China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

's population consists of 56 ethnic groups, 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 no ...

. 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 distinctive v ...

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 (10.5 million), Manchu (10.3 million), Uyghur (10 million),

Miao Miao may refer to: * Miao people, linguistically and culturally related group of people, recognized as such by the government of the People's Republic of China * Miao script or Pollard script, writing system used for Miao languages * Miao (Unicode ...

(9.4 million), Yi (8.7 million), Tujia (8.3 million),

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken diale ...

(6.2 million), Mongolian (5.9 million), Dong (2.8 million), Buyei (2.8 million), Yao (2.7 million), Bai (1.9 million), Korean (1.8 million),

Hani Hani may refer to: People * Hani (name) * Hani (producer), a record producer and remixer from New York City * Hani (singer), a South Korean singer and member of EXID * Hani people, an ethnic group of China and Vietnam Places * Hani, an island in ...

(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 to ...

, 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 Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

are living in Mainland China. In addition, there are also unrecognized ethnic groups, for example: Chuanqing people (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 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, ...

s (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 List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

(39 in 1954; 54 by 1964; with the most recent addition the Jino people 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 China, People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming Island, Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territorie ...

;
^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;
²Also includes Utsuls of Hainan, descended from Cham refugees;
³One subset of which is also known as Hmong and other include

Hmu The Hmu language (''hveb Hmub''), also known as Qiandong Miao (黔东, Eastern Guizhou Miao), Central Miao, East Hmongic, or (somewhat ambiguously) Black Miao, is a dialect cluster of Hmongic languages of China. The best studied dialect is that ...

, 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 bi ...

wa and

Kham Kham (; ) is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The original residents of Kham are called Khampas (), and were governed locally by chieftains and monasteries. Kham ...

pa, 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;
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 Tajik, Tadjik, Tadzhik or Tajikistani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Tajikistan * Tajiks, an ethnic group in Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan * Tajik language, the official language of Tajikistan * Tajik (surname) * Tajik c ...

but Pamiri people;
¹³The same group as Vietnamese or '' Kinh people'' in Sino-Vietnamese;
¹⁴Known as ''Palaung'' in

;
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-ei ...

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

government officially refers to all

Taiwanese Aborigines Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese peo ...

(), as ''Gaoshan'' (), whereas the Republic of China (Taiwan) recognizes 16 groups of Taiwanese aborigines. The term ''Gaoshan'' has a different connotation in Taiwan than it does in

"Unrecognized" ethnic minority groups

Beijing-Niujie-Minzu-Tuanjie-Da-Jiating-3666

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 i ...

of the

. * Äynu (艾努人 ''Àinǔrén'') * Altaians (Oirots) are classified as Mongols * Fuyu Kyrgyz are classified as Kyrgyz * Gejia ( Gě-chinese

家人 ''Gèjiārén'') * Bajia (八甲人 ''Bājiǎrén'') * Deng (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 Fuzhou Tanka ( Fuzhou dialect: 曲蹄; Foochow Romanized: Kuóh-dà̤ ; Simplified Chinese: 福州疍民 Hók-ciŭ Dáng-mìng; 江妹仔 Gĕ̤ng-muói-giāng; 曲蹄婆 Kuóh-dà̤-bò̤), or Boat People, are from Fujian, China. A branch of th ...

* 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 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 pop ...

since 16th century of various ethnic origins * Utsuls (回辉人 ''Huíhuīrén''), descendants of Cham 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 and Tunbaos. During the Fifth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China (2000), 734,438 persons in the Chinese mainland, 97% of them in

Guizhou Guizhou (; Postal romanization, formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in the Southwest China, southwest region of the China, People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the pr ...

, 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 (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 List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

and

are

special administrative regions The special administrative regions (SAR) of the People's Republic of China are one of the provincial-level administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China directly under the control of its Central People's Government (State Co ...

of the

. 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 File:Miao zu-Miao minority young man.jpg,

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 ...

References

External links

"Chinese ethnic odyssey"
- collection of articles from the ''

People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language ...

''
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 A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established fo ...