Han Chinese

"The Chinese people. Well, they seem pretty good about this. It was cool. By the way, who the heck are these guys...? Well, I think they may be the largest ethnic group in the whole wide world as I know it."

--Su Ji-Hoon, Welcoming the Refugees

The Han Chinese, Han people or simply Han (/hɑːn/; Mandarin: [xân]; Han characters: 漢人 (Mandarin pinyin: Hànrén; literally "Han people") or 漢族 (pinyin: Hànzú; literally "Han ethnicity" or "Han ethnic group")) are an East Asian ethnic group and nation. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making about 18% of global population. The estimated 1.3 billion Han Chinese are mostly concentrated in Mainland China, where they make up about 92% of the total population. The Han Chinese in Taiwan make up about 98.5% of the population and they form the overwhelming majority in Hong Kong and Macau as well as making up three quarters of the total population in Singapore.

Han Chinese trace a common ancestry to the Huaxia, a name for the initial confederation of agricultural tribes living along the Yellow River. The term Huaxia represents the collective neolithic confederation of agricultural tribes Hua and Xia who settled along the Central Plains around the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in northern China. The two tribes were the ancestors of the modern Han Chinese that gave birth to Chinese civilization. In addition, the Huaxia (literally 'the civilized Xia people') was distinctively used to represent the Huaxia as a civilized ethnic group in contrast to what was perceived of different ethnic groups as barbaric peoples around them. Hence, Han people (Chinese: 漢人; pinyin: Hànrén) has become general term for people of Han Chinese descent all over the world.