Monoethnicity

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).^[1] They represent around 1% 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 1% of the South Korean population. These include around 650,000 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]

Monoethnic countries with more than 85%

Sovereign states

Rank	Country	Population	Dominant group	%	Ref
1	Maldives	379,270	Maldivians	100%	[6]
2	North Korea	24,252,231	Koreans	99.9%	[7][8]
3	Lesotho	2,203,821	Basotho	99.7%	[9]
4	Egypt	106,437,241	Egyptians (including Copts)	99%	[10]
5	Morocco	37,112,080	Moroccans	99%	[11]
6	Cyprus	1,266,676 (not including Northern Cyprus)	Greek Cypriots	98.8%	[12]
7	Japan[13][14][15]	126,702,133	Japanese	98.5%	[16]
8	Armenia[17][18][19]	3,018,854	Armenians	98.1%	[20]
9	Algeria	44,700,000	Algerians	98%	[21]
10	Albania	2,876,591	Albanians	98%	[22]
11	Tunisia	11,721,177	Tunisians	98%	[23]
12	Hungary	9,937,628	Hungarians	98%	[24]
13	Bangladesh	162,951,560[25]	Bengalis	98%	[26]
14	Jordan	10,945,512	Arabs	98%	[27]
15	Mongolia	3,081,677	Mongols	97%	[28]
16	Poland[29][30]	38,523,261	Poles	96.9%	[31]
17	South Korea	51,446,201	Koreans	96%	[32]
18	Portugal	10,839,514	Portuguese	95.9%	[33]
19	Lebanon	6,859,408	Lebanese	95%	[34]
20	Czech Republic	10,610,947	Czechs	95%	[35]
21	Haiti	11,439,646	Afro-Haitians	95%	[36]
22	Iceland	332,529	Icelanders	94%	[37]
23	Finland	5,537,364	Finns	93.5%	[38]
24	Greece	11,183,716	Greeks	93%	[39]
25	China	1,384,688,986	Han Chinese	91.6%	[40]
26	Azerbaijan	9,951,400	Azerbaijanis	94.8%	[41]
27	Croatia	3,871,833	Croats	91.6%	[42]
28	Italy	60,483,973	Italians	91.5%	[43]
29	Cambodia	15,552,211	Khmers	90%	[44]
30	Romania	16,792,868	Romanians	88.9%	[45]
31	Ukraine	41,554,836 (unoccupied territory)	Ukrainians	~87%[failed verification]	[46]
32	Georgia	3,716,858 (unoccupied territory)	Georgians	86.8%	[47]
33	Denmark	5,873,420	Danes	86.11%	[48]
34	Thailand	59,878,001	Thais	86%	[49]
35	Vietnam	96,208,984	Vietnamese	85.3%	[50]
36	Somalia	15,893,219	Somalis	85%	[51]
37	Turkmenistan	6,031,187	Turkmens	85%	[52]

Unrecognized states and dependent territories

Country	Population	Dominant group	%	Ref
Palestine	5,483,450	Palestinian Arab	91%	[53][54]
Northern Cyprus	265,100	Turkish Cypriots	99.2%	[55]
Somaliland	3,500,000	Somalis	99%	[56]
Republic of China (Taiwan)	23,347,374	Han Chinese	97%	[57] [58]
Hong Kong	7,249,907	Cantonese people and Taishanese people	92%	[59]
Kosovo	1,586,659	Albanians	92%	[60]
Greenland	55,877	Inuit	89.7%	[61]
South Ossetia	53,532	Ossetians	89.9%	[62]
Macau	614,458	Cantonese people and Macanese people	88.7%	[63]
Åland	30,696	Ålanders	86.5%	[64]

See also

• Ethnic cleansing
• Ethnic nationalism
• Ethnocracy
• Homogeneous
• Titular nation

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