The most numerous peoples of the world. National composition of the world population and ethnic processes

Do you know how many peoples there are in the world? Probably, few people will be able to accurately answer this question, even among scientists and historians. In Russia alone there are 194 nations of the world (the list goes on and on). All people on Earth are completely different, and this is the biggest advantage.

General classification

Of course, everyone is interested in quantitative data. If you collect all the peoples of the world, the list will be endless. It is much easier to classify them according to certain characteristics. First of all, this is done depending on what language people speak within the same territory or the same cultural traditions. An even more general category is language families.

Preserved through the centuries

Every nation, no matter what its history, tries with all possible forces to prove that their ancestors built the Tower of Babel. It is flattering for everyone to think that he or she belongs to those roots that go back to distant, distant times. But there are ancient peoples of the world (the list is attached), whose prehistoric origin is beyond doubt.

Largest nations

There are many large nations on Earth that have the same historical roots. For example, there are 330 nations in the world, numbering a million people each. But there are only eleven of those with more than 100 million people (each). Consider the list of peoples of the world by number:

1. Chinese - 1.17 million people.
2. Hindustani - 265 million people.
3. Bengalis - 225 million people.
4. Americans (USA) - 200 million people.
5. Brazilians - 175 million people.
6. Russians - 140 million people.
7. Japanese - 125 million people.
8. Punjabis - 115 million people.
9. Biharis - 115 million people.
10. Mexicans - 105 million people.
11. Javanese - 105 million people.

Unity in diversity

Another classification characteristic that allows us to distinguish between the world’s population is threefold: Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid. Some Western historians distinguish a little more, but these races still became derivatives of the three main ones.

In the modern world there are a large number of contact races. This led to the emergence of new peoples of the world. The list has not yet been provided by scientists, because no one has worked on an exact classification. Here are some examples. The Ural group of peoples originated from the mixing of some branches of northern Caucasoids and northern Mongoloids. The entire population of southern island Asia arose as a result of the kinship of Mongoloids and Australoids.

Endangered ethnic groups

There are nations of the world on Earth (the list is attached), the number of which amounts to several hundred people. These are endangered ethnic groups who are trying to preserve their identity.

conclusions

Can be interpreted in different ways. Some will argue that this population is within the state, others will insist that it does not matter where people live, the main thing is that they are united by some common features that determine their belonging to the same historical origins. Still others will believe that a people is an ethnic group that has existed for centuries, but has faded over the years. In any case, all people on Earth are very diverse and studying them is a pleasure.

The concept “people” has several meanings. It is understood as the population of a country (for example, the people of India, the people of Switzerland, the people of France, etc.), workers, just a group, a crowd of people (in the expression: there are a lot of people on the street, etc.) and, finally , what scientists call the term “ethnos”, “ethnic community”. An ethnos (people) is defined as a historically established stable collection of people in a certain territory who have common relatively stable characteristics of language, culture and psyche, as well as an awareness of their unity and difference from all other similar entities.

There are several thousand peoples living in the world. They differ from each other in their numbers, level of social development, language and culture, and racial appearance.

The tribal leader dances. New Guinea.



Swazi woman in festive clothes. Swaziland.



The art of Tunisian carpet weavers is known all over the world.



Children's party in Hanoi.



thumb|Mongolian woman in national costume.



Norwegian schoolchildren.



Girls from the island of Nauru.



Large Indian market in the city of Toluca. Mexico.



frame|right|Belarusian folk holiday.



frame|right|Sugar cane harvesting in Cuba.



Modern races of the world.



frame|center|Representatives of the main races.



Tajik girl harvesting cotton.



Residents of Yakutia are accustomed to severe frosts.

Fluctuations in the numbers of different ethnic groups are quite significant. Thus, the number of the largest nations exceeds 100 million people. These are Chinese, Hindustani, US Americans, Bengalis, Russians, Brazilians, Japanese. Tiny endangered ethnic groups (more precisely, fragments of ethnic groups) today do not number even 10 people. These include ouma, eba, bina in Papua New Guinea and others. No less significant are the differences between ethnic groups in terms of the level of socio-economic development: peoples who are socially highly developed coexist with peoples who are actually still at the primitive stage. Linguistic and cultural differences are also very large. Each nation speaks a special language, although it happens that several ethnic groups use the same language or, conversely, one ethnic group speaks several languages. At the same time, many languages ​​are related to each other, and the degree of this relationship varies. The range of similarities and differences in the culture of different peoples is also significant.

