150 Largest Contemporary Ethnicities in the World

These are the 150 largest ethnicities in the world, not nationalities. Main source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_contemporary_ethnic_groups Several ethnic groups were not included in this source.
Quiz by YerevanNaypyidaw
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Last updated: May 5, 2017
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First submittedJune 24, 2015
Times taken15,100
Average score36.4%
Rating4.47
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Total Polpulation
Region of Origin
Ethnic Group
1300 million
East Asia
Han Chinese
420 million
South Asia
Hindustani
420 million
Middle East/North Africa
Arab
320 million
South Asia
Bengali
150 million
Europe
German
150 million
Europe
Spaniard
150 million
Europe
Russian
140 million
Europe
Italian
130 million
East Asia
Japanese
120 million
South Asia
Punjabi
106 million
Europe
French
105 million
Southeast Asia
Javanese
104 million
Southeast Asia
Filipino
100 million
Europe
English
100 million
South Asia
Bihari
90 million
South Asia
Telugu
87 million
South Asia
Marathi
83 million
East Asia
Korean
83 million
Middle East/North Africa
Turkish
80 million
Europe
Irish
78 million
South Asia
Tamil
70 million
Middle East/North Africa
Persian
60 million
South Asia
Pashtun
60 million
South Asia
Gujarati
60 million
South Asia
Malayali
58 million
Europe
Pole
55 million
South Asia
Kannada
50 million
Southeast Asia
Thai
48 million
Southeast Asia
Vietnamese
45 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Oromo
43 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Yoruba
42 million
Europe
Portuguese
42 million
South Asia
Sindhi
40 million
Europe
Scottish
40 million
Europe
Ukrainian
38 million
Middle East/North Africa
Kurd
35 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Hausa
35 million
Middle East/North Africa
Azerbaijani
32 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Igbo
30 million
Southeast Asia
Bamar
30 million
Middle East/North Africa
Berber
30 million
Southeast Asia
Malay
30 million
Southeast Asia
Sundanese
30 million
Central Asia
Uzbek
29 million
Europe
Dutch
26 million
Europe
Serb/Croat/Bosnian
24 million
Europe
Romanian
20 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Akan
20 million
Americas
Amhara
20 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Fula
18 million
Middle East/North Africa
Jewish
18 million
Central Asia
Tajik
17 million
Europe
Greek
17 million
East Asia
Zhuang
16 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Somali
15 million
South Asia
Assamese
15 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Chewa
15 million
Europe
Hungarian
15 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Hutu
15 million
South Asia
Sinhalese
14 million
Central Asia
Kazakh
13 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Mandinka
13 million
Southeast Asia
Khmer
13 million
Europe
Swede
12 million
Europe
Czech
12 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Zulu
12 million
Southeast Asia
Miao/Hmong
12 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Mongo
12 million
Europe
Norwegian
10 million
Europe
Byelorussian
10 million
Middle East/North Africa
Copt
10 million
East Asia
Hui
10 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Ijaw
10 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Kanuri
10 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Kikuyu
10 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Kongo
10 million
East Asia
Manchu
10 million
East Asia
Mongol
10 million
Americas
Quechua
10 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Shona
10 million
Central Asia
Uyghur
9 million
South Asia
Balochi
9 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Tigrayan
8 million
Europe
Albanian
8 million
Middle East/North Africa
Armenian
8 million
Europe
Bulgarian
8 million
Southeast Asia
Batak
8 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Beti-Pahuin
8 million
Middle East/North Africa
Circassian
8 million
East Asia
Dai
8 millon
Europe
Finnic
8 million
East Asia
Tujia
8 million
Central Asia
Turkmen
8 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Xhosa
8 million
East Asia
Yi
7 million
Europe
Catalan
7 million
Middle East/North Africa
Georgian
7 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Luba
7 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Luo
7 million
Americas
Maya
7 million
Central Asia
Volga Tatar
7 million
Europe
Welsh
6 million
Europe
Baltic
6 million
Europe
Dane
6 million
Sub-Saharan African
Ganda
6 million
Europe
Slovak
6 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sukuma
6 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Tswana
6 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Wolof
5 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Afar
5 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Dinka
5 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Ibibio
5 million
Central Asia
Kyrgyz
5 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Nuer
5 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Pedi
5 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Songhai
5 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sotho
5 million
East Asia
Tibetan
4 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Afrikaner
4 million
South Asia
Naga
4 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sara
3 million
Middle East/North Africa
Assyrian
3 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Bambara
3 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Bemba
3 million
East Asia
Bouyei
3 million
Europe
Galician
3 million
East Asia
Kam/Dong
3 million
Europe
Macedonian
3 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Ndebele
3 million
South Asia
Romani
3 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Tigrinya
3 million
East Asia
Yao
2 million
Americas
Aymara
2 million
East Asia
Bai
2 million
Central Asia
Bashkir
2 million
Europe
Basque
2 million
South Asia
Brahui
2 million
Central Asia
Chuvash
2 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Ga-Adangbe
2 million
East Asia
Hani
2 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Lango
2 million
Americas
Mapuche
2 million
Europe
Slovene
2 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Soga
2 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Swazi
1 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Acholi
1 million
Europe
Gagauz
1 million
Middle East/North Africa
Laz
1 million
East Asia
Li
1 million
Sub-Saharan Africa
Soninke
1 million
Middle East/North Africa
Tuareg
+3
Level 68
Jun 24, 2015
Interesting quiz. Norwegian is spelled incorrectly. I am surprised no North American First Nations appear - it would depend on how you group them whether any group would reach top 80 status I guess.
+1
Level 29
Jul 9, 2015
North, South and Central American natives aren't included here because they are broken down into many small tribes.
+2
Level 46
Jun 25, 2015
suprising that there are not very many African ethnicities in the list. would expect to see quite a lot.
+4
Level 29
Jul 9, 2015
African ethnicities are not very populated because there a thousands of different tribes.
+1
Level 71
Nov 21, 2015
Norwegian.
+2
Level 84
Nov 26, 2015
I missed Circassian and Norwegian because QM has spelt them wrong! Good fun though.
+2
Level 32
Dec 1, 2015
Javanese and Malays are the only Indonesian ethnicities in this quiz. Meanwhile, there are Sundanese with 30 million people, Batak with 7.6 million, and a few others numbering above 3 million people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Indonesia

