List of Chinese nationalities
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China's population consists of 56
ethnic groups 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, ...
, not including some ethnic groups from
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
. The Han people are the largest ethnic group in mainland China. In 2010, 91.51% of the population were classified as Han (~1.2 billion). Besides the
Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctiv ...
majority, 55 other ethnic (minority) groups are categorized in present China, numbering approximately 105 million people (8%), mostly concentrated in the bordering northwest, north, northeast, south and southwest but with some in central interior areas. The major minority ethnic groups in China are Zhuang (16.9 million),
Hui The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...
(10.5 million), Manchu (10.3 million), Uyghur (10 million), Miao (9.4 million), Yi (8.7 million), Tujia (8.3 million), Tibetan (6.2 million), Mongolian (5.9 million), Dong (2.8 million),
Buyei The Bouyei (also spelled ''Puyi'', ''Buyei'' and ''Buyi''; self called: Buxqyaix, or "Puzhong", "Burao", "Puman"; ; vi, người Bố Y), otherwise known as the Zhongjia, are an ethnic group living in Southern Mainland China. Numbering 2.5 mil ...
(2.8 million), Yao (2.7 million), Bai (1.9 million),
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...
(1.8 million), Hani (1.6 million), Li (1.4 million), Kazakh (1.4 million) and Dai (1.2 million). At least 126,000 people from
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, the US and
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
are living in Mainland China. In addition, there are also unrecognized ethnic groups, for example:
Chuanqing people The Chuanqing people () are an East Asian ethnic group. According to popular ethnogenesis, they are descended from Han Chinese soldiers who were sent to Guizhou area in the eighth and ninth centuries to quell Miao rebellions. The Chuanqings, how ...
(穿青人), and others, who comprise over 730,000 people.


Ethnic groups recognized by the People's Republic of China

The following are the 56 ethnic groups (listed by population) officially recognized by the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
(39 in 1954; 54 by 1964; with the most recent addition the
Jino people The Jino (also spelled Jinuo) people (, endonym: ) are a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They live in an area called the Jino Mountains (Jinuoshan 基 ...
in 1979). A GB 3304-91 "Names of ethnicities of China in romanization with codes";
BThe population only includes
mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
;
CFor ethnic groups officially recognised in 1964 or earlier, this is the year of first inclusion in the national census, which were in 1954 and 1964;
1Also included are the
Chuanqing The Chuanqing people () are an East Asian ethnic group. According to popular ethnogenesis, they are descended from Han Chinese soldiers who were sent to Guizhou area in the eighth and ninth centuries to quell Miao rebellions. The Chuanqings, h ...
;
2Also includes Utsuls of Hainan, descended from
Cham Cham or CHAM may refer to: Ethnicities and languages *Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia **Cham language, the language of the Cham people ***Cham script *** Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script *Cham Albania ...
refugees;
3One subset of which is also known as
Hmong Hmong may refer to: * Hmong people, an ethnic group living mainly in Southwest China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand * Hmong cuisine * Hmong customs and culture ** Hmong music ** Hmong textile art * Hmong language, a continuum of closely related to ...
and other include Hmu, Xong and A-Hmao. Some of the related languages and groups of peoples are not necessarily classified under the "Miao" umbrella, which makes this term somewhat vague.
4including
Amdo Amdo ( am˥˥.to˥˥ ) is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being U-Tsang in the west and Kham in the east. Ngari (including former Guge kingdom) in the north-west was incorporated into Ü-Tsang. Amdo is also the ...
wa and Khampa, as well as roughly half of Pumi speakers, the remainder of whom are classified as a separate Pumi ethnicity;
5Also known as ''Kam'';
6Also included are the Sangkong;
7This category includes several different Tai-speaking groups historically referred to as ''Bai-yi'' n fact, the ''Dai'' nationalities are actually speakers of Shan languages varieties -for example : Tai Lue and Tai Nuea peoples are actually Shan peoples subgroups Although that, the speakers of Bumang are also included in this ''Dai'' nationality. ;
8Also included are the
Mosuo The Mosuo (; also spelled Moso, Mosso or Musuo), often called the Naxi among themselves, are a small ethnic group living in China's Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, close to the border with Tibet. Consisting of a population of approximately 40,000, ...
;
9Also included are the Qago ();
10Known as ''Kachin'' in
Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
;
11Also included are the Then;
12Actually not Tajik people but
Pamiri people The Pamiris, russian: Пами́рцы, Pamírtsy, zh, s=帕米尔人, p=Pàmǐ'ěrrén, ur, are an Eastern Iranian ethnic group, native to the Badakhshan region of Central Asia, which includes the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Ta ...
;
13The same group as
Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...
or ''
Kinh people The Vietnamese people ( vi, người Việt, lit=Viet people) or Kinh people ( vi, người Kinh) are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to modern-day Northern Vietnam and Dongxing, Guangxi, Southern China (Jing Islands, Dongxing, Guangxi ...
'' in Sino-Vietnamese;
14Known as ''Palaung'' in
Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
;
15The same group as Nanai on the
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
n side of the border;
16A collective name for all Taiwanese aborigine groups in Taiwan. In fact, the numbers of ''Gaoshan'' in census covers only those who lives in Mainland China (mainly in Fujian) and consists of Amis (autonym: ''Pangcah''), Paiwan and Bunun peoples


