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Genetik/Peoples/Selk'nam people

Selk'nam people

Селькнамы · Q1349118

language area per Glottologcensus counts
1,392
Chile, census 2024 (national and/or ethnic group, UN)
Chonan
language family (Glottolog)

In brief

The largest documented number lives in Chile: 1,392 people in the 2024 census.

Main language: Selk'nam. Glottolog classifies it in the Chonan 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.

Chile2024 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Selk'nam» · [1]
1,392

Languages and their lineage

Selk'nam

  1. Chonanchon1288
  2. Nuclear Chonannucl1848
  3. Insular Chonaninsu1253
  4. Selk'namonaa1245

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

Sources

  1. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Chile, Census - de facto - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  2. Hammarström H., Forkel R., Haspelmath M., Bank S. (2026). Glottolog 5.3. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. glottolog.org (CC BY 4.0)