Also, I didnt see Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo. All three are African (specifically, Nigerian) ethnicities with more than 30 milllion people each.

What the source(s) of this quiz?

+4
Level 57
Dec 1, 2015
should accept "Pashto" "Javan" and "Baluchi"
+2
Level 72
Dec 24, 2015
you should accept azeri for azerbaijani

also sindhi did not work. it's already plural. why the s?

+2
Level 34
Jan 16, 2016
You've missed one that is often missed and certainly undercounted: Romani. Since many are itinerant they are undercounted in all the countries in which they live. Wikipedia sites sources which estimate their numbers to be anywhere between 2 and 4 million.

Given that they were one of the ethnicities that the Nazi's sought to exterminate it is especially important to point out that the extermination was not successful.

+1
Level 29
May 3, 2017
I'll add that
+1
Level 34
Jan 17, 2016
To divide up each of the separate countries which were once Yugoslavia into separate ethnicities is fallacious, IMHO. A SerboCroatian linguist once said, "I went to sleep one night monolingual and woke up the next morning tri-lingual because I could speak Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian." He gave a great definition for a language: "A language is a dialect with an army." For these countries you've now defined an ethnicity by its nation-state.
+1
Level 29
May 3, 2017
True, I'll fix that
+1
Level 80
Jan 19, 2016
Khmer? 13 million
+1
Level 62
Mar 23, 2016
What about estonians (1 million), Latvians(1,5 million) and lithuanians(3.9 to 4.1 million)
+1
Level 34
May 19, 2016
jew isn't an ethnic group
+2
Level 93
Jan 2, 2017
Umm, define ethnic group then...
+6
Level 29
May 3, 2017
Jews can refer to the ethnic group or the religion. For example, if a Chinese person converts to Judaism, they are a religious Jew, but not an ethnic one, and if an ethnic Jew converts to Christianity, they are still an ethnic Jew, but not a religious one.
+1
Level 89
Sep 23, 2016
Uzbeks, Tajiks, Belorusians, Lithuanians, Latvians, ....
+1
Level 29
May 3, 2017
I'll add that
+2
Level 82
Sep 30, 2021
Suggest accepting alternate spellings for Belorussian/Belarusian (these are the variants accepted by my spell checker). I know that's spelling it with the 'y' is closer to how it's actually pronounced, but didn't think to try it, because I've never seen it spelled that way on this site.
+3
Level 44
Sep 30, 2016
Ethnicity isn't tribe related. Many tribes can form part of the same ethnic group. That would mean that Native American and African groups are erroneously left of the list.
+1
Level 75
Jan 17, 2017
Yep
+1
Level 62
Jan 2, 2017
Great quiz..love learning things I don't really know. Challenging, but just wondering, why is this not eligible for points? I have never made a quiz so I am curious.
+1
Level 80
Jan 8, 2017
Bamar, largest ethnic group of Myanmar, about 30 million people worldwide.
+1
Level 29
May 3, 2017
I'll add that
+1
Level 63
Jan 12, 2017
1 million people describe themselves as Faroe? The population now is 50.000 and I doubt that there's been that much emigration. Icelandic is also a shocker
+2
Level 29
May 3, 2017
Yeah, I don't think the source I used was too accurate...
+1
Level 83
Feb 28, 2017
Are the Flemish/Afrikaners included in the Dutch 29 million?