Taiwanese aborigines

The
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
government officially refers to all
Taiwanese Aborigines Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China ...
(), as ''Gaoshan'' (), whereas the
Republic of China (Taiwan) Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
recognizes 16 groups of Taiwanese aborigines. The term ''Gaoshan'' has a different connotation in Taiwan than it does in
mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
.


"Unrecognized" ethnic minority groups

This is a list of ethnic groups in China that are not officially recognized by the
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...
of the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. *
Äynu Äynu may refer to: * Äynu people of Western China * Äynu language, their Turkic language See also * Aynu (disambiguation) {{disambig
...
(艾努人 ''Àinǔrén'') *
Altaians The Altai people ( alt, Алтай-кижи, Altai-kizhi), also the Altaians ( alt, Алтайлар, Altailar), are a Turkic ethnic group of indigenous peoples of Siberia mainly living in the Altai Republic, Russia. Several thousand of the Alta ...
(Oirots) are classified as Mongols * Fuyu Kyrgyz are classified as Kyrgyz * Gejia (家人 ''Gèjiārén'') * Bajia (八甲人 ''Bājiǎrén'') *
Deng Deng may refer to: * Deng (company), is a Danish engineering, electrical, solar power and sales company in Accra, Ghana * Deng (state), an ancient Chinese state * Deng (Chinese surname), originated from the state ** Deng Xiaoping, paramount leader ...
(僜人 ''Dèngrén'') * Hu (户人 ''Hùrén'') * Khmu (克木人 ''Kèmùrén'') * Kucong (Yellow Lahu / Lahu Shi; 苦聪人 / 苦聰人 ''Kǔcōngrén'') * Mang (芒人 ''Mángrén'') * Ili Turks (土尔克人 / 土爾克人) * Sherpas (夏尔巴人 / 夏爾巴人 ''Xià'ěrbārén'') * Tankas (疍家人 / 蜑家人 ''Dànjiārén'') including Fuzhou Tanka * Tebbu (迭部人 ''Diébùrén'') *
Tuvans The Tuvans ( tyv, Тывалар, Tıvalar) are a TurkicOtto Maenchen-Helfen, Journey to Tuva, p. 169 ethnic group indigenous to Siberia who live in Russia ( Tuva), Mongolia, and China. They speak Tuvan, a Siberian Turkic language. They are a ...
(图瓦人 ''Túwǎrén'') are considered part of the Mongol ethnicity * Waxiang (瓦乡人 ''Wǎxiāng rén'') *
Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
(犹太人 / 猶太人 ''Yóutàirén'') (Jewish people of China and Jews in general) * Macanese (土生葡人 ''Tǔshēng púrén''), mixed race Catholic
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
speakers who lived in
Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...
since 16th century of various ethnic origins * Utsuls (回辉人 ''Huíhuīrén''), descendants of
Cham Cham or CHAM may refer to: Ethnicities and languages *Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia **Cham language, the language of the Cham people ***Cham script *** Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script *Cham Albania ...
Muslims who fled Vietnamese invasions of Champa * Han subgroups such as
Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...
, Hoklo, Hainanese, Gaoshan Han,
Hui'an () is a county under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Quanzhou, Fujian, People's Republic of China. It is situated in the middle of the Fujian coast, between Quanzhou and Meizhou Bay. The county has a population of 921,794, as of ...
and
Tunbao The Tunbao or Tunpu () are an ethnic subgroup of the Han, located in Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, China. The Tunbao are descended from ethnic Han who were part of an army sent on an expedition to Guizhou during the reign of the Ming dynasty's Ho ...
s. During the
Fifth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China The 2000 Chinese census, officially the Fifth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China (), was conducted by the government of the People's Republic of China with 1 November 2000 as its zero hour. The total population was calcula ...
(2000), 734,438 persons in the Chinese mainland, 97% of them in
Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to the ...
, were specifically recorded as belonging to "Undistinguished ethnic groups".第五次人口普查数据(2000年). 表1—6. 省、自治区、直辖市分性别、民族的人口
(
Fifth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China The 2000 Chinese census, officially the Fifth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China (), was conducted by the government of the People's Republic of China with 1 November 2000 as its zero hour. The total population was calcula ...
(2000). Table 1-6: Population of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities by ethnicity). Presumably, other members of such groups may have been counted within larger "recognized" groups.


