The most numerous nations of the world. List of largest nationalities

>> The largest nations of the world

§ 5. The largest nations of the world

In total, there are 5-5.5 thousand peoples or ethnic groups in the world, that is, established stable communities of people. The vast majority of peoples are extremely small.

There are 330 nations in the world with more than 1 million people, but they cover 96% of the total population of the Earth. There are only 11 nations in the world with more than 100 million people each (Table 20), but they cover almost 45% of all population Earth.

Table 20

Largest peoples and most spoken languages

The largest nations of the world	Million people	Most Common Languages	Million people
1. Chinese	1170	1. Chinese	1200
2. Hindustanis	265	2. English	520
3. Bengalis	225	3. Spanish	400
4. Americans USA	200	4. Hindi	360
5. Brazilians	175	5. Arabic	250
6. Russians	140	6. Bengali	225
7. Japanese	125	7. Portuguese	210
8 Punjabis	115	8. Russian	200
9. Biharis	115	9. Indonesian	190
10. Mexicans	105	10. Japanese	127
11. Javanese	105	11. French	120
		12. German	100

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It is connected with their resettlement during the era of colonial conquests. Negroids in North and South America appeared in 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 make up only 70% of the world's population, and the other 30% are racial groups resulting from the mixing of these four races. Especially intense racial mixing occurred in North and South America. As a result of marriages of representatives of different races, groups such as mulattoes, mestizos and sambos arose. Descendants from marriages of Caucasians with Indians belonging to the Mongoloid race are called mestizos. Mulattos arose from the mixing of Caucasians with Negroids imported from Africa. As a result of the marriages of Negroids with Indians (Mongoloids), Sambo groups were formed.

Within the races, smaller groups are distinguished: tribes, nationalities, nations. AT modern world allocate 3-4 thousand different peoples. The number of each of them is different. For example, the Chinese, of which there are already more than 1.1 billion, and the Vedda tribe, which numbers less than 1,000 people. The bulk of the world's population is still made up of large nations.

As a rule, the commonality of each of the ethnic groups is characterized by a set of a large number signs, the main of which are the territory, features of life, culture, language. The classification of various peoples by language is based on the principle of their kinship. Languages ​​are grouped into language families, which in turn are divided into language groups. The most common of all language families is Indo-European. About half of all the peoples of the world speak the 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 Sino-Tibetan, the main language of which is Chinese (over 1 billion people). The Chinese language has several main dialects, the differences between which are so great that when speaking, the inhabitants of the northern and southern provinces hardly understand each other. For explanation, they use a single script, which has 50 thousand characters. Every hieroglyph Chinese pronounced in a certain musical tone. Depending on the tone, many words pronounced with the same sounds can have completely different meanings.

The wide spread of Chinese and Russian languages ​​is explained by the significance of the territory of these states. But why are English and Spanish so common? Their wide distribution, sharply exceeding the population itself and, is explained by the colonial past of the countries of Asia, Africa and. So, until now, the official language of some is English language, and almost all (except ) speak Spanish.

National criteria underlie the division of mankind into states. If national borders coincide with state borders, then a one-national state is created. This is about half. In them, the main nationality is over 90%. These are many states of Latin America. Sometimes a state is created by two nations. It , . Along with all these countries, there are many states that are multinational. It , . 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 ​​national superiority of any people. Racial and national discrimination has not been completely eradicated. So, for many years, conflicts in Canada between the Anglo-Canadians, who occupy key positions in the economy, and by French Canadians who feel their social and economic infringement and advocate the creation of an independent state; For several years, the Middle East hotbed of tension connected with the Arab confrontation and giving rise to the problem of Palestinian refugees has not subsided. There are also “hot spots” in Europe: the Turkish-Greek conflict on, which actually led to the division of this one. There are also "hot spots" associated with national conflicts in the republics of the former USSR.

Most acute national conflicts flow in, where the policy of discrimination until the beginning of the 90s was elevated to the rank of state.

In the late 1980s, it became much more difficult interethnic relations and in Eastern Europe. These include, in particular:

a) the desire of the Polish national minority (about 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.

