【Learn Chinese】Chinese Ethnic Groups: Han Chinese

As the majority ethnic group in China, Han Chinese (汉族 hàn zú) is what most people think of when they think of Chinese people and Chinese culture.

As of 2020, 91.51% of the Chinese population are classified as Han Chinese that’s a staggering 1.2 billion people! Not only are Han people the largest ethnic group in China but are in fact the world’s largest ethnic group accounting for about 18% of the global population.
Han people can be found in almost every part of China, but they are mainly located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, Yangtze River and Pearl River and the Northeast Plain.
Mandarin is the spoken and written language of most Han people and is the official language of China.
The Han Chinese take their ethnic name from the Han dynasty (汉朝 hàncháo) which was the second imperial dynasty of China. This is also where the name ‘Han language’ (汉语 hànyǔ), the characters hanzi (汉字 hànzì) and the traditional Han dress (汉服 hàn fú) come from. The Han dynasty lasted for over 400 years (206 BC–220 CE) and is known as a golden age in Chinese history. During the Han dynasty arts and culture flourished and the Han Empire expanded militarily in all directions.