Balochs

Baloch
بلوچ
Balōč

Sardar Ibrahim khan Sanjrani Iranian Baloch Khans in Qajar era, c. 1884
Total population
(Approx. 10 million (2017))
Regions with significant populations
Pakistan	5,0211,241 (2016)
Iran	6,000,000 (2016)
UAE	468,000 (2014)
Oman	312,000 (1993)
Turkmenistan	100,000
Saudi Arabia	16,000
Languages
Balochi Urdu, Pashto (in Afghanistan and Balochistan), Brahui, Arabic.
Religion
Predominantly Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Pashtuns

The Baloch or Baluch (Balochi: بلوچ) are a people who live mainly in the Balochistan region of the southeastern-most edge of the Iranian plateau in Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, as well as in the Arabian Peninsula.

They mainly speak the Balochi language, a branch of Northwestern Iranian languages, and are an Iranic people. About 50% of the total Baloch population live in Balochistan, a western province of Pakistan; 40% of Baloch are settled in Sindh; and a significant number of Baloch people in Punjab of Pakistan. They make up nearly 3.6% of the Pakistani population, about 2% of Iran's population (1.5 million) and about 2% of Afghanistan's population.

Baloch people co-inhabit desert and mountainous regions with Pashtuns, Baloch people practice Islam, are predominantly Sunni, and use Urdu as a lingua-franca to communicate with other ethnic groups, such as Pashtuns and Sindhis, similar to the rest of Pakistan.

Prominent Baloch people in Pakistan includes Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali and President Asif Ali Zardari who is an ethnic Baloch from Sindh. Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry born in Quetta, is the longest-serving Chief Justice of Pakistan is another prominent Baloch personality.