The population of the 55 ethnic groups (minority nationalities) is about 8.98% of the total (Han people 91.02%), 15 have over a million each, 13 over 100,000 each, 7 over 50,000 each and 20 have fewer than 50,000 each. There are 5 autonomous regions with 160 million people (72 million minority people), about 64.3% of the national area:

A. Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region founded on May 1, 1947
B. Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region founded on Oct. 1, 1955
C. Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region founded on March 5, 1958
D. Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region founded on Oct. 25, 1958
E. Tibet Autonomous Region founded on Sept. 9, 1965

             The national and official language is Standard Chinese or Mandarin (having both spoken and written forms) which is based on the Beijing dialect of the Northern language. It is also a working language of the UN.

            Of the 55 minority nationalities in China, the Hui, Manchu and She use the same Han languages while the other 52 each have their own spoken languages. After 1949, the Chinese government set up relevant departments to help create and standardize written languages for 10 minority nationalities including the Zhuang, Bouyei, Miao, Dong, Hani and Li. Now 23 national minorities have their own written languages

            The Uygur, Kazak, Jingpo, Lahu and Dai have also been given help to have their written languages reformed.

            Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan(Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects.

            The Han people use the same written language, and technically speak the same language but in hundreds of dialects.