El Tío Index · edition 1 · November 2026

94 out of 100 small businesses in Mexico have no website registered in the INEGI census

We counted 83,714 businesses with up to 50 people in four Mexican states using INEGI's public census, plus other Latin American cities using Overture Maps. The method and sources are below, so anyone can repeat it.

By country and city

What the number means

In Mexico the source is DENUE, INEGI's business directory. There, "no website" means the business did not register one. Some do have a site and did not declare it, so the figure may run a little high.

To check the other side, we reviewed 375 of the websites that do appear in the census. 169 did not load. Method note: if that share holds, about 97 out of 100 businesses counted would not have a working website today. It is an estimate from a sample that is not random. The second edition will add a random sample of businesses without a registered website, looked up one by one.

Outside Mexico we used Overture Maps, which starts from businesses that already appear on some map. There we only measure whether they have their own website; many have social media.

How we counted

Free open data: INEGI's DENUE (Mexico City, Jalisco, Nuevo León and Quintana Roo) and Overture Maps Places (CDLA Permissive 2.0 license). Sectors: restaurants, beauty, repair shops, health, fitness, real estate, events, hospitality and tourism. We removed chains and duplicates. We do not publish business names, only totals. The method is updated with each edition.