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List of contemporary ethnic groups

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The following is a list of contemporary ethnic groups. There has been constant debate over the classification of ethnic groups. Membership of an ethnic group tends to be associated with shared ancestry, history, homeland, language or dialect and cultural heritage; where the term "culture" specifically includes aspects such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing (clothing) style and other factors.

By the nature of the concept, ethnic groups tend to be divided into subgroups, may themselves be or not be identified as independent ethnic groups depending on the source consulted.

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Ethnic groups

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This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
See also: List of languages by number of native speakers

The following groups are commonly identified as "ethnic groups", as opposed to ethno-linguistic phyla, national groups, racial groups or similar.[1][2]

More information Ethnicity, Language(s) ...
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    Lists of ethnic groups

    by status:
    regional lists:
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    See also

    Notes

    1. [N 1]
      Following the Caucasian War, the majority of Circassians and Abkhazians were deported to Turkey.
    2. [N 2]
      Language family; with some exceptions, all speakers of the various languages within this family are typically seen as one singular ethnicity.
    3. [N 3]
      Non-contiguous homeland. Throughout most of its history (if not its entire history), this ethnic group has lived in separate, isolated communities scattered throughout the countries/subdivisions listed.
    4. [N 4]
      Assamese ethnic group; the vast majority only speak Assamese.
    5. [N 5]
      Although Akan is the principal language of the Akan people, the Akan language has only recently been standardized. The majority of Akan people still speak their local dialects, which are usually considered by linguists to be separate languages altogether.
    6. [N 6]
      Due to historical migrations, about half of the Akan population reside in Ivory Coast.
    7. [N 7]
      Some time around 1860s, many Akha have been migrating to Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand. Today, the majority reside outside of China.
    8. [N 8]
      Due to the a long history of forced assimilation by the American government, the vast majority only speak English.
    9. [N 9]
      Following the passage of the Indian Removal Act, the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, and the Muscogee were all forced to relocate their entire population to Oklahoma.
    10. [N 10]
      Due to the influence of assimilation into Acehnese culture, most Aneuk Jamee people use Acehnese as their everyday language.
    11. [N 11]
      With the exception of Navajo, all Apachean speakers are seen as one ethnicity. However, due to a history of forced assimilation by the American government, the majority can only speak English.
    12. [N 12]
      The Argobba have typically been a merchant community and usually trades with other ethnic groups; recently, these factors have resulted in the majority only speaking Amharic or Oromo.
    13. [N 13]
      During the Armenian genocide that occurred in Western Armenia, many Armenians fled to Russia, France, and the United States. Today, the majority reside outside of Greater Armenia, and Western Armenia no longer has an openly Armenian population (the Hemshin largely avoid identifying themselves as being Armenian, while the vast majority of people that are openly Armenian in Turkey reside in Istanbul, which is not a part of Western Armenia).
    14. [N 14]
      Eonavian is variously classified as a dialect group of Galician, a transitional variety between Galician and Asturian, and as a separate linguistic group.
    15. [N 15]
      Due to the widespread presence of both Spanish and French, the majority of Basques only have a passive knowledge of their language.
    16. [N 16]
      Unlike the rest of the Soviet republics, who were able to maintain their native language despite the de facto Russianization during the Soviet era, the Russian language has largely replaced Belarusian in everyday use.
    17. [N 17]
      The Beti and the Fang form the Beti-Pahuin peoples. While the term Beti is sometimes used interchangeably to refer to the Beti-Pahuin people, the Beti ethnicity is specifically limited to Ewondo and Eton speakers.
    18. [N 18]
      Due to their historical low status in India, the majority only speak Bengali.
    19. [N 19]
      Due to France's long history of promoting the French language at the expense of others, the vast majority only speak French.
    20. [N 20]
      Otherwise known as Cayapas.
    21. [N 21]
      Due to the Expulsion of the Chagossians, there are no Chagossians living on the Chagos Archipelago. The majority of Chagossians now live in the United Kingdom, Mauritius, and Seychelles.
    22. [N 22]
      The last of the Chumashan languages went extinct in 1965 but revival efforts have been ongoing since 2010.
    23. [N 23]
