List of ethnic groups in Myanmar

Often ethnicity identities in practice are flexible- sometimes as flexible as simply changing clothes- in part due to a lack of religious or caste stratification prior to British colonialism.

[2] The list has faced criticism for overcounting the number of ethnic groups.

[3] According to Gamanii, a researcher who scrutinized the claim, only 59 out of the 135 ethnic groups mentioned can be verified as existing entities.

[4] 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.

Note: This map is based on 1972 Burmese census. Other ethnic groups like Rakhine, Kayah, Pa’O and Shanni might not appear on this map because government merge sub ethnic groups into a large single ethnic group. (i.e. Kayah and Pa’O are Karen sub groups so government merge them into a one single ethnic identity.)