Monoethnicity is the existence of a single
ethnic group
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
in a given region or country. It is the opposite of
polyethnicity
Polyethnicity, alternatively 'polyethnics'' and also pluriethnicity or multiethnicity, (from prefixes poly-, pluri-, multi- / all designating plurality), refers to specific cultural phenomena that are characterized by social proximity and mut ...
.
An example of a largely monoethnic country is Japan. It is a common belief in Japan that the entire country is monoethnic, but a few
ethnic minorities live in Japan (e.g.
Koreans
Koreans ( South Korean: , , North Korean: , ; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula.
Koreans mainly live in the two Korean nation states: North Korea and South Korea (collectively and simply refe ...
,
Ainus and
Ryukyuans
The Ryukyuan people ( ryu, 琉球民族 (るーちゅーみんずく), Ruuchuu minzuku or ryu, どぅーちゅーみんずく, Duuchuu minzuku, label=none, ja, 琉球民族/りゅうきゅうみんぞく, Ryūkyū minzoku, also Lewchewan or L ...
). They represent around 1% of the whole population.
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
is a monoethnic country. There are small ethnic minorities that exist in South Korea, where they account for around 1% of the South Korean population. These include around 650,000 Chinese immigrants.
Most
Sub-Saharan African countries have what would be considered a mono-
racial
A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...
society, but it is common to find dozens of ethnic groups within the same country.
The
Yugoslav Wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, SFR Yugoslavia from ...
are noted as having made
Yugoslavia's successor states "de facto and
de jure
In law and government, ''de jure'' ( ; , "by law") describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, ("in fact") describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legally ...
monoethnic nation-states".
Monoethnic countries with more than 85%
Sovereign states
Unrecognized states and dependent territories
See also
*
Ethnic cleansing
*
Ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism, also known as ethnonationalism, is a form of nationalism wherein the nation and nationality are defined in terms of ethnicity, with emphasis on an ethnocentric (and in some cases an ethnocratic) approach to various politi ...
*
Ethnostate
*
Homogeneous
*
Titular nation
The titular nation is the single dominant ethnic group in a particular state, typically after which the state was named. The term was used for the first time by Maurice Barrès in the late 19th century.
Countries
Soviet Union
The notion was used ...
References
{{Ethnicity
Ethnicity