      The original Egyptian language, which morphed into the Coptic language around the 1st century AD, died out as a spoken language around the 17th century and is now only used for religious ceremonies. Today, the Egyptians, including the Copts, speak Egyptian Arabic.
    24. [N 24]
      Due to a long history of English dominance within Great Britain, the Celtic languages within the islands have seen steady decline in use, with some of them eventually going extinct. Although all of them have since seen major language revival movements, English continues to be main language for the majority of this group.
    25. [N 25]
      Due to the a long history of forced assimilation by the Canadian government, the vast majority can only either speak English.
    26. [N 26]
      Largest practiced religion; the majority/plurality of this group are actually non-religious.
    27. [N 27]
      Due to their historical low status in India, the majority only speak Gujarati.
    28. [N 28]
      The Flemings and Dutch, particularly Southern Dutch, have many cultural and linguistic characteristics in common, but due to a combination of religious differences and popular stereotypes within the Netherlands and Flanders based on the cultural extremes of the Northern and Southern Dutch regions, most Flemings will not consider themselves ethnically Dutch and vice versa.
    29. [N 29]
      Endonymically known as iTaukei.
    30. [N 30]
      This ethnic group is largely a nomadic or semi-nomadic one and do not have a particular area to claim as a primary homeland; these countries are listed here due to having a significant population.
    31. [N 31]
      The Gabrieleno language went extinct around 1900, but revival efforts have been ongoing since the 2000s. Most are fluent in English and/or Spanish
    32. [N 32]
      Otherwise known as Cagayan.
    33. [N 33]
      Like its speakers, the Garifuna language is the only remnant of the Island Carib language.
    34. [N 34]
      Following the Second Carib War, the majority of the Garifuna were deported to Honduras, where they later spread to Guatemala, Belize, and Nicaragua. Since then, Honduras has seen high murder rates, causing many to flee to United States.
    35. [N 35]
      Many of the Gelao dialects are mutually unintelligible; they are known to intermarry with other ethnic groups; recently, these factors have resulted in most of the populations speaking only Chinese.
    36. [N 36]
      Although a Nakh people, they are heavily assimilated into Georgian society.
    37. [N 37]
      Due to their historical low status in India, the majority only speak Hindi.
    38. [N 38]
      Gorolski is not a distinct language, but rather a group of Lechitic dialects spoken by Gorals that fall into various Lechitic languages.
    39. [N 39]
      Since Hawaii's annexation into the United States, English has almost completely supplanted Hawaiian.
    40. [N 40]
      Otherwise known as Kupangese.
    41. [N 41]
      Following the suppression of Miao Rebellion of 1854–1873, the majority of the Hmong fled further south to Guangxi, Yunnan, Vietnam, and Laos.
    42. [N 42]
      Refers specifically to the Kinyarwanda and Kirundi dialects. The other speakers of the dialects within the Rwanda-Rundi continuum are considered to be separate from the Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa peoples.
    43. [N 43]
      The ResearchGate mirror (archive) contains metadata about the presentation.
    44. [N 44]
      Due to a lack of mutual intelligibility with other Japanese varieties, the Kagoshima/Satsugū[29][30][31] and Tsugaru[32][note 43] varieties are considered to be distinct languages from other Japanese varieties within a Japanesic language family by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology within their Glottolog database.[33][34]
    45. [N 45]
      The majority of the Japanese practiced a syncretised form of Shinto and Buddhism called Shinbutsu-shūgō.
    46. [N 46]
      Despite the successful revival of the Hebrew language, many Jews continue to speak the various languages that have developed by the diaspora populations, including Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic. In addition, English serves as the lingua franca of Israel.
    47. [N 47]
      Though many Jewish languages are not genetically related to each other, they are all known to be ethnolects developed by the Jewish diaspora.
    48. [N 48]
      While Jews originate in the Land of Israel, they were primarily a diaspora ethnicity from the late antique period until 1948, with the Jewish identity being claimed mostly by descendants of those that left Israel following the First Jewish–Roman War. Despite some entire Jewish communities migrating back to Israel, Israeli Jews make up only 45% of the worldwide Jewish population.[38]
    49. [N 49]
      The Wapan language have largely replaced Jukun Takum as the main language.
    50. [N 50]
      The indigenous Kalinago language became extinct in the 1920s. However, an offshoot of it known as Garifuna is still spoken today.
    51. [N 51]
      The Kaurna language went extinct in 1929 but revival efforts have been ongoing since the 1980s. Most Kaurna people now mainly speak English.
    52. [N 52]
      Due to both Turkification and the tendency among Georgia-residing Laz to see themselves as being a Georgian subgroup, the majority of Laz either speak Turkish or Georgian.
    53. [N 53]
      The Lhoba speak a variety of Sino-Tibetan languages, all of which may or may not be mutually intelligible.
    54. [N 54]
