MEXICO CITY, Mexico (FR) – Despite claims by the government that Protestants are only 3.7 percent of the population, an investigative report by a prominent Mexico City newspaper recently revealed that the actual number of Protestants in the state of Mexico has multiplied six times between 1950 and 1980.

In the federal district where Mexico City is located, the Protestant population doubled in the same 30 year span, according to the report. The article was an exposé of Protestant sects conducted by El Universal, which featured four full-page installments on the trend over a four-day period in mid-April.

The state of Tabasco in the southern region of the country has the greatest “penetration of evangelical religions,” with more than 280,000 believers out of a population of 1,250,000 – approximately 23 percent. The report also claimed that the state of Chiapas has a Protestant population between 11.5 and 30 percent, with at least seven communities claiming a Protestant majority.

The city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, as well as other border cities like Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, each have between 13 to 15 percent Protestant populations.

Elizabeth Isais, a special correspondent with Open Doors News Service, stated that the El Universal report was a landmark in revealing the extent of church growth in Mexico – which up until now has been assumed to be small.