Ethnic groups in Hong Kong and Macau

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
and
Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...
are special administrative regions of the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. The governments of Hong Kong and Macau do not use the official PRC ethnic classification system, nor does the PRC's official classification system take ethnic groups in Hong Kong and Macau into account. Minority groups such as Europeans (mainly English and Portuguese), and South or Southeast Asians (mainly Filipinos, Indians, Indonesians, Nepalese, and Pakistanis) live in Hong Kong.


Gallery

File:Yellow and green hanfu.jpg, Han File:Ethnic Zhuang Costumes Guangnan Yunnan China.jpg, Zhuang File:A Manchu young man dressed in traditional clothes.jpg, Manchu File:Hui man.jpg,
Hui The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...
File:Miao zu-Miao minority young man.jpg, Miao File:Khotan-melikawat-chicas-d03.jpg, Uyghur File:Tujia women.jpg, Tujia File:Yi woman in traditional dressing.jpg, Yi File:Morin Khuur, South Mongolian Style.jpg,
Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...


See also

*
Affirmative action in China In the People's Republic of China, the government had instated affirmative action policies for ethnic minorities called Youhui zhengce () or Shaoshu minzu jiafen ( in College Entrance Examination) when it began in 1949 and still had impact unti ...
* Demographics of China *
Demographics of Taiwan The population of Taiwan is approximately 23.19 million as of September 2022. Immigration of Han Chinese to the Penghu islands started as early as the 13th century, while settlement of the main island occurred from the 16th century during the ...
*
Taiwanese people Taiwanese people may be generally considered the people of Taiwan who share a common culture, ancestry and speak Taiwanese Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka or indigenous Taiwanese languages as a mother tongue. Taiwanese people may also refer to the i ...
* Ethnic minorities in China *
Han Chinese subgroups The subgroups of the Han Chinese people are defined based on linguistic, cultural, ethnic, genetic and regional features. The terminology used in Mandarin to describe the groups is: "minxi" (, pronounced ), used in Mainland China or "zuqun" (, pr ...
*
Hua–Yi distinction The distinction between ''Huá'' and ''Yí'' ( zh, t=, p=Huá Yí zhī biàn), also known as Sino–barbarian dichotomy, is a historical Chinese concept that differentiated a culturally defined "China" (called Huá, Huaxia , or Xià ) from cultur ...
* Languages of China * List of endangered languages in China * Kra–Dai ethnic groups in China *
Taiwanese indigenous peoples Taiwanese indigenous peoples (formerly Taiwanese aborigines), also known as Formosan people, Austronesian Taiwanese, Yuanzhumin or Gaoshan people, are the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, with the nationally recognized subgroups numbering about 5 ...
*
Unrecognized ethnic groups in China A number of ethnic groups of the People's Republic of China are not officially recognized. Taken together, these groups () would constitute the twentieth most populous ethnic group of China. Some scholars have estimated that there are over 200 d ...
*
Zhonghua minzu ''Zhonghua minzu'' (, ) is a political term in modern Chinese nationalism related to the concepts of nation-building, ethnicity, and race in the Chinese nationality. ''Zhonghua minzu'' was established during the early Beiyang (1912 ...


References


Further reading

* *


External links


"Chinese ethnic odyssey"
- collection of articles from the '' People's Daily''
Family album of Chinese 56 ethnic groups



Map share of ethnic by county of China

Map share of dominate ethnic by county of China
{{Authority control
Ethnic 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, ...
China