The principles for classifying the peoples of the world are different. In ethnography, the ethnolinguistic classification is most often used, grouping all peoples based on linguistic kinship. This classification also helps with historical research, as it provides a genetic interpretation of the existing similarities between peoples. According to the ethnolinguistic classification, the peoples of the world are divided into the following families: Indo-European, Afroasiatic (Semitic-Hamitic), Kartvelian, Ural (Ural-Yukaghir), Dravidian, Altai, Eskimo-Aleutian, Chukchi-Kamchatka, North Caucasian, Sino-Tibetan, Miao-Yao, Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Paratai, Na-Dene, North Amerindian, Central Amerindian, Chibcha-Paes, Zhe-Pano-Caribbean, Andean, Equatorial-Tucanoan, Australian, Andamanese, Niger-Kordofanian, Nilo-Saharan, Khoisan, and also several Papuan. Along with the peoples united by the listed families, there are also ethnic groups that occupy an isolated position linguistically. These are the Basques, Burishi, Kets, Nivkhs, Ainu, etc.

The largest of the families is Indo-European, uniting 45% of the world's population. The peoples of this family live in most of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, foreign Europe, Iran and Afghanistan, in the northern and central regions of South Asia. They also predominate today in America and Australia. (All peoples included in one or another family are named in the appendix to the article.

The Kartvelian family is small (0.1% of the world population). This includes Georgians living in Transcaucasia and ethnic communities close to them. The peoples of the Ural (Ural-Yukaghir) family (0.5% of the world's population) live in the Trans-Urals, in the far north of Siberia, in the Volga region, in the north of the European part of Russia, in the Baltic states, Finland, and the north of Scandinavia and Hungary. The Dravidian family (4% of the world's population) is concentrated mainly in South Asia. The peoples of the Altai family (6% of the world's population) form a number of geographically unconnected areas from the Balkan Peninsula to the Russian Far East. Many scientists consider the groups included in its composition to be genetically unrelated and place them in several different families.

The small Eskimo-Aleut family, whose range mainly covers the extreme north of North America and Greenland, unites, as the name suggests, Eskimos and Aleuts. The small peoples of the Chukotka-Kamchatka family (Chukchi, Koryaks, Itelmens) live in the extreme northeast of our country.

The peoples of the Afroasiatic family (5% of the world's population) are settled in South-West Asia and North Africa. The Afroasiatic family includes the Semitic, Berber, Cushitic and Chadian groups.

The North Caucasian family is relatively small in number (0.1% of the world population). It includes two groups - Abkhaz-Adyghe and Nakh-Dagestan.

The Sino-Tibetan family (23% of the world's population) is second in number only to the Indo-European (it includes the Chinese, the largest people on Earth).

The peoples of the Miao-Yao family (0.2% of the world's population) live in China, as well as in Vietnam and some other countries in Southeast Asia. The two most significant ethnic communities are the Miao and Yao, which is where the family's name comes from. Some researchers consider the Miao-Yao a group within the Sino-Tibetan family, others as a group within the Austroasiatic family.

The peoples of the Austroasiatic family (2% of the world's population) live mostly in Southeast Asia, as well as in adjacent areas of South and East Asia.

The Austronesian family (5% of the world's population) unites peoples living over a vast area from Madagascar to the Hawaiian Islands and Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean.

The Parathai family (1.5% of the world's population belongs to it) is concentrated in the countries of Southeast Asia and neighboring areas of China. It does not always stand out as an independent unit. Some scholars consider it a group of the Sino-Tibetan family, while others combine the Para-Tai and Austronesian families.

The Indian peoples of America are linguistically divided into families: Na-Dene, North Amerindian, Central Amerindian, Chibcha-Paes (southern Central and northern South America), Zhe-Pano-Caribbean, Andean, Equatorial-Tucanoan. Of these families, the most significant is the Andean family (0.4% of the world's population), which includes the largest Indian people, the Quechua.

The Australian family, as its name suggests, is centered in Australia. It unites the very small indigenous peoples of this continent.

