Monoethnicity is the existence of a single

ethnic group An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

in a given region or country. It is the opposite of

polyethnicity Polyethnicity, alternatively 'polyethnics'' and also pluriethnicity or multiethnicity, (from prefixes poly-, pluri-, multi- / all designating plurality), refers to specific cultural phenomena that are characterized by social proximity and mut ...

. 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 Koreans ( South Korean: , , North Korean: , ; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula. Koreans mainly live in the two Korean nation states: North Korea and South Korea (collectively and simply r ...

, Ainus and Ryukyuans). They represent around 1% of the whole population.

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

is a 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. Most

Sub-Saharan African Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the African co ...

countries have what would be considered a mono-

racial A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...

society, but it is common to find dozens of ethnic groups within the same country. The

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...

are noted as having made Yugoslavia's successor states "de facto and

de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' ( ; , "by law") describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, ("in fact") describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legall ...

monoethnic nation-states".

Monoethnic countries with more than 85%

Sovereign states

Unrecognized states and dependent territories

References

{{Ethnicity Ethnicity

Monoethnic countries with more than 85%

Unrecognized states and dependent territories

See also

References