Ethnic Groups

The People's Republic of China is a united multiethnic country, having 56 ethnic groups, which have so far been identified and recognized by the Central Government. These groups vary greatly in the number of population. Of them, the Han ethnic group has the largest population, while the other 55 ethnic groups, with smaller populations, are customarily called "ethnic minorities."

According to the fifth national population census in 2000, the 55 ethnic minority groups had 106.43 million people, making up 8.41 percent of the national total. Of them, 18 ethnic minority groups have more than 1 million population. The Zhuang is the largest of them, with a population of nearly 16.1788 million, and the Lhoba is the smallest, having a population of only 3,000 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. People of all ethnic groups in China have made important contributions to the creation of a unified multiethnic country and the creation of the time-honored, splendid Chinese civilization, as well as Chinese historical development and progress.