History & Society · Census 2021

The People of Nepal नेपालका जातजाति र भाषाहरू

One country, 142 caste and ethnic groups, 124 mother tongues, 10 religions — spread across three ecological belts from the Terai plains to the high Himalaya. This page maps Nepal's extraordinary human diversity with the final figures of the National Population and Housing Census 2021 (2078 BS): who Nepalis are, what they speak, what they believe, and where they live, province by province.

Population (final, 2021)

29,164,578

National Population and Housing Census 2021 (2078 BS)

Caste & ethnic groups

142

Largest: Chhetri — 16.45% of the population

Mother tongues

124

Nepali 44.86% · five language families

Religion

81.19% Hindu

Buddhist 8.21% · Islam 5.09% · 10 religions recorded

Broad composition

Eight broad communities, one nation

The census's 142 groups cluster into a handful of broad social categories. No single one is a majority — Nepal is a country of minorities.

29.16 mNepalis (2021)

Khas Arya30.1%
Hill/Mtn Janajati21.5%
Madhesi castes16.1%
Terai Janajati8.9%
Hill Dalit8.6%
Muslim4.9%
Madhesi Dalit4.8%
Others5.2%

Khas Arya

Chhetri, Hill Brahman, Thakuri and Sanyasi communities of the hills — ≈30.1% of the population combined.

Hill & Mountain Janajati

Indigenous nationalities of the hills and high Himalaya — Magar, Tamang, Newar, Rai, Gurung, Limbu, Sherpa and others — ≈21.5%.

Hill Dalit

Bishwokarma, Pariyar and Mijar communities — ≈8.6%; historically artisan castes, constitutionally protected against discrimination.

Terai Janajati

Indigenous peoples of the plains, led by the Tharu (6.2%) — ≈8.9% combined.

Madhesi castes

Yadav, Teli, Kushwaha, Kurmi and other plains communities with cross-border cultural ties — ≈16.1%.

Madhesi Dalit

Chamar, Musahar, Dusadh and other Terai Dalit communities — ≈4.8%.

Muslim

Nepal's Muslim community, concentrated in the Terai — 4.86%.

Others

Marwadi, Bengali, Punjabi and other smaller communities, plus foreigners and unstated — ≈0.5%.

Where Nepalis live

Population by province

Madhesh and Bagmati each hold about a fifth of the country's people — for opposite reasons: the dense Terai plains in one, the Kathmandu Valley in the other. Karnali, the largest province by area, has the fewest people.

Population (2021):lowhigh

Province	Capital	Population	% national	Density	Language Commission-recommended languages
Koshiकोशी	Biratnagar	4,972,021	17.05%	192/km²	Maithili, Limbu
Madheshमधेश	Janakpur	6,126,288	21%	636/km²	Maithili, Bhojpuri, Bajjika
Bagmatiबागमती	Hetauda	6,084,042	20.86%	300/km²	Tamang, Nepal Bhasha (enacted 2023)
Gandakiगण्डकी	Pokhara	2,479,745	8.5%	116/km²	Magar, Gurung
Lumbiniलुम्बिनी	Deukhuri (Bhalubang)	5,124,225	17.57%	230/km²	Tharu, Avadhi
Karnaliकर्णाली	Birendranagar	1,694,889	5.81%	61/km²	Khas (Karnali Nepali), Magar
Sudurpashchimसुदूरपश्चिम	Godawari (Dhangadhi)	2,711,270	9.3%	136/km²	Dotyali, Tharu

The preliminary count of 29,192,480 was revised to 29,164,578 in the final report (published 24 March 2023).

Three ecological belts

Terai, hill, mountain

More than half of Nepal now lives on the Terai plains — but the hills remain the heartland of the Khas Arya and Hill Janajati communities, and the high Himalaya is home to peoples found nowhere else.

