Yucatán is known for low crime, slow afternoons and neighbors who notice everything. A new national poll suggests residents agree with at least that last part.
In the Ranking del Carácter Mexicano 2026, released Wednesday by pollsters Mitofsky and TResearch, 26% of Yucatán residents described themselves as “very” or “somewhat” gossipy. That puts the state first in Mexico, 10 percentage points above the national average of 16%.
Oaxaca came in second at 23%, followed by San Luis Potosí at 21%. Jalisco and Morelos tied for fourth with 20% each.
At the other end of the list is Tlaxcala, where only 6% of residents claimed the label. Tabasco followed at 7%, then Hidalgo and Chiapas at 8% and Nayarit at 9%. The gap between first and last place is 20 points.
The survey asked a single question: How gossipy do you consider yourself? People could answer very, somewhat, a little or not at all. Pollsters combined the first two answers to build the ranking.
Mitofsky and TResearch said the results reflect self-perception. They show how people see themselves, not how much they actually gossip. The national margin of error is plus or minus 0.8 percentage points, but it is larger for individual states. The pollsters noted that small differences between states may not be statistically significant.
The poll collected 14,760 valid interviews in all 32 states between April and October.
Age made the biggest difference. Among adults 18 to 29, 24% called themselves gossipy, compared with 16% of those 30 to 49 and 14% of people 50 and older.
Women were slightly more likely than men to own up to it, at 18% versus 14%. Education made less of a difference: 17% of people without a university degree said they were gossipy, compared with 14% of those with one.
Regional averages were closer together than the state numbers. The Northeast and the West-Bajío region both reached 18%, the Center and South-Southeast came in at 15%, and the Northwest was lowest at 14%.
For many in Mérida, the results recall a comment that drew laughs two years ago. In October 2024, Raúl Tassinari González, then public security secretary in Solidaridad, the Quintana Roo municipality that includes Playa del Carmen, offered his own theory of why Mérida is so safe.
“Everyone is a gossip, and being gossips, they pass information along more quickly,” he said.
In a widely shared video, a woman standing next to him can be seen trying not to laugh. Tassinari González credited Mérida residents with keeping an eye on their surroundings and quickly reporting anything suspicious. Not everyone agreed with that explanation.
Mérida does consistently rank among the safest cities in Mexico. In 2024, CEOWorld Magazine placed it second in the Americas, behind only Quebec City.
Researchers who study gossip say it isn’t all bad. In his 1996 book Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language, Oxford anthropologist Robin Dunbar argued that talking about other people serves the same purpose for humans that grooming does for apes and monkeys. It keeps social ties strong.
Mexico’s National Autonomous University, known as UNAM, describes chisme as information, true or false, that moves from person to person. In much of Yucatán, that usually happens over a fence, at the corner store or in a family WhatsApp group.
Fast Facts: Mexico’s gossip ranking
- Survey: Ranking del Carácter Mexicano 2026, by Mitofsky and TResearch
- Released: Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026
- Sample: 14,760 interviews in all 32 states, April to October 2026
- National margin of error: plus or minus 0.8 percentage points
- Top 3: Yucatán 26%, Oaxaca 23%, San Luis Potosí 21%
- Bottom 3: Tlaxcala 6%, Tabasco 7%, Hidalgo and Chiapas 8% (tie)
- National average: 16%
- Most likely to say yes: adults 18 to 29, at 24%
With reporting from Diario de Yucatán, Mitofsky and N+
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