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). They represent around 2.3% of the whole population. ].
South Korea is another monoethnic country. There are small immigrant populations that exist in South Korea, where they account for around 5.2% of the South Korean population. These include around 900,000 Chinese immigrants, many of whom are of Korean descent.
Most sub-Saharan 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", with Bosnia and Herzegovina further diving itself into mono-ethnic enclaves.
Because not all countries collect data on ethnicity, and the collection of data usually relies on self-reporting, it can be difficult to discern how monoethnic a country is.
Monoethnic countries with more than 85% homogenity
Sovereign states Rank Country Population Dominant group %Notes 126,298,666Korean99.998%2111,247,248Egyptian99.7%32,227,548Basotho99.7%4 12,048,847 Arab-Amazigh 98%5168,697,184Bengali99%637,387,585Arab-Amazigh99%Excludes data from Western Sahara; also excludes data surrounding Andalusians (Moriscos and Sephardic Jews), whose millions of descendants have absorbed Arab identity over the course of generations.7 318,007 Ni-Vanuatu 99% 8 2,976,765 Armenian 98.1% 93,107,100Albanian98%10123,219,024Japanese96.9% 1138,746,310Polish96.9% This number represents the percentage of people who indicated Polish as their primary ethnicity.12 104,889 Tongan 96.5% 13 116,545 I-Kiribati 95.78% 14 82,011Marshallese95.6% 1517,063,669Khmer95.4% 16726,799Melanesian95.4%17 5,364,482 Arab 97%1810,207,177Portuguese95%1951,117,378Korean94.6% These include all foreign residents, regardless of whether they are of Korean descent or not. Many foreigners in Korea are either returning migrants or their descendants, especially the Chinese-Korean population."출입국통계". Ministry of Justice (in Korean). Retrieved April 4, 2025.209,892Nauruan94.6%2110,650,239Azerbaijani91.6%224,150,116Croatian91.6%231,416,043,270Han Chinese91.1% or 94%From 1978, the Chinese government launched the "redefination of ethnic identification policy (民族成分恢复)", Han Chinese were encouraged to redefine their ethnic identity as those of ethnic minorities. Therefore, some sources prefer quoting the current official percentage reported by the Chinese government (91.1%), but others still prefer quoting the old percentage before 1978 (94%).2458,947,905Italian91%"Indicatori demografici, anno 2020" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 3 May 2021.2536,544,431Arab90%265,603,851Finns89.8%2718,148,155Romanian89.3%Data represents only those who declared an ethnicity in the 2021 census285,744,151Turkmen87.6%294,900,961Georgian86.8%30105,758,975Viet85.3%
Unrecognized states and dependent territories Country Population Dominant group % 5,483,450Palestinian91%382,836Turkish Cypriots99.2 %6,200,000Somalis99%23,347,374Han Chinese97%7,249,907Han Chinese92%1,586,659Albanians92%55,877Greenlandic Inuit89.7%53,532Ossetians89.9%614,458Han Chinese88.7%30,696Ålanders86.5%
See also Multinational state Ethnic cleansing Ethnic nationalism Ethnocracy Homogeneous Titular nation
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