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Asian people

Total population
4,533,765,005 59.4% of the total world population (World population of 7.5 billion)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Western,Central,South,East,Southeast Asians (Eastern Asians) andNorth Asians[2]
China (PRC)	1,384,688,986[3]
India	1,296,834,042[4]
Indonesia	262,787,403[5]
Pakistan	238,181,034[6]
Bangladesh	164,098,818[7]
Japan	126,168,156[8]
Philippines	118,277,063[9]
Vietnam	97,040,334[10]
Iran	85,888,910[11]
Turkey	85,372,377[12]
Thailand	68,615,858[13]
Myanmar	57,069,099[14]
South Korea	51,418,097[15]
Afghanistan	40,121,552[16]
Iraq	39,650,145[17]
Saudi Arabia	33,091,113[18]
Uzbekistan	36,520,593[19]
Malaysia	34,564,810[20]
Yemen	32,140,443[21]
Nepal	30,424,878[22]
North Korea	25,831,360[23]
Taiwan (ROC)	23,545,963[24]
Sri Lanka	23,044,123[25]
Syria	19,454,263[26]
Kazakhstan	18,744,548[27]
Cambodia	17,288,489[28]
Azerbaijan	10,650,239[29]
Jordan	10,458,413[30]
Tajikistan	10,394,063[31]
United Arab Emirates	9,701,315[32]
Palestine	9,402,617[33]
Laos	7,953,556[34]
Kyrgyzstan	7,213,455[35]
Singapore	5,996,000[36]
Turkmenistan	5,744,151[37]
Oman	5,494,691[38]
Lebanon	5,469,612[39]
Kuwait	4,985,716[40]
Palestine	4,683,000[41]
Mongolia	3,504,741[42]
Qatar	3,063,005[43]
Bahrain	1,566,888[44]
Brunei	460,345[45]
Languages
Languages of Asia(Chinese,Hindi-Urdu,Arabic,Bengali,Marathi,Tamil,Japanese,Filipino,Indonesian,Turkish,Khmer,Korean,Lao,Nepali,Malay,Uzbek,Mongolian,Persian,Thai,Vietnamese,Kazakh andHebrew among other minority Asian languages)
Religion
Majority:Islam andHinduismMinority:Buddhism,Christianity,Sikhism,Shinto andothers

The ancestral population of modernAsian people has its origins in the two primary prehistoric settlement centres – greaterSouthwest Asia and from theMongolian plateau towardsNorthern China.

Migrations of distinctethnolinguistic groups have probably occurred as early as 10,000 years ago. However, around 2,000 BCE earlyIranian speaking people andIndo-Aryans arrived in Iran and northernIndian subcontinent. Pressed by theMongols,Turkic peoples often migrated to the western and northern regions of theCentral Asian plains. Prehistoric migrants fromSouth China andSoutheast Asia seem to have populatedEast Asia,Korea andJapan in several waves, where they gradually replaced indigenous people, such as theAinu, who are of uncertain origin.^[46][47]Austroasiatic andAustronesian people establish in Southeast Asia between 5.000 and 2.000 BCE, partly merging with, but eventually displacing the indigenousAustralo-Melanesians.^{[48][49][50][51]}

In terms ofAsian people, there is an abundance ofethnic groups inAsia, with adaptations to the climate zones of the continent, which include arctic, subarctic, temperate, subtropical or tropical, as well as extensive desert regions in Central andWestern Asia. The ethnic groups have adapted to mountains, deserts, grasslands, and forests, while on the coasts ofAsia, resident ethnic groups have adopted various methods of harvest and transport. The types of diversity in Asia are cultural, religious, economic and historical.

Some groups are primarilyhunter-gatherers- whereas others practicetranshumance (nomadic lifestyle), have beenagrarian for millennia, or adopted an industrial or urban lifestyle. Some groups or countries in Asia are completely urban (e.g.,Qatar andSingapore); the largest countries in Asia with regard to population are theChina,India,Indonesia,Pakistan,Bangladesh,Japan,Philippines,Vietnam,Iran,Turkey,Thailand,Burma,South Korea,Uzbekistan, andMalaysia.Colonisation of Asian ethnic groups and states byEuropean peoples began in the late 1st millennium BCE, reaching its peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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West Asia is sometimes referred to as "Southwest Asia". West Asia consists ofArmenia,Azerbaijan,Bahrain,Cyprus,Georgia,Iran,Iraq,Israel,Jordan,Kuwait,Lebanon,Oman,Palestine,Qatar,Saudi Arabia,Syria,United Arab Emirates,Yemen, most ofTurkey, and part ofEgypt.

