Myanmar Ethnic Groups
Myanmar (also known as 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, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Kayah, Mon, Rakhine, Shan. 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.
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.
