Main ethnicities in Vietnam

Introduction

There are four main ethnic groups in Vietnam as in census 2009. They are in descending order of population.

Main ethnic groups

Kinh

Kinh (京) are the largest ethnic group (86%) in Vietnam. They live mostly in the low plains of North, Central and South Vietnam.

They celebrate the same festivals and culture as Han Chinese such as Lunar New Year (Tet Nguyen Dan 元旦節), Dragon boat festival (Tet Doan Ngo 端午節), Mid-Autumn festival (Tet Trung Thu 中秋節).

Tay-Nung

Tay and their closest relatives Nung are the second largest ethnic group (3%) and are part of Tai-Kadai people.

The Tay are the real natives of northern Vietnam and live mostly in the mountains of northeast Vietnam bordering Guangxi province in China.


Tai

Tai are the third largest group (1.8%). They live mostly in northwest Vietnam bordering Laos. There are three subgroups which are White Tai, Black Tai and Red Tai.

They are genetically related to the Tai people in Thailand and are part of Tai-Kadai people.

Muong

Muong is the fourth largest group (1.5%) in Vietnam. They live mostly on the southwest mountains of Hanoi. They are genetically and linguistically Austroasiatic.

In ancient times, their ancestors who are proto-Viet-Muong migrated from further south such as Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Ha Tinh near central Vietnam.

Ethnic Muong people can also be found in Laos where they originally came from.


Ethnic map of Vietnam

Largest four
  • Kinh - Light green
  • Tay-Nung - Yellow (north east)
  • Tai - Yellow (north west)
  • Muong - Pink (south west of Hanoi)
Lesser minorities
  • Khmer - Dark green (Mekong Delta plain in South Vietnam)
  • Hoa Chinese - Red (big cities such as Hanoi, Hue, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Ho Chi Minh)
  • Bahnar - Blue
  • Katu - Brown
  • Cham - Purple
  • Jarai-Rade - Orange

Last updated: 31 March 2020
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