      Due to poor soil condition in Madura, the majority now live on Java.
    55. [N 55]
      The majority of the Magars have recently switched to Nepali.
    56. [N 56]
      Otherwise known as Keralites or Keralans.
    57. [N 57]
      The majority of the Tungusic languages are endangered, and many Tungusic ethnic groups now mostly speak only Russian or Chinese depending on the location of their homeland.
    58. [N 58]
      Although the Māori have been able to halt the extinction of their language, the majority still only speak English fluently.
    59. [N 59]
      Due to gradual Hispanicization following the Occupation of Araucania, the majority of Mapuche can only speak Spanish.
    60. [N 60]
      Most Maronites today speak Arabic since a language shift around the 17th century with Syriac in liturgical use, however some Maronites in Jish are reviving Aramaic.
    61. [N 61]
      Tutelo went extinct in 1982, leading most Monacans, Saponi, and Occaneechi to speak English. There has been some interest in reviving Tutelo in the 21st century.[45]
    62. [N 62]
      The Moriori language went extinct in 1898 but revival efforts have been ongoing since 2001.
    63. [N 63]
      Shtokavian, Chakavian, Kajkavian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slavomolisano are often considered separate languages depending on classification, but Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin are typically considered Shtokavian varieties rather than distinct languages due to high degrees of mutual intelligibility.
    64. [N 64]
      The Kuki-Chin–Naga language grouping (it is unclear whether the Kuki-Chin–Naga form an actual language family) consists of five to eight branches. Except for Karbi and Meitei, the Kuki-Chin–Naga is divided between the Chin and the Naga. The Mruic and most of the Kuki-Chin speakers are seen as Chin, while speakers of the remaining Kuki-Chin–Naga branches (Ao, Angami–Pochuri, Tangkhulic, and Zeme) and the speakers Northwestern Kuki-Chin are seen as Naga.
    65. [N 65]
      Occitania, as defined by the modern Occitan linguistic territory, covers most of the current Southern France, the Alpine valleys of the Western Piedmont, in Italy, Val d'Aran in Spain and Monaco[52][53] an area of approximately 190,000 km2.
    66. [N 66]
      Due to a long history of forced assimilation by both American and Canadian governments, the vast majority can only speak English.
    67. [N 67]
      Sometimes known as Ulita.
    68. [N 68]
      Resettled in Hokkaido after 1945.
    69. [N 69]
      Though many Tasmanian languages are not genetically related to each other, they are all known to be ethnolects developed by the Palawa.
    70. [N 70]
      Though many Para-Romani languages are not genetically related to each other beyond having a Romani substrate, they are all known to be ethnolects developed by the Romani diaspora.
    71. [N 71]
      The Rusyn identity is mostly limited to those residing outside of Carpathian Ruthenia. Within Carpathian Ruthenia itself (especially in the Ukrainian region), the majority of its residents identify themselves as being Ukrainian.
    72. [N 72]
      All Ryukyuan speakers are seen as one ethnicity; however, due to a history of forced assimilation by the Japanese government, the majority can only speak Japanese.
    73. [N 73]
      Also known as Japanese Gypsies.
    74. [N 74]
      While they are commonly subsumed into one Siberian Tatar language, the Tobol-Irtysh dialects belong to Kipchak-Nogai while the Baraba and Tom dialects belong to Kipchak-Kyrgyz.
    75. [N 75]
      The Siddi now speak the dominant language of their region.
    76. [N 76]
      Due to a history of forced assimilation by the American government, the majority can only speak English.
    77. [N 77]
      Due to the Sirenik language going extinct, Sirenik people have begun using the related Siberian Yupik language in its place.
    78. [N 78]
      The Aramaic language morphed into the Neo-Aramaic languages around 1200 AD. Whether the majority of the Arameans are still speaking these languages is unclear, however.
    79. [N 79]
      The Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka are distinct subgroups. The former are descended from the Tamil community that has lived in Sri Lanka since at least the 2nd century BCE, while the latter are the descendants of 19th- and 20th-century immigrants from South India. Also, most of the Indian Tamil population lives in the country's central highland region, while the native Tamils typically live in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
    80. [N 80]
      Due to the widespread presence of Chinese, the majority of Tujia only have a passive knowledge of their language.
    81. [N 81]
      Due to policies of polonization implemented after World War II, the majority of Vilamovians can only speak Polish.
    82. [N 82]
      While they are commonly subsumed into one Volga Tatar language, the central dialects belong to Kipchak-Bulgar while the Mishar dialects may belong to Kipchak-Cuman.
    83. [N 83]
      Due to a history of forced assimilation by the American government, the majority can only speak English.
    84. [N 84]
      Otherwise known as Azande.
    85. [N 85]
      Though many Zhuang languages are not closely related to each other, they are all known to be ethnolects spoken among Zhuangs.
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