Fifty-six
Ethnic Groups
China
is a united multi-ethnic nation of 56 ethnic groups. According to
the fourth national census, taken in 1990, the Han people made up
91.96 percent of the country’s total population, and the other 55
ethnic groups, 8.04 percent. As the majority of the population is
of the Han ethnic group, China’s other ethnic groups are customarily
referred to as the national minorities.
The
Han people can be found throughout the country, though mainly on
the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, the Yangtze River
and the Pearl River valleys, and the Northeast Plain. The national
minorities, though fewer in number, are also scattered over a vast
area (see the attached table, and can be found in approximately
64.3 percent of China, mainly distributed in the border regions
from northeast China to north, northwest and southwest China. Yunnan
Province, home to more than 20 ethnic groups, has the greatest diversity
of minority peoples in China. In most of China’s cities and county
towns, two or more ethnic groups live together. Taking shape over
China’s long history, this circumstance of different ethnic groups
“living together in one area while still living in individual compact
communities in special areas” continues to provide the practical
basis for political, economic and cultural intercourse between the
Han and the various minority peoples, and for the functioning of
the autonomous national minority areas system.