Culturally, the region's dominant ethnic groups areArab (about 150 million), Turkic (about 60 million),Persian (about 50 million) andKurds (about 35 million). Other indigenous minorities includeJews (6.2 million),Assyrians (about 400,000),Armenians (about 4.5 million),Azerbaijanis (about 40 million),Mandaeans,Yazidis,Circassians,Greeks, and others. Many of the West Asian countries contain expansivedeserts, and thus many nomadic groups exist today, most notably theBedouin Arabs.

Central Asia, in its most common definition, is deemed to consist of five formerSoviet Socialist Republics:Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan,Uzbekistan, andTurkmenistan. In a wider view,Xinjiang of westernChina,Mongolia,Afghanistan, and northernPakistan are included.Turkic,Indo-Iranian, andMongolic peoples comprise its general ethnicities.

The main religions of Central Asia areIslam (Turkic/Indo-Iranian peoples) andBuddhism (Mongolia, Tibet). Central Asia has a long, rich history mainly based on its geographical location along the ancientSilk Road. It has been conquered byMongols,Tibetans,Timurids,Uzbeks,Persians,Tatars,Russians,Afghans andSarmatians, and thus has a very distinct, vibrant culture.^[52] The culture is influenced byChinese,Indian,Jewish/Hebrew,Persian,Afghan,Arabian,Turkish,Russian,Sarmatian, andMongolian cultures.

Themusic of Central Asia is rich and varied and is appreciated worldwide. Meanwhile,Central Asian cuisine is one of the most prominent cuisines ofAsia, with cuisines fromPakistan,India,China,Turkey andAzerbaijan showing significant influence from the foods of Central Asia. One of the most famous Central Asian foods iskebab.

The literature of Central Asia is linked withPersian literature as historically it has been part of thePersian Empire for a lot of its history. Furthermore, sitting at the junction of the Silk Road, it has numerousChinese,Indian andArabian literary works.

East Asians is a term used for ethnic groups that are indigenous toEast Asia, which consists ofMainland China,Hong Kong,Macau,Taiwan,Tibet,Japan,Mongolia,North Korea, andSouth Korea.^{[53][54][55][56][57]} The major ethnic groups that form the core of East Asia are theHan,Korean, andYamato.^{[58][59][53][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][57][excessive citations]} Other ethnic groups of East Asia include theBai,Hui,Tibetans,Turkic,Manchus,Ryukyuan,Ainu,Zhuang,Mongols, and otherMongolic peoples.^[73][74] Ancestral East Asians are, based on archaeogenetic data, suggested to have originated in Mainland Southeast Asia, and expanded outgoing from Southern China in multiple waves northwards and southwards respectively.^[75][76]

The major East Asian language families are theSinitic,Japonic, andKoreanic families.^{[77][78][79][80]} Other language families areTibeto-Burman,Ainu languages,Mongolic,Tungusic,Turkic,Miao–Yao,Tai–Kadai,Austronesian, andMon–Khmer.^[81]

Throughout the ages, the greatestinfluence on East Asiahistorically has been fromChina, where the span of its cultural influence is generally known as theSinosphere laid the foundation for East Asian civilization.^[82] Chinese culture not only served as the foundation its own society and civilization, but for also that of its East Asian neighbors, Japan and Korea.^[83] The knowledge and ingenuity of Chinese civilization and the classics of Chinese literature and culture were seen as the foundations for a civilized life in East Asia. China served as a vehicle through which the adoption of Confucian ethical philosophy, Chinese calendar systems, political and legal systems, architectural style, diet, terminology, institutions, religious beliefs,imperial examinations that emphasized a knowledge of Chinese classics, political philosophy and culture, as well as historically sharing a commonwriting system reflected in the histories ofJapan andKorea.^{[84][85][86][82][87][88][89]} The relationship between China and its cultural influence on East Asia has been compared to the historical influence ofGreco-Roman civilization on Europe and theWestern World.^[88] Major characteristics exported by China towards Japan and Korea include sharedChinese-derived language characteristics, as well as similar social and moral philosophies derived fromConfucianist thought.^[89][87][90]

Thescript of the Han Chinese characters has long been a unifying feature in East Asia as the vehicle for exporting Chinese culture to its East Asian neighbors.^[90] Chinese characters became the unifying language of bureaucratic politics and religious expression in East Asia.^[90] The Chinese script was passed on first toKorea,Vietnam in the 1st century, then toJapan, where it forms a major component of theJapanese writing system. In Korea,Sejong the Great invented thehangul alphabet in 1443, which later became the mainorthographic system for theKorean language in the 19th century.^[91] In Japan, much of theJapanese language is written inhiragana andkatakana in addition toChinese characters.^[89]

