Table 3.

Mexican identification of children ages 17 and younger, by source of Mexican ethnicity

	1.5 Generation	2nd Generation	3rd Generation	4th+ Generation
Percent with Mexican ethnicity on:
Both sides of the family	98.3	89.9	56.0	38.7
One side of the family	1.3	10.1	44.0	61.3
Father’s side only	0.3	5.4	22.9	30.7
Mother’s side only	1.0	4.7	21.1	30.7
Either side of the family	99.6†	100.0	100.0	100.0
Percent identified as Mexican with:
Mexican on both sides of the family	98.00	97.43	96.96	98.59
	(.19)	(.10)	(.30)	(.18)
Mexican on one side of the family	85.71	67.92	61.46	63.32
	(4.21)	(.86)	(.96)	(.59)
Mexican on father’s side only	75.00	66.58	63.11	61.64
	(11.18)	(1.19)	(1.32)	(.84)
Mexican on mother’s side only	88.89	69.47	59.66	65.00
	(4.32)	(1.25)	(1.40)	(.83)
All	97.50	94.45	81.35	76.96
	(.21)	(.13)	(.51)	(.40)
Sample size	5328	29,185	5867	10,830

Source: 1996–2017 CPS March supplement data. Standard errors are shown in parentheses. The samples include US- and Mexican-born children ages 17 and below who live in intact families. The 1.5-generation Mexicans are children born in Mexico. Second-generation Mexicans are US-born and have at least one parent born in Mexico. Third-generation Mexicans are US-born, have two US-born parents, and at least one grandparent born in Mexico. Fourth+-generation Mexicans are US-born, have two US-born parents, have no grandparents born in Mexico, and at least one parent who identifies as Mexican on the Hispanic origin question

^†Following the conventional definition, children born in Mexico are considered 1.5 generation regardless of where their parents or grandparents were born. In our sample, there are 21 1.5-generation children who do not have any Mexican parents or grandparents. Excluding these children from the analysis does not change any of the results