Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people who are considered to be the same in some or multiple ways. They may all have the same ancestors, speak the same language, or have the same culture, which could sometimes include religion. They often live in the same or surrounding area.
Sometimes almost all of the people in one country are of the same ethnic group, but not always. Often one country may have several different ethnic groups, or the people of one ethnic group may live in several different countries.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ensures the rights of ethnic groups in Article 27 and also gives them the right to use their own language.
An example of an ethnic group is the Slavic peoples and Roma people.
Related terms
- Supraethnicity or supra-ethnicity: a grouping of several interrelated ethnicities that have similar but unique cultures.
Ethnic Group Media
A group of ethnic Bengalis in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Bengalis form the third-largest ethnic group in the world after the Han Chinese and Arabs.
The Javanese people of Indonesia are the largest Austronesian ethnic group.
The racial diversity of Asia's ethnic groups (original caption: Asiatiska folk), Nordisk familjebok (1904)
The Basques constitute an indigenous ethnic minority in both France and Spain.
The Founding of the Brazilian Fatherland, an 1899 allegorical painting depicting Brazilian statesman José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva, one of the founding fathers of the country, with the flag of the Empire of Brazil and the three major ethnic groups in Brazil