The Andaman family consists of several very small ethnic groups of the Adaman Islands (Ongyo and others).

In New Guinea and the adjacent islands (the New Guinea region surpasses any other region of the globe in terms of the complexity of its ethnic structure), Papuan peoples live, linguistically united into ten families: Trans-New Guinea, West Papuan, Sepik-Rama, Torricelli, East Papuan, East Chendrawasih Chendravasih Bay, kvomtari, arai, amto-musian. Only the first five families are significant, of which the Trans-New Guinean family stands out (the peoples included in its composition form 0.1% of the world's population).

The peoples of sub-Saharan Africa form three families: Niger-Kordofanian (6% of the world's population), Nilo-Saharan (0.6%) and Khoisan. The Nilo-Saharan family as a whole is localized to the north of the Niger-Kordofan family; small peoples of the Khoisan family (Hottentots, Bushmen, etc.) live on the southern periphery of Africa and in Tanzania.

A number of peoples of the world occupy a linguistically isolated position. Two linguistically distinct peoples - the Nivkhs and the Kets (both very small in number) - live in the Asian part of our country. In the far north of South Asia, in the Karakoram Mountains, live a small Burishi people, whose language also occupies an isolated position. In Europe, the isolated language is spoken by Basques living in the Pyrenees, on either side of the border between Spain and France. Isolated languages ​​are also spoken by the Ainu (Hokkaido Island, Japan). Finally, a large group of peoples speaking isolated languages ​​lives in New Guinea (Borumeso, Varenbori, Pauwi, etc.), but perhaps the classification of the languages ​​of the New Guinean peoples as isolated is not the result of true genetic isolation, but a consequence of their still poor study.

Some researchers are trying to identify more distant linguistic relationships, identifying macro-families in addition to families. So, for example, the Indo-European, Kartvelian, Dravidian, Ural-Yukaghir, Altai, Eskimo-Aleutian, and sometimes Afrasian families are combined into the Nostratic macrofamily; all Indian families (except Na-Dene) are included in the Amerindian macrofamily.

In addition to the ethnolinguistic classification, there is also an areal classification, when peoples are grouped into large regions called historical-cultural or historical-ethnographic regions. Within these areas, in the process of long historical development, a certain cultural community has emerged.

The peoples of the world are also divided into three main races: Caucasoid (or Caucasoid), Mongoloid and Negroid. The eastern range of Negroids is often considered as a special Australoid large race. Some foreign scientists identify a larger number of main human races, for example, Americanoids, Lapanoids, Malayan race, etc. (see map).

As a result of the mixing of various large races, the so-called contact races were formed, of which there are quite a lot today. Thus, from the mixing of the eastern branch of northern Caucasoids and northern Mongoloids, the Ural (Ural-Laponoid) racial group arose. The mixed group includes the South Siberian group, which arose from the first centuries of the new era on the vast steppe space between the Urals and the Yenisei, in which Mongoloid features predominate. In the Middle Ages, in the more southern regions, mixed Central Asian groups were formed, dominated in most cases by the Caucasian element. In the east and southeast of Asia there was a contact zone between Mongoloids and Australoids, where a number of mixed forms arose at different times, for example, the South Asian group with a preponderance of Mongoloid features.

APPLICATION

INDIAN FAMILIES

NADEN FAMILY Athabascan (Navajo, Apache and others), Tlingit, Haida NORTH AMERINDIAN FAMILY Mayan, Qeqchi, Quiché, Kaqchikel, Algonquin, Sioux and others CENTRAL AMERINDIAN FAMILY Aztec, Shoshone, Otomi, Mixtec, Zapotec and others CHIBCHA-PAES FAMILY Miskito, paes and others ANDEAN FAMILY Quechua, Aymara, Araucanas and others EQUATORIAL-TUCAN FAMILY Arawak, Tupi, Tucano and others JE-PANO-CARIBBEAN FAMILY Caribbean, Pano, zhe and others

Planet Earth is a multinational community, inhabited by a large number of different nationalities. How many peoples live in the world? Surely every person has asked a similar question at least once in his life. At the same time, the exact answer is practically unknown, since even historians find it difficult to give exact figures. In Russia alone there are more than 1194 nationalities, and if we take into account how many peoples are in the CIS countries, then the number will be several times larger.