Because even though they share a common language (sort of), there is a serious case to be made that they are at least as much apart as a people than the Swedes and Norwegians, for example...

A bit nitpickerish, I know ;)

+1
Level 29
May 3, 2017
Haha, that's fine. Lot's of people are giving suggestions. Thanks!
+1
Level 88
Jun 19, 2021
Yea that is quite incorrect indeed haha
+1
Level 58
Mar 22, 2017
Jews aren't an ethnicity, population is spelled incorrectly
+2
Level 29
May 3, 2017
Jews can refer to the religion and the ethnicity.
+4
Level 68
Mar 28, 2017
There are around 10 million Quechua people, as well as 2 million Aymara, 1.7 million Mapuche, 7 million Maya, 8 million Xhosa, 20 million Amhara, 10 million Copts, 7 million Luba, 12 million Mongo, 16 million Somalis, 10 million Shona, 12 million Zulu, 5 million Sotho, 4 million Akyem, 6.2 million Wolof, and probably numerous more I missed.
+1
Level 29
May 3, 2017
I'll add
+2
Level 82
Sep 30, 2021
Amhara is incorrectly labeled "Americas" -- should be "Sub-Saharan Africa"
+1
Level 73
Apr 5, 2017
There are 19 ethnicities from China exceeding 1.2 million by 2010. Only 9 are listed here: Han, Zhuang, Hui, Manchu, Uyghur, Mongol, Kazakh, Tibetan, Kyrgyz.

The other 10 are: Miao (Hmong), Yi, Tujia, Dong, Bouyei, Yao, Bai, Hani, Li, Dai.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_China

+1
Level 70
Apr 12, 2017
No UZbeks?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzbeks

+1
Level 29
May 3, 2017
I'll add them
+1
Level 36
Apr 25, 2017
You should accept Bosniac, that's the spelling in English
+1
Level 29
May 3, 2017
Ok
+1
Level 29
May 3, 2017
New and improved. Note: some ethnic groups from places like the Caucasus's and Central Asia can also fall into Europe or East Asia depending on your opinion

Also, Turks originate from Central Asia, and Afrikaners from Europe, but the reason they are listed under Middle East/North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa respectively is because that is where the majority of their populations can be found today.

+1
Level 69
May 3, 2017
Quizmaster,

Please made this quiz eligible for points.

Thanks if you do so...

+4
Level 68
Dec 6, 2017
Amhara come from Ethiopia, not the Americas. Fun quiz!
+3
Level 61
Dec 10, 2018
Are Filipinos considered of different ethnic groups based on different languages, i.e. Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano?
+5
Level 71
Jan 16, 2019
Good idea for a quiz, but here are my complaints. ;) You should allow the spellings Singhalese and Singalese, and Belarussian. The Amhara people live in Ethiopia, not America. It should be Finn, not Finnic, as that's an umbrella term for several related peoples/languages. Also, the word million has been misspelled when it comes to Finnic. Romani should be Roma, as Romani is the name of the language and Roma of the people. Actually, it seems like your source has had a major update. It has many 1 million+ ethnicities not in your list, while e.g. Baltic is not listed at all, instead being broken up into Lithuanians and Latvians.
+7
Level 43
May 9, 2019
Byelorussian is colonial. The correct term is Belarusian.
+4
Level 72
Jan 11, 2020
There a lot of errors in the quiz, but it's worth nominating.
+6
Level 52
Jan 20, 2020
For quite a few of those some type-ins would be good. The most glaring example of this is spelling of Belarusians - I tried 10 different spellings, but an idea of this particular one never got to me.
+1
Level 29
Feb 8, 2020
Should Tuareg be on there? They are already included as Berber.
+2
Level 76
Jul 11, 2020
What is the difference between Tigrinya and Tigrayan?
+1
Level 72
Dec 13, 2022
At one point, they were the same. Now, they are not.

That's also true of all ethnicities, but in this case the change happened comparatively recently.

