China is a multiethnic country, having 56 ethnic groups. The Han is the largest group, accounting for over 92 percent of the national total population, while the remaining 55 ethnic groups, collectively called ethnic minorities, comprise less than 8 percent. Of them, 18 ethnic minority groups have more than 1 million population. The Zhuang is the largest of them, with a population of about 16.72 million, and the Lhoba is the smallest, having a population of only 2,900 or so. The Hans are distributed all over China, though living in compact communities in the Yellow, Yangtze and Pearl river valleys and in the Songliao Plain. The ethnic minorities inhabit 60 percent of the Chinese territory, despite their small population. Over the ages, the Han people have established extensive political and economic ties and cultural exchanges with various ethnic minorities and they have formed an interdependent relationship for common development.

The Chinese spoken and written language by the Han people is also the most commonly used language in China, as well as one of the most commonly used languages in the world. Chinese, also known as Han Chinese, comprises seven major dialect groups that are composed of over 100 sub-dialects. These dialects are major components of the splendid Chinese culture, playing a unique role in the formation and development of the Chinese nation.

The Hui and Manchu peoples also use Han Chinese, while the remaining 53 ethnic minorities have their own languages. Generally speaking, one ethnic group uses one language, but there are those that use two or more languages. Because of this, there are a total of 72 ethnic minority languages being used in China today. These languages, except for Korean and Gin, whose relationships have not been classified, belong respectively to the Sino-Tibetan family, the Altaic family, the Austro-Asiatic family, the Austronesian family and the Indo-European family of languages.

Of the 55 ethnic minority groups, 29 have their own scripts, numbering 54 in total, of which 25 are still written. Archaeological findings show that a total of 57 ethnic minority scripts have been used in China since ancient times.
The minority groups of Mongolian, Tibetan, Uygur, Kazak, Kirgiz, Korean, Yi, Dai, Lahu, Jingpo, Xibe and Russian have their own scripts, most of which have a long history. Of these, Mongolians in the Mongolian-inhabited areas use alphabetic scripts, written vertically, while those living in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region use different alphabetic scripts that fit local dialect features. The Dais in Yunnan Province use four kinds of scripts in different areas.

Most of the Lisu Christians use a Lisu script based on the Roman alphabet, which uses only upper case letters as well as inverted upper case letters. There are also a small number who use syllabic Lisu writing, created by locals. The Va Christians in Yunnan use a Va script based on the letters of Roman alphabet. Some Zhuang, Bai and Yao peoples use ethnic scripts that are prominently influenced by Han Chinese scripts.

As the national economy is advancing at a fast pace, new words and terms emerge constantly, with the last two decades witnessing some 1,000 new words a year. Since 2002, terms such as "moderately well-off society," "mad-cow disease," "cloning," "genetic modification," "anti-terrorism," "sandstorm," "black whistle," "IELTS (International English Language Testing System)," "9.11," "CEO" and "CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)" have become widely known following media exposure of related events.