List of ethnic groups in Tanzania

This is a list of ethnic groups in Tanzania. There are more than 120 distinct ethnic groups and tribes in Tanzania. Groups names are listed without any prefix, although many groups refer to themselves with a prefix from their own language and are referred to by many Tanzanians with the Swahili "Wa" prefix.

Some group names given in this list may be problematic, for a variety of reasons. This list was derived from the Ethnologue list of Tanzanian languages, and a related web page. Some of the names given as ethnic groups may in fact be names of languages or dialects, and some may be misspellings or alternate spellings. Moreover, no clear guidelines exist to define what constitutes an ethnic group. Some groups on this list contain just a few thousand members, whereas others contain several million; in such cases, the group designation is referring to vastly different social entities. The groups on this page are generally listed as distinct ethnic groups based on the evidence of language differentiation from Ethnologue.

This list refers to indigenous ethnic groups in the territory that is now called Tanzania, including groups whose historical territory is now divided by borders with neighboring countries. The list does not include ethnic groups that reside in Tanzania as refugees from conflicts in nearby countries. Nor does the list include ethnic groups indigenous to other countries that have large immigrant populations in Tanzania, such as immigrants or their descendants from the Arabian peninsula and the Indian subcontinent.

The Sukuma is the largest ethnic group in Tanzania, with an estimated 5.5 million members representing about 16 percent of the country's total population.

...
Wikipedia