+6
Level 58
Jun 17, 2021
Damn apparently the Tigrayans in Ethiopia and the Tigrinya of Eritrea are not the same, even tho they both speak the Tigrinya language and belong to the Oriental Orthodox church. To add to the confusion, there's also the Tigre people in Eritrea who are also a separate group and predominantly Muslim

All three live along the Ethiopia-Eritrean border. Extremely confusing

+2
Level 73
Jun 19, 2021
Your source is definitely faulty! You could have used a more reliable source. Who are the Hindustani peoples? The so-called term "Hindustani" is a gross simplification of several Hindi- and Urdu-speaking peoples of northern parts of the subcontinent. The subcontinent is a very diverse region where the language, dialect and culture changes every five kilometres or so!

From the same source, I found that the population of Biharis exceeds 250 million! Moreover, the Odia (or Oriya) are missing. They have a population of more than 40 million. I'd also suggest checking the populations of the Rajasthani, Kashmiri, and Nepali peoples.

+2
Level 73
Jun 19, 2021
More groups are missing. You should check the following articles:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Aryan_peoples

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asian_ethnic_groups

+1
Level 70
Oct 1, 2021
It is difficult to count for Nepali people since some sources do a breakdown by caste, but at the very least Khas people should be included.

I tried so many combination of 'Odia' before I moved on haha, the fact the spelling recently changed still confuses me!

+1
Level 84
Jun 19, 2021
This quiz could stand to lose about 100 answers. I was doing pretty well, but I had to stop before I died of boredom.
+3
Level 70
Oct 1, 2021
There is definetely a place for long form quizzes too! Don't quite count them out :)
+2
Level 65
Sep 30, 2021
12 million Norwegians???
+2
Level 82
Sep 30, 2021
There are almost as many Norwegian-Americans as actual Norwegians.
+5
Level 69
Sep 30, 2021
This data seems very inconsistent. 80 million Irish and 40 million Scottish suggest their descendants in North America are counted, but the same doesn't apply to Basque descendants in Latin America, which there are also many millions of, but this quiz counts only two million.

Why are Lithuanians and Latvians grouped together as "Baltic", when they are no more similar to each other than Czechs and Slovaks or Spanish and Portuguese and Galicians? Why are Galicians counted as a separate ethnicity but not Occitans, for example?

+5
Level 73
Sep 30, 2021
Very interesting quiz. How did you managed to work with south american data, though? To my understanding, though it might be simple to put white brazilians as portuguese, spanish, german or italian, depending on whom they claim genetic ancestry, it's a whole different subject when it comes to black and mestizo brazilians. They don't define themselves by african, amerindian or european ethnicities.
+5
Level 73
Sep 30, 2021
On a more personal note, which shows how difficult it is to define ethnicities based only on genetics, my My Heritage DNA results show that I am:

40.9% iberian (portuguese), 15.2% greek/south italian, 12.8% sardinian, 11.6% scandinavian, 8.7% irish/welsh/scotish, 4% north african, 3% nigerian, 1.7% Mesoamerican/Andean 1.2% balkanian and 0.9% native american.

With that said, though I see myself as a white Brazilian with over 90% european genetic ancestry, and though I also hold a portuguese citizenship in addition to my original nationality based on said ancestry, I most certainly ain't culturally portuguese since I was raised in Brazil. Anyway, kudos for making a nice quiz from such a difficult subject!

+1
Level 58
Dec 11, 2022
I assume this includes American people considering themselves being "Irish" or "Italian", since their grandmother was from Italy or so.
+1
Level 72
Dec 18, 2022
You are incorrectly assuming that all Americans are part of the so-called "melting pot", rather than the fact that many small pockets exist where the entire community is really still Irish, Italian, German, Norwegian, Dutch, or whatever else that particular group happened to be. It's a big place. There is plenty of room for full communities of homogeneous ethnicities to exist without full integration into the greater American ethnic soup. There are also big cities where most people are of a mixed heritage like you are describing, with maybe a grandparent who was from one of those communities or immigrated themselves.
+1
Level 67
Dec 11, 2022
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t “Viet” used to describe the ethnicity as well? Fun quiz regardless!
+1
Level 72
Dec 18, 2022
I mean maybe? The country has historically been known by Dai Viet, Viet Nam, and Dai Nam (and several other things, especially when it was dis-unified), so you could easily argue that the current configuration is not the only correct version, but in English we pretty much just say Vietnamese.
+1
Level 51
Feb 14, 2024
For Amhara, is mentionned Americas, but it's an Aethiopian ethnicity.