Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/ethnicity

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Monoethnicity

Existence of a single ethnic group in a region or country

Summary

Existence of a single ethnic group in a region or country

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

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). They represent around 2.3% of the whole population.

South Korea is another monoethnic country. There are small immigrant populations that exist in South Korea, where they account for around 5.2% of the South Korean population. These include around 900,000 Chinese immigrants, many of whom are of Korean descent.

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", with Bosnia and Herzegovina further diving itself into mono-ethnic enclaves.

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.

Monoethnic countries with more than 85% homogenity

Sovereign states

RankCountryPopulationDominant group%NotesRef
1North Korea26,298,666Korean99.998%
2Egypt111,247,248Egyptians99.7%
3Lesotho2,227,548Basotho99.7%
4Tunisia12,048,847Arab-Amazigh98%
5Bangladesh168,697,184Bengali99%
6Morocco37,387,585Arab-Amazigh99%Does not include data from Western Sahara
7Vanuatu318,007Ni-Vanuatu99%
8Armenia2,976,765Armenian98.1%
9Albania3,107,100Albanian98%
10Japan123,201,945Japanese97.5%
11Poland38,746,310Polish96.9%This number represents the percentage of people who indicated Polish as their primary ethnicity
12Tonga104,889Tongan96.5%
13Kiribati116,545I-Kiribati95.78%
14Marshall Islands82,011Marshallese95.6%
15Cambodia17,063,669Khmer95.4%
16Solomon Islands726,799Melanesian95.4%
17Lebanon5,364,482Arabs97%
18Portugal10,207,177Portuguese95%
19South Korea51,217,221Koreans94.8%These include all foreign residents, regardless of whether they are of Korean descent or not. Many foreigners in Korea are either returning migrants or their descendants, especially the Chinese-Korean population.
20Nauru9,892Nauruan94.6%
21Azerbaijan10,650,239Azerbaijani91.6%
22Croatia4,150,116Croatian91.6%
23China1,416,043,270Han Chinese91.1%
24Italy58,947,905Italian91%
25Saudi Arabia36,544,431Arab90%
26Finland5,603,851Finns89.8%
27Romania18,148,155Romanian89.3%Data represents only those who declared an ethnicity in the 2021 census
28Turkmenistan5,744,151Turkmen87.6%
29Georgia4,900,961Georgian86.8%
30Vietnam105,758,975Viet85.3%

Unrecognized states and dependent territories

CountryPopulationDominant group%Ref
Palestine5,483,450Palestinian91%
Northern Cyprus382,836Turkish Cypriots99.2 %
Somaliland6,200,000Somalis99%
Republic of China (Taiwan)23,347,374Han Chinese97%
Hong Kong7,249,907Han Chinese92%
Kosovo1,586,659Albanians92%
Greenland55,877Inuit89.7%
South Ossetia53,532Ossetians89.9%
Macau614,458Han Chinese88.7%
Åland30,696Ålanders86.5%

References

References

  1. Arakaki, Osamu. (2008). "Refugee Law and Practice in Japan". [[Ashgate Publishing]].
  2. {{in lang. ja [http://www.moj.go.jp/content/000108878.pdf] {{Webarchive. link. (14 October 2013 {{lang). ja. 平成２４年末現在における外国人登録者統計について].
  3. (24 February 2009). "Trying to teach South Korea about discrimination". The Los Angeles Times.
  4. Dempsey, Gary. (2002). "Exiting the Balkan Thicket". Cato Institute.
  5. Memisevic, Ehlimana. (5 December 2022). "How Bosnia and Herzegovina is enshrining discrimination". [[Middle East Eye]].
  6. "North Korea - CIA World Factbook".
  7. "Egypt - CIA World Factbook".
  8. "Lesotho - CIA World Factbook".
  9. (25 November 2024). "Tunisia - CIA World Factbook". [[Central Intelligence Agency]].
  10. "Bangladesh - CIA World Factbook".
  11. (25 November 2024). "Morocco - CIA World Factbook".
  12. (25 November 2024). "Vanuatu - CIA World Factbook". [[CIA]].
  13. (25 November 2024). "Armenia - CIA World Factbook". [[Central Intelligence Agency]].
  14. "Minority Rights and the Republic of Albania: Missing the Implementation".
  15. (25 November 2024). "Japan - CIA World Factbook". [[CIA]].
  16. (25 November 2024). "Poland - CIA World Factbook". [[CIA]].
  17. (25 November 2024). "Tonga - CIA World Factbook". [[CIA]].
  18. (15 November 2024). "Kiribati - CIA World Factbook". [[CIA]].
  19. "Marshall Islands- CIA World Factbook".
  20. "Cambodia- CIA World Factbook".
  21. "Solomon Islands- CIA World Factbook".
  22. (25 November 2024). "Lebanon - CIA World Factbook". [[Central Intelligence Agency]].
  23. (25 November 2024). "Portugal - CIA World Factbook". [[Central Intelligence Agency]].
  24. [https://www.moj.go.kr/moj/2412/subview.do "출입국통계"]. ''[[Ministry of Justice (South Korea). Ministry of Justice]]'' (in Korean). Retrieved April 4, 2025.
  25. (25 November 2024). "Nauru - CIA World Factbook". [[Central Intelligence Agency]].
  26. (25 November 2024). "Azerbaijan - the World Factbook".
  27. (25 November 2024). "Croatia - the World Factbook".
  28. (25 November 2024). "China - the World Factbook".
  29. [https://www.istat.it/it/files//2021/05/REPORT_INDICATORI-DEMOGRAFICI-2020.pdf "Indicatori demografici, anno 2020" (PDF).] [https://web.archive.org/web/20210503091112/https://www.istat.it/it/files//2021/05/REPORT_INDICATORI-DEMOGRAFICI-2020.pdf Archived] (PDF) from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  30. (25 November 2024). "Saudi Arabia - the World Factbook".
  31. (2024-04-26). "Population growth biggest in nearly 70 years {{!}} Statistics Finland".
  32. (25 November 2024). "Romania - the World Factbook".
  33. (25 November 2024). "Turkmenistan - the World Factbook".
  34. (25 November 2024). "Georgia - the World Factbook".
  35. (25 November 2024). "Vietnam - the World Factbook".
  36. (2023-11-28). "Gaza Strip". Central Intelligence Agency.
  37. (2023-11-14). "West Bank". Central Intelligence Agency.
  38. "Tablo – 8 : Yaş Grubu, Milliyet ve Cinsiyete Göre Sürekli İkamet Eden (de-jure) KKTC Vatandaşı Nüfus. TOPLAM".
  39. (1 October 2017). "A look at Somaliland between clan politics, regional turmoil and November elections".
  40. (2011-12-01). "中華民國行政院全球資訊網".
  41. (2018-05-01). "中華民國 內政部戶政司 全球資訊網".
  42. "Hong Kong". [[CIA]].
  43. "Population and housing census in Kosovo".
  44. "North America :: Greenland – The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency".
  45. "South Ossetia – Ethnic composition: 2015 census".
  46. "Macau". [[CIA]].
  47. "Åland".
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

ethnicity
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Monoethnicity — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report