Monoethnicity

Monoethnicity is the existence of a single ethnic group in a given region or country. It is the opposite of polyethnicity.

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This article's factual accuracy is disputed. (April 2023)

This article possibly contains original research. (April 2025)

An example of a largely monoethnic country is Japan. It is a common belief in Japan that the entire country is monoethnic, but a few ethnic minorities live in Japan (e.g. Koreans, Ainus, and Ryukyuans).^[1] They represent around 2.3% of the whole population.^[2]

South Korea is another monoethnic country. There are small ethnic minorities that exist in South Korea, where they account for around 5.2% of the South Korean population. These include around 900,000 Chinese immigrants.^[3]

Most African countries have what would be considered a mono-racial society, but it is common to find dozens of ethnic groups within the same country.

The Yugoslav Wars are noted as having made Yugoslavia's successor states "de facto and de jure monoethnic nation-states",^[4] with Bosnia and Herzegovina further diving itself into mono-ethnic enclaves.^[5]

Because not all countries collect data on ethnicity, and the collection of data usually relies on self-reporting, it can be difficult to discern how monoethnic a country is.

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (December 2016)

Sovereign states

More information Rank, Country ...

Rank	Country	Population	Dominant group	%	Notes	Ref
1	North Korea	26,298,666	Korean	99.998%		^[6]
2	Egypt	111,247,248	Egyptian	99.7%		^[7]
3	Lesotho	2,227,548	Basotho	99.7%		^[8]
4	Algeria	47,022,473	Arab-Amazigh	99%	Although almost all Algerians are Amazigh in origin and not Arab, only a minority identify themselves as primarily Amazigh	^[9]
5	Bangladesh	168,697,184	Bengali	99%		^[10]
6	Morocco	37,387,585	Arab-Amazigh	99%	Does not include data from Western Sahara	^[11]
7	Vanuatu	318,007	Ni-Vanuatu	99%		^[12]
8	Armenia	2,976,765	Armenian	98.1%		^[13]
9	Tunisia	12,048,847	Arab-Amazigh	98%		^[14]
10	Albania	3,107,100	Albanian	98%		^[15]
11	Japan	123,201,945	Japanese	97.5%		^[16]
12	Poland	38,746,310	Polish	96.9%	This number represents the percentage of people who indicated Polish as their primary ethnicity	^[17]
13	Tonga	104,889	Tongan	96.5%		^[18]
14	Kiribati	116,545	I-Kiribati	95.78%		^[19]
15	Marshall Islands	82,011	Marshallese	95.6%		^[20]
16	Cambodia	17,063,669	Khmer	95.4%		^[21]
17	Solomon Islands	726,799	Melanesian	95.4%		^[22]
18	Lebanon	5,364,482	Levantine	95%		^[23]
19	Portugal	10,207,177	Portuguese	95%		^[24]
20	South Korea	51,217,221	Koreans	94.8%		^[25]
21	Nauru	9,892	Nauruan	94.6%		^[26]
22	Azerbaijan	10,650,239	Azerbaijani	91.6%		^[27]
23	Croatia	4,150,116	Croatian	91.6%		^[28]
24	China	1,416,043,270	Han Chinese	91.1%		^[29]
25	Italy	58,947,905	Italian	91%		^[30]
26	Saudi Arabia	36,544,431	Arab	90%		^[31]
27	Finland	5,603,851	Finns	89.8%		^[32]
28	Romania	18,148,155	Romanian	89.3%	Data represents only those who declared an ethnicity in the 2021 census	^[33]
29	Turkmenistan	5,744,151	Turkmen	87.6%		^[34]
30	Georgia	4,900,961	Georgian	86.8%		^[35]
31	Vietnam	105,758,975	Viet	85.3%		^[36]

Unrecognized states and dependent territories

More information Country, Population ...

Country	Population	Dominant group	%	Ref
Palestine	5,483,450	Palestinian	91%	^[37]^[38]
Northern Cyprus	265,100	Turkish Cypriots	99.2%	^[39]
Somalia	18,500,000	Somalis	99%	^[40]
Republic of China (Taiwan)	23,347,374	Han Chinese	97%	^[41]^[42]
Hong Kong	7,249,907	Cantonese people and Taishanese people	92%	^[43]
Kosovo	1,586,659	Albanians	92%	^[44]
Greenland	55,877	Inuit	89.7%	^[45]
South Ossetia	53,532	Ossetians	89.9%	^[46]
Macau	614,458	Cantonese people and Macanese people	88.7%	^[47]
Åland	30,696	Ålanders	86.5%	^[48]

Monoethnic countries with more than 85% homogenity

Unrecognized states and dependent territories

See also

References

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