European influences, especiallyRussian, are strong in the southwestern and central part of the region, due to its highRussian population fromEastern Europe which began to settle the area in the 18th century.^[92] For the most part,North Asia is considered to be made up of theAsian part of Russia solely. North Asia is geographically the northern extremity ofEast Asia and the physical characteristics of its native inhabitants generally resemble that of East Asians, however, this is principally divided along political lines under separate national identities, particularly that of China, Mongolia and Russia. The main ethnic groups of the region speak languages of theUralic,Turkic,Mongolic, andTungusic language families, along withEast Slavs and various "Paleo-Siberian" peoples, with most of these ethnic groups being composed of nomads or people with a nomadic history.

The geographic region ofSiberia was the historical land of the Turkic people, theTatars, in theSiberia Khanate^{[dubious –discuss]}.Russia, underexpansion of its territory however, took control of the region now known as Siberia, and thus today it isunder Russian rule. There are roughly 33 million people in North Asia.

South Asia in general definition, consists of the countries ofAfghanistan,Bangladesh,Bhutan,India,Maldives,Nepal,Pakistan, andSri Lanka. The fiveSouthern Indian states and north-eastern Sri Lanka share aDravidian culture, due to the prominence ofDravidian languages there. TheBrahuis ofPakistan also belong toDravidian people group.Sri Lanka has two main languages, Sinhalese which has Indo-Aryan roots and Tamil which has Dravidian roots.Bangladesh and theIndian provinceWest Bengal share a commonBengalilanguage and culture. The provinces of Jammu Kashmir andGilgit-Baltistan ofPakistan share a commonDardic and Tibetic heritage with the Indian territories ofJammu and Kashmir andLadakh. Similarly thePunjab province of Pakistan andIndian state ofPunjab share a common Punjabiethnicity,language and culture. In Pakistan, the two western regions ofBaluchistan andKhyber Pakhtunkhwa share a greaterIranian heritage and while the provinces ofSindh share a moreIndo-Aryan culture.Iranian is most prevalent inAfghanistan, with significantTurkic speakers.

Regions ofNepal and parts of the Indian states and territories ofArunachal Pradesh,Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh,Sikkim, andUttarakhand have cultural similarity toTibet,Tibetan Buddhism being the dominant religion there. Finally theNortheast Indian states ofMeghalaya,Mizoram,Manipur,Nagaland, and tribal groups ofAssam andTripura have cultural affinities withSoutheast Asia.

Bhutanese are often referred to in their literature as "Bhote" (people of Bhutia/Bhotia or Tibet). They follow Tibetan Buddhism to and it is a dominant political and cultural element in modernBhutan. Their language,Dzongkha, is the national language and is descended from OldTibetan.

Hinduism,Buddhism,Jainism, andSikhism founded in the region that is today's India, and spread throughout theIndian subcontinent.Islam andChristianity also have significant histories. While India and Nepal have a majority of people following Hinduism,Islam is the second largest religion after Hinduism inIndia and South Asia withMuslim majority countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh. Sri Lanka and Bhutan have a majority ofBuddhists alongsideHindus

Indo-Aryan languages are spoken in most ofNorth,East,West, andCentralIndia;Nepal;Bangladesh;Pakistan; andSri Lanka.Dravidian languages are spoken inIndia, fewer parts ofPakistan,Afghanistan,Nepal,Maldives,Bangladesh, andSri Lanka.Tibeto-Burman languages are spoken in the hills ofBangladesh,Nepal,North Pakistan,North andNorth East India.Austroasiatic languages are spoken in certain northern and eastern areas ofBangladesh, parts ofNepal and scattered across different zones ofIndia mostly concentrated aroundChota Nagpur Plateau and the state ofMeghalaya.Iranian languages are most prevalent inAfghanistan and westernPakistan.Turkic speakers are significant inAfghanistan and due to theAfghan diaspora in parts ofPakistan as well.

Southeast Asia is often split into two parts:Mainland Southeast Asia, comprisingBurma,Cambodia,Laos,Peninsular Malaysia,Thailand, andVietnam; andMaritime Southeast Asia, which includesBrunei,East Timor,Indonesia,East Malaysia, thePhilippines, andSingapore.China has historically influenced the region more thanIndia, most notably through the largeChinese populations in many of the countries of the region.

