The Chinese population is approximately 92 percent ethnic Han Chinese. The 8 percent minority population is settled over nearly 60 percent of China's area. This gives the non-Han peoples of China a significance that looms larger than their percentage of the population might suggest.

More than 70 million people belong to 55 national minorities. Most of these groups are distinguished from the Chinese by language or religion rather than by racial characteristics. The principal minorities are the Tai-speaking Zhuang, numbering about 15.5 million, largely in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region; the Hui, or Chinese Muslims, about 8.6 million, in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Gansu, and Qinghai; the aboriginal Miao, about 7.4 million, in Guizhou, Hunan, and Yunnan; the Turkic-speaking Uygur, about 7.2 million, in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region; the aboriginal (but largely assimilated) Yi, about 6.6 million, in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guangxi; the Mongols, about 4.8 million, in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Gansu, and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region; and the Tibetans, about 4.6 million, in the Tibet (Xizang) Autonomous Region, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yunnan. Other groups include Tujia (5.7 million), Bouyei (2.5 million), Koreans (1.9 million), and Manchus. The Manchus are descendants of the people who conquered China in the 17th century and established the Qing, or Manchu, dynasty. Numbering 9.8 million, they are almost indistinguishable from the Han Chinese.