The largest language families in the world

Group	peoples
Indo-European family
Germanic	Germans, Dutch, Swedes, Danes, English, Scots, Americans, etc.
Slavic	Russians, Belarusians, Czechs, Slovaks,
Romanskaya	, French, Spaniards, Catalans, Romanians, Chileans, Brazilians and others
Celtic	, Welsh, etc.
	Lithuanians, Latvians
Greek	Greeks
Albanian
Armenian	Armenians
Iranian	Persians, Kurds, Pashtuns, Hazaras, Balochs, Ossetians, etc.
Sino-Tibetan family
Chinese	Chinese, Hui
Tibeto-Burmese	Tibetans, Burmese, Newars, Kanauri, Karens, etc.
Group	peoples
Afroasian (Semitic-Hamitic) family
Semitic	Arabs, Jews, Amhara, Tigre, Tagrai
Cushitic	, galla, etc.
Berber	Tuareg, Kabyle, etc.
Chadian	Hausa
Altai family

Russia is a multinational state. How many peoples live in Russia? Which of them are the most numerous? How are they distributed throughout the country? We will learn about this further.

How many peoples live in Russia?

Russia covers a huge territory, stretching from of Eastern Europe to Its area is 17,125,191 square kilometers, in this size the country ranks first in the world.

In terms of population, Russia is in ninth position, it is 146.6 million people. How many peoples live in Russia? It is difficult to give an exact figure, but there are approximately 190 of them, including the autochthonous population and small indigenous peoples.

The main source of data on the population of Russia is the 2010 census. The nationality of the citizens of the country is not indicated in the passports, so the data for the census was obtained based on the self-determination of the inhabitants.

Slightly more than 80% of the inhabitants indicated themselves as Russians, 19.1% accounted for other nationalities. Approximately five and a half million people did not indicate nationality. Based on these data, the total number of peoples of Russia who do not consider themselves Russians amounted to 26.2 million people.

Ethnic composition

Russians are the titular population of the country, they prevail in most subjects Russian Federation. They include Pomors, representing the sub-ethnos of Karelians and Russians in the area White Sea. The second largest people are the Tatars, which include the Mishars, Kryashens, Astrakhan and

The largest group of peoples are Slavs, mainly Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles and Bulgarians. They belong to the Indo-European family, which in Russia is also represented by the Romanesque, Greek, Germanic, Baltic, Iranian, Indo-Iranian and Armenian groups.

In total, peoples who belong to nine language families live on the territory of the state. In addition to Indo-European, these include:

• Altai;
• blue-Tibetan;
• Ural-Yukaghir;
• Chukchi-Kamchatka;
• Yenisei;
• Kartvelian;
• Eskimo-Aleutian;
• North Caucasian.

The small peoples of Russia are represented by Kereks (4 people), Vod people (64), Enets (227), Ults (295), Chulyms (355), Aleuts (482), Negidals (513), Orochs (596). These include peoples who belong to the Finno-Ugric, Samoyed, Turkic, Sino-Tibetan groups.

The largest peoples of Russia are presented in the table below.

People	Number in million
Ukrainians
Azerbaijanis

Map of the peoples of Russia

The country's population is not homogeneously distributed. How many peoples live in Russia and how they are located on its territory, the map below can clearly demonstrate. The vast majority live in the area between St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk, Novorossiysk and Primorsky Krai, where all the largest cities are located.

The largest Tatars and Ukrainians - mainly inhabit the southwestern part of the country. Ukrainians make up a large proportion of the population in the Chukotka and Khanty-Mansiysk districts, in the Magadan region.

As for other nations Slavic group, then the Poles and Bulgarians do not form large groups and dispersed. The compact Polish population lives only in the Omsk region. Belarusians in the majority inhabit the region of Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as the Kaliningrad region, Karelia, the Khanty-Mansiysk district.

Tatars

The number of Tatars in Russia is more than 3% of the total population. One third of them live in the Republic of Tatarstan. Focal settlements are also located in the Ulyanovsk region, in the Khanty-Mansiysk district, Bashkortostan, Tyumen, Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Penza regions and in other subjects of the state.

Most Tatars are Sunni Muslims. Miscellaneous groups Tatars have linguistic differences, and also differ from each other in traditions and way of life. Their language is Turkic languages Altai family, it has three dialects: Mishar (western), Kazan (middle), Siberian-Tatar (eastern). In the Republic of Tatarstan Tatar language is official.

The ethnonym "Tatars" appeared in the VI century among the Turkic tribes who called themselves that. After the conquest by the Golden Horde in the XIII century. the name is spreading and already denotes the Mongols and the tribes conquered by them. Later, the term was used in relation to nomads of Mongolian origin. Having settled in the Volga region, these tribes called themselves Meselmans, Mishers, Bolgrams, Kazanls, etc., until they consolidated under the definition of “Tatars” in the 19th century.