Demographically, Southeast Asia has had little Western immigration, although Western influence still exists due to the lasting legacy ofcolonialism. One example is the Philippines, which has been heavily influenced bySpain and slightly by theUnited States of America over the course of almost four centuries of colonisation.

A common feature found around the region isstilt houses, while another isrice paddy agriculture, which originated in the region thousands of years ago. Dance is also a very important feature of the culture, utilizing movements of the hands and feet perfected over thousands of years. Furthermore, thearts andliterature ofSoutheast Asia is very distinctive as some have been influenced byIndian,Hindu,Chinese,Islamic andBuddhist literature.

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At least 21 million of European, Russian, North American and South American nationalities and heritage live in Asia, representing 0.45% of the total population of Asia. The following is a list of people with such ancestry and nationality, including people of mixed heritage of part Asian and part European/North American/South American, living in Asian countries, also showing the main country of origin.

 Philippines 5 million (Spain, 4.7% of total population)^{[citation needed]}

 Kazakhstan 3.5 million (Russia, 19% of total population)^[93]

 India 1.7 million (United Kingdom, 0.12% of total population)^[94][95]

 Kyrgyzstan 837,000 (Russia, 13.5% of total population)^[96]

 Uzbekistan 750,000 (Russia, 2.3% of total population)^[97]

 United Arab Emirates 461,000 (United Kingdom, 4.9% of total population)^[98][99]

 Turkmenistan 297,913 (Russia, 5.1% of total population)^[100]

 Thailand 250,000 (United Kingdom, 0.36% of total population)^[101]

 South Korea 245,000 (United States, 0.48% of total population)^[102]

 Hong Kong 218,209 (United States, 3.1% of total population)^{[103][104][105]}

 Indonesia 189,000 (Netherlands, 0.071% of total population)^[106][107]

 Pakistan 149,253 (United Kingdom, 0.07% of total population)^[108]

 Syria 120,000 (Russia, 0.7% of total population)^[109]

 Azerbaijan 119,300 (Russia, 1.2% of total population)^[110]

 Qatar 115,000 (United States, 4.3% of total population)^[111]

 Bangladesh 110,138 (United States, 0.06% of total population)^[112]

 Cyprus 109,462 (United Kingdom, 9.1% of total population)^[113]

 Japan 106,000 (United States, 0.08% of total population)^[114]

 Saudi Arabia 100,000 (United States, 0.3% of total population)^[115]

 Singapore 76,900 (United Kingdom, 1.3% of total population)^[116][117]

 Tajikistan 68,200 (Russia, 1.1% of total population)^[96]

 Jordan 65,000 (Russia, 0.67% of total population)^[118]

 Iran 50,000 (Russia, 0.061% of total population)^[119]

 Malaysia 37,000 (Portugal, 0.11% of total population)^[120]

 Georgia 26,453 (Russia, 0.7% of total population)^[121]

 Lebanon 25,000 (United States, 0.41% of total population)^[121]

 Taiwan 21,000 (United States, 0.09% of total population)^[122]

 Myanmar 19,200 (United Kingdom, 0.035% of total population)^[123]

 Oman 16,349 (United Kingdom, 0.39% of total population)^[124]

 Bahrain 15,000 (United Kingdom, 1% of total population)^[125]

 Afghanistan 13,000 (United States, 0.037% of total population)^[126]

 Kuwait 13,000 (United States, 0.031% of total population)^[127]

 Macau 13,000 (Portugal, 2.3% of total population)^[128]

 Armenia 11,911 (Russia, 0.4% of total population)^[129]

 Sri Lanka 8,856 (Italy, 0.04% of total population)^[130]

 Iraq 6,000 (United States, 0.015% of total population)^[127]

 Mongolia 3,000 (Russia, 0.1% of total population)^[131]

   Nepal 3,000 (United States, 0.01% of total population)^[132]

 Vietnam 2,700 (United States, 0.002% of total population)^[133]

 North Korea 2,045 (United States, 0.008% of total population)^[134]

 Maldives 1,117 (Germany, 0.25% of total population)^[135]

 Cambodia 1,000 (France, 0.006% of total population)^[136][137]

 Yemen 1,000 (United States, 0.003% of total population)^[138][139]

• Asian people
• Australoid
• Black people
• Brown (racial classification)
• Caucasoid
• Culture of Asia
• Demographics of Asia
• Indigenous peoples of Asia
• Languages of Asia
• Mongoloid
• Negroid
• Proto-Australoid
• White people

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• Map – Major ethnic groups in Central Asia

• Ethnic groups in Asia
• Ancient peoples of Asia

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