Mexico is a country with a high presence and diversity of indigenous population. There are over 56 indigenous groups officially recognized, distributed all around the country.
Although the indigenous issue has been of permanent interest in all the country's population censuses, and these have been the principal source of sociodemographic indigenous data, there is still no consensus about how to identify the indigenous population. The main and traditional way to identify them has been through the spoken language, but this criteria has proved to be very limited, leaving aside important proportions of people who, independently of being or not indigenous language speakers, share other ethnic characteristics (beliefs, customs, values, traditions). The most recently Population Census (2010) included the criteria of self-identification as indigenous, widening the possibilities of correctly capture indigenous identity. Even more, beyond individual attributes, viewing the household as a socialization and cultural transmission space -specially important for the young-, a third criteria for indigenous identification can be the consideration of indigenous status of parents or other adults at home.

Based on a larger research aimed to analyze the family environment of Mexican youth, and using 2010 census data, the paper compares composition and structure of young's households using several criteria for defining indigenous population. Results provide a landscape of some family characteristics of indigenous youth, and differences found illustrate implications and relevance of criteria employed, all of which also constitute important inputs for the design of family and youth policies.