Phlou people

Karen
S'gaw Karen: ကညီဖိ

Karen flag
A Karen woman in traditional Karen clothing.
Total population
(6,000,000)
Regions with significant populations
Myanmar	4,000,000
Thailand	1,000,000
USA	64,759 (Came as refugee only from mid 2000s to 1 July 2015)
Australia	11,000+
Canada	5,000
Sweden	1,500
All other countries	100,000+
Languages
Karen languages, including S'gaw Karen, Pwo Karen, Karenni and Pa'O
Religion
Theravada Buddhism, Christianity, Animism

64,759 (Came as refugee only from mid 2000s to 1 July 2015)

The Karen, Kayin, Kariang or Yang people (S'gaw Karen: ကညီကလုာ် pronounced [kɲɔklɯ], Burmese: ကရင်လူမျိုး, pronounced [kəjɪ̀ɴ lù mjó]; Per Ploan Poe or Ploan in Poe Karen and Pwa Ka Nyaw or Kanyaw in Sgaw Karen; Thai: กะเหรี่ยง or ยาง) refer to a number of individual Sino-Tibetan language speaking ethnic groups, many of which do not share a common language or culture. These Karen groups reside primarily in Karen State, southern and southeastern Myanmar. The Karen make up approximately 7 percent of the total Burmese population with approximately 5 million people. A large number of Karen have migrated to Thailand, having settled mostly on the Thailand–Myanmar border.

The Karen groups as a whole are often confused with the Padaung tribe, best known for the neck rings worn by their women, but they are just one sub-group of Red Karens (Karenni), one of the tribes of Kayah in Kayah State, Myanmar.

Some of the Karen, led primarily by the Karen National Union (KNU), have waged a war against the central Burmese government since early 1949. The aim of the KNU at first was independence. Since 1976 the armed group has called for a federal system rather than an independent Karen State.