Search Results for “list of ethnic groups in myanmar”

Source: List of ethnic groups in Myanmar

Myanmar (Burma) is an ethnically diverse nation with 135 distinct ethnic groups officially recognised by the Burmese government. These are grouped into eight "major national ethnic races":

Bamar
Kayin
Rakhine
Shan
Mon
Chin
Kachin
Karenni
The "major national ethnic races" are grouped primarily according to region rather than linguistic or ethnic affiliation, as for example the Shan Major National Ethnic Race includes 33 ethnic groups speaking languages in at least four widely differing language families.
The list has faced criticism for overcounting the number of ethnic groups. Specifically, it represents clans and people withh dialectical differences as distinct ethnic groups, sometimes even repeating the same group under a different name.
According to Gamanii, a researcher who scrutinized the claim, only 59 out of the 135 ethnic groups mentioned can be verified as existing entities.
Many unrecognised ethnic groups exist, the largest being the Burmese Chinese and Panthay (who together form 3% of the population), Burmese Indians (who form 2% of the population), Rohingya, Anglo-Burmese and Gurkha. There are no official statistics regarding the population of the latter two groups, although unofficial estimates place around 52,000 Anglo-Burmese in Burma with around 1.6 million outside the country.