Ukrainians

One of the East Slavic peoples - Ukrainians, lives mainly on the territory of the state of Ukraine, where its population is about 41 million people. Large Ukrainian diasporas are located in Russia, the USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Germany and other countries.

Including labor immigrants, approximately 5 million Ukrainians live in Russia. Most live in cities. Large centers of settlement of this ethnic group are located in Moscow and the Moscow region, Tyumen, Rostov, Omsk regions, in Primorsky and Krasnodar region, Yamalo-Nenets district, etc.

The history of the peoples of Russia is not the same. Large-scale settlement Russian territories Ukrainians began during the existence of the empire. AT XVI-XVII centuries, according to the royal decree, Cossacks, gunners, archers from Ukraine and the Don were sent to Siberia and Far East for land development. Later, peasants, and townspeople, and representatives of the Cossack elders were exiled to them.

The intelligentsia voluntarily moved to St. Petersburg at a time when the city was the capital Russian Empire. At present, Ukrainians represent the largest population in it. ethnic group after the Russians.

Bashkirs

The fourth largest people in Russia are the Bashkirs. The overwhelming majority lives in the Republic of Bashkortostan. They also inhabit the Tyumen, Kurgan, Orenburg region. The Bashkir language belongs to the Altaic family, is divided into southern and Eastern dialect and a few speeches.

According to anthropological characteristics, the people belong to the Subural and South Siberian (among the Eastern Bashkirs) racial types. They represent Caucasians with a share of Mongoloidity. By religion they are Sunni Muslims.

The origin is connected with the tribes of the Pechenegs (South Ural Bashkirs - Burzyans, Usergans), as well as the Polovtsians (Kipchaks, Kanly) and the Volga Bulgars (Bulyars). Their ancestors inhabited the region of the Urals, the Volga and the Urals. The Mongols and Tungus-Manchus had an influence on the formation of the people.

indigenous peoples

The indigenous population of the country includes 48 peoples. They make up approximately 0.3% of the total population of the country. Approximately 12 of them are small and number less than a thousand people.

The small peoples of Russia mainly inhabit the northern regions of the state, the Far East and Siberia. They often lead traditional economy engaged in reindeer breeding, fishing, hunting and cattle breeding.

The largest indigenous people are the Nenets, they number almost 45 thousand people. They occupy the coastal zones of the Arctic Ocean and are divided into European and Asian. The people breed deer and live in tents - cone-shaped huts covered with birch bark and felt.

The Kereks are the smallest and are represented by only four people according to the census. Half a century ago there were about 100 of them. The main languages ​​for them are Chukchi and Russian, their native Kerek remained as a traditional language. passive language. In terms of their way of life and culture, they are similar to the Chukchi people, therefore they were subjected to assimilation with them.

Conclusion

Russia stretched for many kilometers from west to east, affecting both the European and Asian parts of the continent. More than 190 peoples live on its vast territory. Russians are the most numerous and represent the titular nation of the country.

Other large peoples are Tatars, Ukrainians, Bashkirs, Chuvashs, Avars, etc. Small indigenous peoples live in the state. Most of them number no more than a few thousand. The smallest are Kereks, Enets, Ults, Aleuts, they inhabit mainly the region of Siberia and the Far East.

Russia has always been multinational, this feature is closely connected with the history of the country, during which it influenced the consciousness and lifestyle of the people inhabiting the country. The multinational composition of the state is also indicated in the constitution, where it is called the bearer of sovereignty and the source of power.

Due to the heterogeneous composition of the country's population since ancient times, many people who identify themselves as actually have different roots and can be considered equally representatives of other nationalities. But in the USSR, a mandatory fixation of ethnicity was adopted, which served as the basis for determining the number of nationalities and their percentage. Today, it is not necessary to indicate your own, and there is no exact figure in the census data - some people did not mark their origin.

In addition, - a rather vague concept, ethnographers divide some nationalities into several parts, others are divided into separate groups. Some disappear or assimilate.

Number of nations in Russia

However, census data allow us to calculate almost exact number nations whose representatives live on the territory of Russia. There are more than 190 of them, although only about 80 nationalities make up a more or less significant part of the population: the rest get thousandths of a percent.

In the first place are Russians or those people who identify themselves as Russians: these are, among other things, Karyms, Ob and Lena old-timers, Pomors, Russian Ustyintsy, Mezens - there are a lot of self-names, but they all make up a nation. The number of Russians in the country is more than 115 million people.

