List of contemporary ethnic groups
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 cultural heritage, ancestry, history, homeland, language or dialect, the term culture specifically including aspects such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, etc. By the nature of the concept, ethnic groups tend to be divided into ethnic subgroups, which may themselves be or not be identified as independent ethnic groups depending on the source consulted.
Largest ethnic groups
Lists of ethnic groups
- List of ethnic groups in Russia
- Asian peoples
- African peoples
- European peoples
- Classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas
- List of Indigenous Australian group names
- Uncontacted peoples
- Ethnic flag
- List of language families
- Lists of people by nationality
- Lists of active separatist movements
- Race (classification of humans)
- Y-chromosome haplogroups by populations
- identification as Arab of all Arab speaking populations (historically Arabized due to the Islamic conquests) is relatively recent (20th century), a product of Pan-Arabism, and may be subject to political dispute. The Arabic language has an estimated 293 million native speakers. The majority of these identifies as Arab. The CIA Factbook estimates the number of ethnic Arabs as follows: 86.9 M in Egypt, 38.8 M in Algeria, 33.0 M in Morocco, 32.6 M in Iraq, 26.2 M in Saudi Arabia, 25.9 M in Sudan, 24.3 M in Yemen, 22.5 M in Syria, 10.4 M in Tunisia (also identified as Arab-Berber, 10.3 M in Chad, 8.0 M in Israel, 6.5 M in Libya (also identified as Arab-Berber), 6.5 M in Jordan, 6.1 M in Eritrea, 4.7 M in the United Arab Emirates, 41 M in Lebanon, 4.2 M in the Palestinian territories, 3.1 M in Oman, 3.0 M in Kuwait, 3.3 M in Mauritania (also identified as Arab-Berber or Moors), 1.9 M in Sri Lanka (Ceylon Moors), 1.5 M in Qatar, 1.2 M in Bahrain, 0.8 M in Djibouti, 0.6 M in Western Sahara. This amounts to a population of 366 million Arabs. To this are added an estimated 7 million Arab immigrants in western countries.
- roughly 163 million in Bangladesh and 100 million in the Republic of India (CIA Factbook 2014 estimates, numbers subject to rapid population growth); about 3 million Bangladeshis in the Middle East, 1 million Bengalis in Pakistan, 0.4 million British Bangladeshi.
- Including all population with Catalan heritage, language, culture.
- 37.6 million in the UK, between 25 and 49 million reporting "English ancestry" in the United States, 6.6 million reporting English "ethnic origin" in Canada, and between 7 million in Australia.
- Estimates range from anywhere between 66 to 106 million. The French language has an estimated 75 million native speakers. The CIA Factbook does not report any French ethnicity (considering it a nationality), giving the ethnic composition of France as "Celtic and Latin with Teutonic". 
- 65 million people are Germans without any immigrant background in the Federal Republic of Germany. With circa 50 million people claiming German ancestry in the United States, it is 115 million people alone. When German Brazilians, German Argentines and German Canadians are added, the number rises to circa 133 million people. When people of German ancestry from the rest of the world are added, the number is roughly 150 million.
- CIA Factbook (2014) estimates 55 million in India. SIL Ethnologue cites 46 million native speakers of Gujarati. About 1 million in Pakistan and 1 million in the USA.
- 1.24 billion (92% of total population) in the PRC (CIA Factbook 2014 est.), about 22 million in Taiwan, and an estimated 50 million Overseas Chinese
- depending on definition; CIA Factbook (2014) gives 890 million Indo-Aryans as the majority group of the Republic of India. The Indo-Aryan languages are estimated to have some 1.2 billion native speakers. The 2001 Indian census records two figures, 258 million and 422 million "Hindi" speakers. Both figures include languages other than Standard Hindi, such as Rajasthani (ca. 80 million in independent estimates), Bhojpuri (40 million), Awadhi (38 million), Chhattisgarhi (18 million), and dozens of other languages with a million to over ten million speakers each. The figure of 422 million specifically includes all such people, whereas the figure of 258 depends on speaker identification as recorded in the census. Maithili (one of the Bihari languages) was listed as a separate language in the 2001 census but previously considered a dialect of Hindi.
