In brief
The largest documented number lives in China: 746,385 people in the 2020 census.
Official figures exist for 2 countries; together they add up to 746,704. This is not an estimate of the world total: the censuses were held in different years (2007-2020) and define belonging differently, and countries without such data are not counted.
Main language: She. Glottolog classifies it in the Hmong-Mien 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
746,385
Ethiopia
319
Sum across 2 countries746,704
Languages and their lineage
She
- Hmong-Mienhmon1336
- Hmongichmon1337
- Nuclear Hmongic-Ho Nenucl1714
- Jiongnai-Ho Nejion1235
- Ho Neichone1239
- Sheshee1238
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
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…
- United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Ethiopia, Census - de facto - 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)