covered only particular regions or groups.
The INEGI figures indicate that displacement has affected communities across the country. Zacatecas, Morelos, Michoacan, Queretaro and Colima recorded some of the highest rates of displacement associated with cartel violence.
Experts said the publication of nationwide figures could help authorities better understand the scale and long-term consequences of the problem. David Mora, a Mexico analyst with the International Crisis Group, described the data as an important development, saying that victims of forced displacement often have limited resources and can effectively disappear from official systems after leaving their homes.
For years, civil society groups and people affected by forced displacement have raised concerns about the issue, according to Mora. He said the effort by an independent institution such as INEGI to quantify the phenomenon could provide a basis for authorities and civil society organisations to address its humanitarian consequences.
Accurately measuring internal displacement, however, remains difficult. People fleeing criminal violence may avoid reporting their movements because they fear being located by criminal groups. Others may leave temporarily while hoping to return once conditions improve. Such movements can therefore remain outside official records.
The latest figures come against the backdrop of years of cartel-related violence in Mexico. The country’s drug war intensified in the mid-2000s, and criminal groups have continued to fight over territory, trafficking routes and local control in several regions.
The statistics agency’s figures focus specifically on people displaced within Mexico and therefore do not capture the separate phenomenon of Mexicans who have fled to the United States because of insecurity.
The issue has also emerged as a challenge for President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government. Her administration has focused heavily on reducing homicide levels and confronting criminal organisations, while also facing pressure from the administration of US President Donald Trump over security and organised crime.
Sheinbaum has acknowledged individual cases involving families forced from their communities following outbreaks of cartel violence and said authorities were working to establish conditions that could allow some residents to return. However, the broader phenomenon of internal displacement has received less attention in the government’s public messaging.
At a morning news briefing on Wednesday, Sheinbaum questioned the newly released INEGI figures and said she had requested additional information from the agency. She sought details about the questions asked and the methodology used to produce the estimates.
The release of the data nevertheless puts a numerical scale on a problem that has often been described as an invisible crisis. With more than 500,000 households reporting displacement over the five-year period covered by the survey, the figures highlight the extent to which violence has affected not only those directly targeted by criminal groups but also families and communities forced to abandon their homes.