- The Irish were predominantly Gaelic-speaking until the 17th century, but significantly anglicized during the early modern period. Since the mid-19th century, the large majority of Irish have been native speakers of English.
- c. 7 million in Ireland, about 30 million Irish Americans (including non-primary ancestry), 2 million in Australia (self-declared Irish ancestry), 4.5 million in Canada and up to 1 million in Argentina. The UK census does not record ethnicity (other than generic "White British", and an unknown number of people in the UK identify as Irish (Irish community in Britain, estimated between roughly 1 and 6 million).
- As a nation state, Italy was unified in the 19th century, combining ethnically diverse territories in the Italian peninsula, Sicily and Sardinia.
- Figures cited range anywhere between some 60 and 140 million, the latter figure including citizens of Brazil and the United States who identify as of partial Italian ancestry. The Italian language has some 60 million native speakers.
- 127 million in Japan, about 2.5 million abroad.
- 102 million in Indonesia (CIA Factbook 2014 estimate); small numbers in Malaysia, Suriname and elsewhere.
- 50 million in South Korea, 25 million in North Korea, roughly 7 million in diaspora.
- 87 million in the Republic of India (CIA Factbook 2014 estimate), subject to rapid population growth.
- About 30 million in Pakistan and 12 million in Afghanistan; Penzl and Sloan, Pashto Grammar (2009) estimated a total number of Pashto speakers between 40 and 60 million. SIL Ethnologue in 2011 estimated an ethnic population of 49 million.
- About 38 million in Ethiopia, ~2 million in Kenya, roughly half a million in diaspora. Afan Oromo language has an estimated 45 million native speakers.
- 50 million in Iran, 8 million in Afghanistan, 2 million in Tajikistan, roughly 2 million in diaspora. The Persian language has an estimated 60 million native speakers.
- 38 million Poles in Poland; up to 20 million people claiming "Polish ancestry" (including 9 million Polish Americans) elsewhere.
- Główny Urząd Statystyczny (January 2013). Ludność. Stan i struktura demograficzno-społeczna [Narodowy Spis Powszechny Ludności i Mieszkań 2011] (pdf) (in Polish). Główny Urząd Statystyczny. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
- Portuguese ethnicity is more clear-cut than Spanish ethnicity, but here also, the case is complicated by the Portuguese ancestry of populations in the former colonial empire. Portugal has 11 million nationals. The 42 million figure is due to a study estimating a total of an additional 31 million descendants from Portuguese grandparents; these people would be eligible for Portuguese citizenship under Portuguese nationality law (which grants citizenship to grandchildren of Portuguese nationals). Emigração: A diáspora dos portugueses (2009)
- 88 M in Pakistan, 35 M in the Republic of India (CIA Factbook 2014 estimates).
- "Romanian". Ethnologue. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
- Estimates range between 130 and 150 million. 111 million in the Russian Federation (2010 census), about 16 million ethnic Russians in post-Soviet states (8 M in Ukraine, 4.5 M in Kazakhstan, 1 M in Belarus, 0.6 M Latvia, 0.6 M in Uzbekistan, 0.6 M in Kyrgyzstan. Up to 10 million Russian diaspora elsewhere (mostly Americas and Western Europe).
- The Scottish Diaspora
- There is no clear definition of Spanish ethnicity. In Spain, ethnic identity is divided into regional groups, and internationally, Spanish ethnicity is not clearly delineated from "Spanish ancestry" in the territories of the former colonial empire. There are 41 million Spanish nationals in Spain, and some 2 million living abroad.
- 73 million in the Republic of India (CIA Factbook 2014 estimate, subject to rapid population growth), 2 million in Sri Lanka (CIA Factbook 2014 estimate), roughly 3 million in diaspora.
- 89 million in the Republic of India (CIA Factbook 2014 estimate), subject to rapid population growth.
- Ukrainians at the Joshua Project
- 80 million in Vietnam (CIA Factbook 2014 estimate), roughly 4 million in diaspora.
- Levinson, David (1998), Ethnic Groups Worldwide: A Ready Reference Handbook, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 978-1-57356-019-1