General classification of nationalities

Most people are interested in a quantitative indicator, but if you collect all the data on how many peoples exist, the list can turn out to be almost endless. Most often, the unification of different peoples into groups occurs either according to species characteristics, or according to the language spoken by one or another group, or according to the territory of residence.

Sometimes division into groups can occur in accordance with cultural traditions and foundations

In total, there are 20 language families on the planet, which include different peoples.

In 2016, the largest language families were the following 4 groups:

• Indo-European. In total, this group includes 150 nations, which are located in Asia and Europe. The total population of this group is 2.8 billion people.
• Sino-Tibetan. This group includes the entire population of China and neighboring countries that share common language and culture. In total, there are almost 1.5 billion people in this group.
• Afro-Asian. A language family that includes the peoples of South-West Asia and North Africa.
• Niger-Kordofanian. The remaining peoples inhabiting the African continent, including the regions of Central and Southern Africa.

The largest nations of the world

Over the entire history of existence on Earth, a large number of nationalities have emerged

Some of the nationalities are small by historical standards and number no more than a million people (there are only 330 peoples). There are numerous ones where the number of people exceeds 100 million. There are only 11 such nationalities:

• Chinese. The top spot is occupied by the Chinese, who number 1 billion 17 million people on the planet.
• Hindustani. In second place are the Indian nationalities, which number 265 million people.
• Bengalis. Their number is 225 million.
• Americans. There are more than 200 million people in the United States.
• Brazilians. There are 175 million indigenous people living in Brazil.
• Russians. If we talk about how many Slavic peoples there are, then we can note the number of Russians, who form a large group and number 140 million.
• Japanese. Despite the limited territory of the islands, their population numbers 125 million people.
• Punjabis. Another Indian nationality, numbering 115 million people.
• Biharis. A people also living in India and numbering 115 million.
• Mexicans. There are 105 million of them worldwide.
• Javanese. The last of 11 large nationalities, which number 105 million people.

Let's sum it up

When talking about the concept of “people”, it is very difficult to achieve a unified interpretation.

Also, do not forget that the planet is home to several endangered peoples, some of which number only 280 people. In any case, each nationality is original and unique.

Video on the topic

Connected with their resettlement during the era of colonial conquests. Negroids in North and South America appeared during the era of the slave system, when they were brought here to work on plantations.

It is wrong to think that the entire population of the world belongs to these races. They constitute only 70% of the total world population, and the other 30% are racial groups resulting from the mixing of these four races. Racial mixing was especially intense in North and South America. As a result of marriages between representatives of different races, groups such as mulattoes, mestizo and sambo arose. Descendants from marriages of Caucasians with Indians belonging to the Mongoloid race are called mestizos. Mulattos arose when Caucasians mixed with Negroids brought from Africa. As a result of marriages of Negroids with Indians (Mongoloids), sambo groups were formed.

Within races, smaller groups are distinguished: tribes, nationalities, nations. In the modern world there are 3-4 thousand different peoples. The number of each of them is different. For example, the Chinese, of whom there are already more than 1.1 billion, and the Vedda tribe, whose number is less than 1000 people. The bulk of the world's population is still made up of large nations.

As a rule, the community of each ethnic group is characterized by a combination of a large number of characteristics, the main of which are territory, features of life, culture, and language. The classification of different peoples by language is based on the principle of their kinship. Languages ​​are united into language families, and these in turn are divided into language groups. The most widespread of all language families is Indo-European. About half of all peoples in the world speak languages ​​of this family. Of the languages ​​of the Indo-European family, the most common are English (425 million people), Hindi (350 million people), Spanish (340 million people), Russian (290 million people), Bengali (185 million people), Portuguese (175 million people), German (120 million people), French (129 million people).

The second significant language family is the Sino-Tibetan family, whose main language is Chinese (over 1 billion people). The Chinese language has several main dialects, the differences between which are so great that when speaking, residents of the northern and southern provinces have difficulty understanding each other. To explain, they use a single written language, which has 50 thousand characters. Each Chinese character is pronounced in a specific musical tone. Depending on the tone, many words pronounced using the same sounds can have completely different meanings.

