The largest ethnic groups. Which nations are among the largest? National composition of the world population

For me, as for many, it is no secret that the largest number of people live in China. However, I got to thinking: are the Chinese the largest people? Perhaps the country is multinational, and the share of Chinese is modest and inferior to neighboring Hindustani?

Largest nations of the world

Large nations are those that number more than 1 million people. Today there are just over 300 known such peoples. If you put them together, you get about 96% of the total population of the planet. I won’t talk about everything, but I’ll name the top five by number:

1. Chinese (1,294 million, concentrated in East Asia).
2. Hindustani (1,041 million, concentrated in South Asia).
3. Bengalis (288 million, concentrated in South Asia).
4. Americans (USA) (217 million, concentrated in Anglo-America (USA)).
5. Brazilians (175 million, concentrated in Latin America).

Chinese (Han)

It is worth clarifying that we are talking about the Han people. By “Chinese” we most often mean all the peoples of China. So it is the Han who are the leaders in numbers in the world. In fact, almost every fifth person on the planet is a member of the Han people. In their native China they account for 92%. This ethnic group also dominates in the Republic of China (98%), Hong Kong (95%), Macau (92%), Singapore (76.8%), and Taiwan (98%). In general, 81% of Huaqiao live in Asia. The remaining representatives of the nationality are located in North America (14.51%), in Europe (2.6%), in Oceania (1.5%) and even in Africa, specifically in South Africa (0.3%).

Hindustani

The Chinese are from China, and where are the Hindustanis from? From Hindustan? I have not heard of such a country. In fact, this nationality is Hindi-speaking Indians. This is the largest population of India. The people settled in Asia quite compactly: India, Pakistan, Nepal.

Bengalis

The same question with the Bengalis as with the Hindustanis: where are they from? The people make up the main population of Indian states such as Tripura and West Bengal, in the Ganges delta, as well as Bangladesh. Representatives of Bengalis live in Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Singapore, Pakistan, USA, UK and other countries.

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 population of the earth, its composition, quantity constantly excites the minds of mankind. Many questions arise. Are we getting more or less? If the number of people increases, will there be enough water and food for everyone?

World population by race

There are many nationalities living on the six continents of the globe, but the world's population is mainly represented by 4 races:
. Caucasian;
. Mongoloid;
. Negroid;
. Australoid.

Of course, the first group mainly lives in Europe, the second in Asia, Negroids predominate in Africa, and the Australoid group inhabits Australia. However, only 70 percent of the population belongs to the main groups, the remaining 30 are groups formed as a result of racial mixing. This is how groups of mestizo, mulatto and sambo appeared.

Racial groups manifest themselves in tribes, nationalities, and nations. On the globe you can find a nationality whose population number is no more than 1000, while the number of Chinese has long exceeded the billion mark.

The world's population lives in different states, in which one nationality may live, but, as a rule, many nations live in one state with their own traditions, rituals, and religions, which is often a source of conflicts with the clarification of interethnic relations.

If there were 100 of us

If we imagine the world's population, the number of which is constantly growing in percentage terms, then by race, Asians will make up 57%, Europeans will be 21%, South and North Americans - 14%, and Africans represent only 8%.

52% of women and 42% of men live on earth, of which only 30% are white, 11% identify themselves as homosexuals.

The world's wealth mainly belongs to the 6% percent of wealthy Americans, while almost 60% of the world's population becomes homeless.

Only 1% of the total population has computer equipment, only 1% has acquired higher education.
Only 67% of people on earth do not even appreciate the opportunity to drink clean water, while 24% live without electricity at all.

In an age of varied abundance, 50% of people constantly live half-starved, and 1% of the population dies of hunger.
In the world, 10% are alcoholics, and 1% are HIV-infected.

This statistics makes us reconsider our every day and learn to appreciate everything we have.

What languages ​​do we mostly communicate in?

The world's population is a group that speaks a variety of languages, represented by language families and language groups.

The Indo-European family is the largest, these languages ​​are spoken by more than half of the world's population, these are:
. English;
. Hindi;
. Spanish;
. Russian;
. Bengal;
. Portuguese;
. German;
. French.

A prominent representative of the Sino-Tibetan language family is Chinese, but it has so many dialects that people living in different places sometimes do not understand each other.

Russian and Chinese have become one of the most common languages ​​due to the size of the occupied area of ​​the globe. When getting to know language families, one cannot help but note the following:
- Niger-Kordofanian (Zulus, Bantu, Tegali, Wolof and others);
- Afroasiatic (Arabs, Jews, Gauls, Somalis, Hausa and others);
- Altai (Tatars, Turkmens, Kazakhs, Kalmyks, Turks, Yakuts and others);
- Darvidian (Tamil, Kannara, Telugu, Malayali);
- Austronesian (Maori, Hawaiians, Malays, Tahitians and others);
- Ural (Estonians, Hungarians, Georgians, Chechens, Udmurts and others).

If the population grows

According to statistics, demographic growth is constantly observed. The world's population is increasing every year, despite the fact that about 25 thousand people die every day from hunger in Africa alone. Many people are concerned about how much land reserves will be enough to avoid famine.

UN experts estimate that there is currently enough food on earth for 9 billion people. The problem is not the lack of food on earth, but the distribution of this food.

If 900 million people are hungry, then 1.5 billion cannot lose weight and are sick from being overweight.

Constant demand for food will cause an increase in supply and, of course, an increase in prices.

It will be much worse with water; according to the same UN experts, by 2050 the water shortage will be 40%. The way out of this situation will be the development of high technologies for the use and purification of water.

Another problem is the increase in carbon dioxide concentrations as industry develops. Lack of clean air causes widespread illness.

Migration and urbanization of the population

The world's population, which has exceeded 7 billion, is slowly but surely moving to cities. At the same time, it is not their well-being that will increase, but the number of suburban slums will increase - by 2030, half of city residents will live in slums.

The constant desire for prosperity forces people to migrate in search of work. More than 3% of the world's population constantly moves to find better-paying jobs. Cheap labor is most in demand in the United States.

I recently asked myself this question and tried to find the answer. Surprisingly, despite the level of science in our time, scientists cannot clearly determine the exact number. However, the topic is quite interesting, and therefore I will share the information I found.

How many peoples are there on Earth?

Even scientists find it difficult to answer accurately - there is simply no clear answer. Every time this topic is raised, a new figure is heard, but official science believes that our planet is inhabited by from 2 to 4 thousand nationalities and peoples. Agree, the spread is quite large. The thing is that it is almost impossible to give an exact definition of the term “people” - everyone has their own understanding of this word. For example, there are states whose residents communicate using the same language, but in fact are different peoples, and it happens the other way around.

If you try to find definition of a term in a dictionary, then one can find that the term is used both in a political sense and in a cultural one. There are several meanings:

• a certain set of art consumers, in other words - the public;
• population of a state;
• a crowd of people in a certain place;
• working population:
• an ethnic group with distinct common characteristics.

The last definition is generally accepted; as for the mentioned characteristics, they are:

• culture;
• traditions;
• language.

How do peoples differ?

The main feature is the language, therefore its unity is considered a paramount indicator. Exists about 4000 languages, which are identified by scientists into separate groups. There are about 20 such groups. Half of humanity speaks languages ​​included in the largest - Indo-European group. What else could be different? Certainly, by number. Research suggests that most peoples are not particularly numerous - no more than 1 million people. However, there are also quite numerous ones, for example, the Chinese and Indians.

Culture is one of the characteristic differences. They distinguish both spiritual and material. The first group includes legends, songs, dances and so on. The second group includes the type of housing, clothes, kitchen features etc.

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