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Genetik/Peoples/Mongols

Mongols

Монголы · Q41975

language area per Glottologcensus counts
6,290,204
China, census 2020 (national and/or ethnic group, UN)
6,291,681
sum of censuses in 3 countries, 2020-2021
Mongolic-Khitan
language family (Glottolog)

In brief

The largest documented number lives in China: 6,290,204 people in the 2020 census.

Official figures exist for 3 countries; together they add up to 6,291,681. This is not an estimate of the world total: the censuses were held in different years (2020-2021) and define belonging differently, and countries without such data are not counted.

In Russia's 2020 census (reference date 1 October 2021), 1,318 people identified with the nationality "Монголы" (Mongols)1. That is less than 0.01% of the 130,587,364 residents who stated a nationality.

Rosstat also assigns 6 other self-designations to this nationality (listed in Russian in the source table).

Main language: Mongolian. Glottolog classifies it in the Mongolic-Khitan 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.

China2020 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Mongol» · [2]
6,290,204
Russia2021 · ethnicity / nationality · «Монголы» · [1]
1,318
Kazakhstan2021 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Mongol» · [3]
159
Sum across 3 countries6,291,681

In detail: Russia, 2021 census

Sex, urban and rural, Russian regions

Sex

Men 846 · 64.2%Women 472 · 35.8%

Urban and rural

Urban 1,145 · 86.9%Rural 173 · 13.1%

Where: the 10 regions with the largest numbers

Republic of Buryatia
232
Moscow (city)
209
Saint Petersburg (city)
149
Zabaykalsky Krai
57
Irkutsk Oblast
52
Moscow Oblast
50
Voronezh Oblast
46
Republic of Kalmykia
41
Sakha (Yakutia) Republic
39
Tuva Republic
34

Source [1]: Rosstat, 2020 census, vol. 5, table 1

Languages and their lineage

Mongolian

  1. Mongolic-Khitanmong1349
  2. Mongolicmong1329
  3. Eastern Mongolicoira1260
  4. Khalkha-Buriatkhal1273
  5. Mongolianmong1331

People-to-language links: Wikidata (properties P103 and P2936), checked against ISO 639-3 codes. Language classification: Glottolog 5.3.

Peoples of the same language family

KhalkhasBuryatsKalmyksDaur peopleDarkhadBonan peopleYugursKhotons

Sources

  1. Rosstat. National composition of the population of the Russian Federation. Results of the 2020 All-Russian Population Census (reference date 1 October 2021), vol. 5, table 1. Tom5_tab1_VPN-2020.xlsx (archived copy)
  2. 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…
  3. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Kazakhstan, Census - de facto - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  4. Hammarström H., Forkel R., Haspelmath M., Bank S. (2026). Glottolog 5.3. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. glottolog.org (CC BY 4.0)