The wide distribution of Chinese and Russian languages ​​is explained by the significant territory of these states. But why are English and Spanish so common? Their wide distribution, sharply exceeding the population of the island itself, is explained by the colonial past of the countries of Asia, Africa and. So, until now the official language of some is English, and almost everyone (except) speaks Spanish.

National criteria underlie the division of humanity into states. If national borders coincide with state borders, then a single-national state is created. This is about half. In them, the main nationality is over 90%. This is many countries in Latin America. Sometimes a state is created by two nations. This , . Along with all these countries, there are many states that are multinational. This , . Up to a hundred peoples live in such countries, and very often such a state has a federal structure.

In many multinational states there are problems of interethnic relations, which are very acute in many regions of the world and from time to time give rise to hot spots on our planet, which often leads to serious consequences in economic and social life.

In the modern world, there are still manifestations of nationalism, which is characterized by the idea of ​​​​the national superiority of any people. Racial and national discrimination has not been completely eliminated. Thus, for many years, conflicts in Canada have not subsided between the English-Canadians, who occupy key positions in the economy, and the French-Canadians, who feel their social and economic disadvantage and advocate the creation of an independent state; For several years, the Middle Eastern hotbed of tension associated with the Arab confrontation and which gave rise to the problem of Palestinian refugees has not subsided. There are also “hot spots” in Europe: the Turkish-Greek conflict in Russia, which actually led to the division of this country. There are also “hot spots” associated with national conflicts in the republics of the former USSR.

The most acute national conflicts occur in Russia, where the policy of discrimination was elevated to the rank of state policy until the early 90s.

At the end of the 80s, interethnic relations in Eastern Europe became very complicated. These include, in particular:

a) the desire of the Polish national minority (this is approximately 260 thousand people, or 8% of the country’s population) to create their own autonomy;

e) the collapse of Yugoslavia.

It is quite obvious that without solving these and other similar problems it is difficult to develop normal relations between countries.

Largest language families in the world

Chinese actor and director Jackie Chan

In second place among the largest nations on Earth are Arabs, of which there are currently about 350 million people.

In fifth place among the largest nations on the planet are Bengalis- the main population of the state of Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal in India. The total number of Bengalis in the world is more than 250 million (about 150 million in Bangladesh and about 100 million in India).

Indian writer and poet Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali by nationality

Bengal girl

In sixth place among the largest nations on Earth are Brazilians(193 million people) - a nation that was formed in the same way as the American nation - by mixing different ethnic groups.

Brazilian football player Ronaldinho

The seventh largest people on the planet - Mexicans, of which there are 156 million people in the world, of which 121 million people. live in Mexico and 34.6 million in the USA. Using the example of the Mexicans, one can note the convention of dividing people into nations. Those Mexicans who live in the United States can be considered both Mexican and American.

Mexican Ximena Navarrete - Miss Universe 2010

Mexican footballer Rafael Marquez, captain of the Mexico national team

The eighth largest people on Earth - Russians, of which there are about 150 million people in the world, of which 116 million live in Russia, 8.3 million in Ukraine, 3.8 million in Kazakhstan. Russians are the largest people in Europe.

Russian actress Irina Ivanovna Alferova

The ninth largest nation in the world is Japanese(130 million people).

Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki

Rounding out the top ten largest nations on Earth Punjabis. There are 120 million Punjabis in the world, of which 76 million are lives in Pakistan and 29 million in India.

14th largest people in the world - Marathi(80 million people) - the main population of the Indian state of Maharashtra.

Indian actress Madhuri Dixit is from the Maratha people.

15th largest people on Earth - Tamils, of which there are 77 million people in the world, of which 63 million live in India.

Indian actress Vyjayanthimala, Tamil by nationality

Indian chess player Viswanathan Anand (Tamil by nationality), current world chess champion.

There are approximately the same number of Tamils ​​as there are Tamils ​​(77 million people) in the world. Vietnamese(Viets).

There are also at least 75 million people Telugu- the main population of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

There are about 70 million people Thais- the main population of Thailand.

Thai Piyaporn Deejin, Miss Thailand 2008

Another large nation - Germans. There are 65 million Germans in Germany. If we also count people of German origin, we get a more impressive figure - 150 million people. For example, in the United States, 48 ​​million people have German ancestry, making them the largest ethnic group among Americans.

German actress Diane Kruger