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People
Home » Vietnam » Vietnam: The People and Culture » PeopleThere are 54 ethnic groups officially recognized by the Vietnamese government living in the country. Eight of these groups make up 96% of the population, including the aforementioned 86% Viet people. The other major people groups include Tay, Thai, Muong, Khmer, Hoa, Nung, and Hmong.
Tay: The Tay people number about 1.5 million, or about 2% of the population. Most Tay live in the northern Vietnamese provinces. Tay villages consist of about 20 households and are usually situated at the foot of the country’s plentiful mountains. Tay are agriculturally sound, known for cultivating rice, maize, sweet potatoes, and other produce.
Thai: The Thai people number about 1.3 million in Vietnam, making up about 1.75% of the population. Thai people hail from Thailand and are almost exclusively Buddhist. Thai ancestry is strongly influenced by Chinese, Malay, and British.
Thai people speak Thai and utilize the Thai alphabet. Their culture is also influenced by India, especially their literature.
Muong: The Muong people make up about 1.5% of the population of Vietnam, numbering about 1.2 million people. The Muong, like the Tay, inhabit mostly the mountainous regions in Northern Vietnam. They speak their own Muong language, which is so closely related to Vietnamese that some people consider it a simple dialect.
Khmer: The Khmer people number just over 1 million in Vietnam, making up about 1.35% of the country’s population. The Khmer live primarily in the Southern Vietnam region, inhabiting the Mekong River Delta. There is also a group of Khmer who live in Cambodia. The area in which the Khmer live is a controversial area because it was given to South Vietnam after French occupation while Cambodia really believed it should belong to them.
The Khmer are the poorest segment of the population of South Vietnam. They suffer a number of injustices at the hands of the Vietnamese government and are attempting to battle for their human rights, though not to much avail.
Hoa: The Hoa people number around 900,000, or about 1.2% of the population of Vietnam. They are simply a Chinese minority in Vietnam and go by many other names, including Chinese Vietnamese, Vietnamese Chinese, and Sino-Vietnamese. They speak Cantonese Chinese with a Vietnamese accent. They generally inhabit the cities of Vietnam, although some live in the northern mountainous regions. The rural dwellers are rice farmers and fishermen primarily. There are large populations of Hoa in each of the five independent provinces of Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Can Tho, Da Nang, and Hai Phong.
Nung: The Nung people, also numbering about 900,000, make up another 1.2% of the population of Vietnam. There are urban dwellers but are located in many of the smaller provinces. Those who live rurally generally farm rice, maize, and tangerines.
Hmong: The Hmong make up 1% of the population of Vietnam, with a population of about 800,000. The Hmong people speak a language of the same name and live primarily in southern China, an area near northern Vietnam.
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