In brief
The largest documented number lives in China: 1,602,104 people in the 2020 census.
Main language: Hlai. Glottolog classifies it in the Tai-Kadai family.
Where they live: census figures
Each figure comes from the country's official census. Censuses define belonging differently (self-identification, citizenship, mother tongue, ancestry); the type is given on each row.
China
1,602,104
Peoples of the same language family
Sources
- United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. China, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
- Hammarström H., Forkel R., Haspelmath M., Bank S. (2026). Glottolog 5.3. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. glottolog.org (CC BY 4.0)