The Han Chinese, Han people[27][28][29] or simply Han[28][29][30] (/hɑːn/;[31] Mandarin: [xân]; Han characters: 漢人 (Mandarin pinyin: Hànrén; literally "Han people"[32]) or 漢族 (pinyin: Hànzú; literally "Han ethnicity"[33] or "Han ethnic group"[34])) are an East Asian ethnic group and nation.[35] They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the 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.[2] The Han Chinese make up about 95% of the population of Taiwan, and they form the overwhelming majority in the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau as well as making up three quarters of the total population of Singapore.[36][37][38][39][40]

Han Chinese trace a common ancestry to the Huaxia, a name for the initial confederation of agricultural tribes living along the Yellow River.[41][42] 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.[43][44][45][42] The two tribes were the ancestors of the modern Han Chinese that gave birth to Chinese civilisation. In addition, the Huaxia (literally "the civilized Xia people") was distinctively used to represent the Huaxia as a civilised ethnic group in contrast to what was perceived of different ethnic groups as barbaric peoples around them.[46][44][47] Hence, Han people (Chinese: 漢人; pinyin: Hànrén) has become general term for people of Han Chinese descent all over the world.[48]