In second place are the Tatars and all their varieties: Siberian, Kazan, Astrakhan and others. They number five and a half million, which is almost 4% of the country's population. This is followed by Ukrainians, Bashkirs, Chuvashs, Armenians, Belarusians, Mordovians, Udmurts and many other nationalities: Caucasian, Siberian. Part of the population - about 0.13% - is. Germans, Greeks, Poles, Lithuanians, Chinese, Koreans, Arabs live on the territory of Russia.

Thousandths of a percent are given to such people as Persians, Hungarians, Romanians, Czechs, Saami, Teleuts, Spaniards, French. There are also representatives of very few nationalities in the country: Laz, Vod, Svans, Ingiloys, Yugis, Arnauts.

The study of the ethnic (national) composition of the population is carried out by a science called ethnology (from the Greek ethnos - tribe, people), or ethnography. Formed as an independent branch of science in the second half of the 19th century, ethnology still retains a close connection with geography, history, sociology, anthropology and other sciences.
The basic concept of ethnology is the concept of ethnicity. An ethnos is a stable community of people that has developed in a certain territory, possessing, as a rule, a single language, some common features culture and psyche, as well as a common self-consciousness, i.e., the consciousness of their unity, in contrast to other similar ethnic formations. Some scientists believe that none of the listed signs of an ethnic group is decisive: in some cases leading role territory plays, in others - language, in others - cultural features, etc. (Indeed, for example, Germans and Austrians, British and Australians, Portuguese and Brazilians speak the same language, but belong to different ethnic groups, and the Swiss, on the contrary, they speak four languages, but form one ethnic group.) Others believe that ethnic self-consciousness should still be considered a defining feature, which, moreover, is usually fixed in a certain self-name (ethnonym), for example, “Russians”, “Germans”, “ Chinese, etc.
The theory of the emergence and development of ethnic groups was called the theory of ethnogenesis. Until recently, Russian science was dominated by the division of peoples (ethnic groups) into three stadial types: tribe, nationality and nation. At the same time, they proceeded from the fact that tribes and tribal unions - as communities of people - historically corresponded to the primitive communal system. Nationalities were usually associated with the slaveholding and feudal system, and nations as the highest form ethnic community- with the development of capitalist, and then socialist relations (hence the division of nations into bourgeois and socialist). AT recent times in connection with the reassessment of the former formational approach, which was based on the doctrine of the historical continuity of socio-economic formations, and with an increasing focus on modern civilizational approach, many of the previous provisions of the theory of ethnogenesis began to be revised, and in scientific terminology - as a generalization - the concept of "ethnos" began to be increasingly used.
In connection with the theory of ethnogenesis, it is impossible not to mention one fundamental dispute that has long been waged by Russian scientists. Most of them adhere to the view of the ethnos as a historical, social, historical and economic phenomenon. Others proceed from the fact that the ethnos should be considered a kind of bio-geo-historical phenomenon.
This point of view was defended by the geographer, historian and ethnographer L. N. Gumilyov in the book Ethnogenesis and the Biosphere of the Earth and in his other works. He considered ethnogenesis to be primarily a biological, biospheric process, associated with the passionarity of man, that is, with his ability to overstrain his forces to achieve a great goal. At the same time, the condition for the emergence of passionary impulses that affect the formation and development of an ethnos is not solar Activity, but a special state of the Universe, from which ethnic groups receive energy impulses. According to Gumilyov, the process of the existence of an ethnos - from its emergence to disintegration - lasts 1200-1500 years. During this time, it goes through phases of ascent, then breakdown, obscuration (from Latin obscurous - darkened, in the sense of reactionary) and, finally, relic. When the highest phase is reached, the largest ethnic formations appear - superethnoi. L. N. Gumilyov believed that Russia entered a phase of growth in the 13th century, and in the 19th century. passed into a phase of fracture, which in the XX century. was in its final stages.
After getting acquainted with the concept of ethnicity, you can proceed to consider ethnic composition(structure) of the world's population, i.e., its distribution according to the principle of ethnic (national) affiliation.
First of all, naturally, the question arises about the total number of ethnic groups (peoples) inhabiting the Earth. It is usually believed that there are from 4 thousand to 5.5 thousand of them. It is difficult to give a more accurate figure, since many of them have not yet been sufficiently studied, and this does not make it possible to distinguish, say, a language from its dialects. In terms of numbers, all peoples are distributed extremely disproportionately (Table 56).
Table 56


