Fifty-four ethnic groups in Vietnam have been officially recognized by the Vietnamese government since 2 March 1979. Each ethnicity has its own unique language, traditions, and culture. The largest ethnic groups are: Kinh 85.32%, Tày 1.92%, Thái 1.89%, Mường 1.51%, Hmong 1.45%, Khmer 1.32%, Nùng 1.13%, Dao 0.93%, Hoa 0.78%, with all others accounting for the remaining 3.7% (2019 census). The Vietnamese terms for ethnic groups are dân tộc (nation) and sắc tộc (ethnicity).
HINT:
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: Vietnamese ethnic groups
- Vietnamese ethnic groups in the context of Culture of Vietnam
Vietnamese ethnic groups in the context of Culture of Vietnam
The culture of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Văn hoá Việt Nam, chữ Hán: 文化越南) are the customs and traditions of the Kinh people and the other ethnic groups of Vietnam. Vietnam is part of Southeast Asia and the Sinosphere due to the influence of Chinese culture on Vietnamese culture.
Ancient Vietnamese cultural artifacts, such as Dong Son drums were found spread throughout Southeast Asia and South China, suggesting a spread of ancient Viet (Yue) culture all the way south to Indonesia. Vietnamese culture was heavily influenced by Chinese culture due to the "1000 years of Northern Rule" (111 BCE – 939 CE). From this period until the 19th century, Classical Chinese (Hán văn) was the language used for formal writing. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, popular literature and folk songs were written in the Vietnamese language using a Vietnamese script (chữ Nôm) derived from Chinese characters (chữ Hán).
View the full Wikipedia page for Culture of Vietnam