Analysis of table 56 shows that in the early 1990s. 321 peoples, numbering more than 1 million people each, accounted for 96.2% of the total population the globe. Including 79 peoples with more than 10 million people accounted for almost 80% of the population, 36 peoples with more than 25 million people - about 65% and 19 peoples with more than 50 million people each - 54% of the population. By the end of the 1990s. number of most large nations increased to 21, and their share in the world population approached 60% (Table 57).
It is easy to calculate that the total number of 11 peoples, each of which has more than 100 million people, is about half of humanity. And at the other extreme there are hundreds of small ethnic groups living mainly in tropical forests and in the regions of the North. Many of them number less than 1,000 people, such as the Andamanese in India, the Toala in Indonesia, the Alakalufs in Argentina and Chile, and the Yukagirs in Russia.
Table 57

No less interesting and important is the question of the national composition of the population of individual countries of the world. In accordance with its features, five types of states can be distinguished: 1) one-national; 2) with a sharp predominance of one nation, but with more or less significant national minorities; 3) binational; 4) with more complex national composition, but relatively homogeneous in ethnic terms; 5) multinational, with a complex and ethnically heterogeneous composition.
The first type of states is quite widely represented in the world. For example, in overseas Europe about half of all countries are almost single-national. These are Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Italy, Portugal. In foreign Asia, there are much fewer such countries: Japan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, some small countries. There are even fewer of them in Africa (Egypt, Libya, Somalia, Madagascar). And in Latin America almost all states are single-national, since Indians, mulattoes, mestizos are considered parts of single nations.
Countries of the second type are also quite common. In foreign Europe, these are Great Britain, France, Spain, Romania, the Baltic countries. In foreign Asia - China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Syria, Turkey. In Africa - Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Zimbabwe, Botswana. AT North America- USA, in Oceania - the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand.
The third type of countries is much less common. Examples of it are Belgium, Canada.
Countries of the fourth type, with a rather complex, although ethnically homogeneous composition, are most often found in Asia, Central, Eastern and South Africa. They also exist in Latin America.
Most characteristic countries fifth type - India and Russia. Indonesia, the Philippines, many countries of West and South Africa can also be attributed to this type.
It is known that inter-ethnic contradictions have noticeably aggravated recently in countries with a more complex national composition.
They have different historical roots. Thus, in the countries that emerged as a result of European colonization, the oppression of the indigenous population (Indians, Eskimos, Aborigines of Australia, Maori) persists. Another source of controversy is the underestimation of the linguistic and cultural identity of national minorities (Scots and Welsh in Great Britain, Basques in Spain, Corsicans in France, French Canadians in Canada). Another reason for the intensification of such contradictions was the influx of tens and hundreds of thousands of foreign workers into many countries. AT developing countries interethnic contradictions are primarily associated with the consequences of the colonial era, when the boundaries of possessions were drawn for the most part without taking into account ethnic boundaries, resulting in a kind of "ethnic mosaic". Constant contradictions on national grounds, reaching the point of militant separatism, are especially characteristic of India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Somalia, and many other countries.
The ethnic composition of the population of individual countries does not remain unchanged. Over time, it gradually changes, primarily under the influence of ethnic processes, which are divided into processes of ethnic division and ethnic unification. Separation processes include those processes in which a previously single ethnic group either ceases to exist or is divided into parts. Unification processes, on the contrary, lead to the merging of groups of people of different ethnicity and the formation of larger ethnic communities. This happens as a result of inter-ethnic consolidation, assimilation and integration.
The process of consolidation is manifested in the merging of ethnic groups (or parts of them) close in language and culture, which as a result turn into a larger ethnic community. This process is typical, for example, for Tropical Africa; It also happened in the former USSR. The essence of assimilation lies in the fact that separate parts of any ethnic group or even whole nation, living in the environment of another people, as a result of long-term communication assimilates its culture, perceives its language and ceases to consider itself belonging to the former ethnic community. One of the important factors of such assimilation is intermarriage. Assimilation is more characteristic of economically developed countries with long-established nations, where these nations assimilate less developed national groups of people. And interethnic integration is understood as rapprochement various ethnic groups without merging them into a single whole. It occurs in both developed and developing countries. It can be added that consolidation leads to the enlargement of ethnic groups, and assimilation leads to a reduction in national minorities.
Russia is one of the most multinational states in the world. It is inhabited by more than 190 peoples and nationalities. According to the 2002 census, Russians make up more than 80% of the total population. In second place are the Tatars (more than 5 million people), the third - Ukrainians (over 4 million), the fourth - the Chuvash. The share of each of the other nations in the population of the country did not exceed 1%.