Terai (plains)

53.7%

15,665,828 people

Madhesi castes, Tharu, Musalman, Madhesi Dalit

Hill (Pahad)

40.3%

11,748,548 people

Khas Arya, Hill Janajati (Magar, Tamang, Newar, Rai, Gurung…), Hill Dalit

Mountain (Himal)

6.1%

1,778,104 people

Sherpa, Thakali, Dolpo, Lo-pa, Byansi and other high-Himalayan peoples

Faith

Religion in Nepal

Nepal was the world's last Hindu kingdom until 2008 and remains overwhelmingly Hindu — but it is also the birthplace of the Buddha, the home of the indigenous Kirat faith, and a secular republic by constitution. The eight largest of the ten recorded religions:

Hinduहिन्दू81.19% · 23,677,744

-0.15 pp vs 2011

Buddhistबौद्ध8.21% · 2,393,549

-0.83 pp

Islamइस्लाम5.09% · 1,483,066

+0.70 pp

Kiratकिराँत3.17% · 924,204

+0.12 pp

Christianक्रिश्चियन1.76% · 512,313

+0.34 pp

Prakriti (nature worship)प्रकृति0.35% · 102,048

-0.11 pp

Bonबोन0.23% · 67,223

+0.18 pp

Others (Jain, Sikh, Bahá'í)अन्य0.02% · 4,431

≈unchanged

Go deeper

The full picture, group by group and language by language

Ethnic groups

All 142 groups →

The top-20 table with populations, the eight broad categories from Khas Arya to Madhesi Dalit, and the Janajati & Dalit inclusion framework written into the 2015 constitution.

Languages

124 languages →

Five language families, the scripts they are written in — Devanagari to Ranjana — and Kusunda, the endangered isolate with one fluent speaker left.

Census

Census 1911–2021 →

Every count since 1911: population growth, literacy, fertility, urbanisation, migration and the official projections to 2051.

Diversity by design

How the state recognises its peoples

Four facts on how Nepal's laws and constitution turn demographic diversity into rights — from scheduled indigenous nationalities to provincial official languages.

59 recognised indigenous nationalities

The NFDIN Act 2002 schedules 59 Adivasi Janajati groups; the Council of Ministers recognised the Humlo as an additional indigenous nationality on 11 July 2024, and a task force has proposed ≈25 more candidates.

All mother tongues are national languages

Article 6 of the 2015 Constitution declares every mother tongue spoken in Nepal a 'language of the nation'; Article 7 makes Nepali in Devanagari the official language while letting provinces adopt additional official languages.

Provinces are adding official languages

On the Language Commission's 2021 recommendation of 14 languages, Bagmati Province enacted Tamang and Nepal Bhasha as additional official languages in 2023 — the first province to do so.

Proportional inclusion is constitutional

The 2015 Constitution reserves proportional electoral lists and public-service quotas for women, Dalits, Adivasi Janajati, Madhesi, Tharu, Muslims and backward regions — the institutional answer to the exclusion that fuelled past conflicts.

Common questions

People of Nepal FAQ

What is the largest ethnic group in Nepal?

Chhetri — 4,796,995 people, or 16.45% of the population in the 2021 census. Hill Brahman is second at 11.29%, followed by Magar (6.9%), Tharu (6.2%) and Tamang (5.62%). In all, the census enumerates 142 distinct caste and ethnic groups.

What language do most people in Nepal speak?

Nepali, the official language, is the mother tongue of 44.86% of the population (13,084,457 people) — and counting those who speak it as a second language, roughly 91% of Nepalis use it. Maithili (11.05%) and Bhojpuri (6.24%) are the next largest mother tongues.

How many languages are spoken in Nepal?

The 2021 census records 124 mother tongues across five families: Indo-Aryan (83.07% of speakers), Sino-Tibetan (16.59%), Austroasiatic, Dravidian and one language isolate, Kusunda. Article 6 of the constitution declares every one of them a language of the nation.

What is the religious composition of Nepal?

Hindu 81.19%, Buddhist 8.21%, Islam 5.09%, Kirat 3.17%, Christian 1.76%, with Prakriti (nature worship), Bon, and Jain, Sikh and Bahá'í communities making up the remainder. Ten religions were recorded in the 2021 census.

Which is Nepal's most populous province?

Madhesh Province, with 6,126,288 people — 21.0% of the national total — and also the densest at 636 people per km². Bagmati (6,084,042) is a close second, while Karnali (1,694,889) has the fewest people and the lowest density (61/km²).

Keep exploring

Political history →Federalism and proportional inclusion: how the 2015 constitution answered decades of exclusion.Festivals →The festival calendar of Nepal's many communities, from Dashain to Lhosar.Farming regions →The same Terai–hill–mountain belts, seen through crops and livelihoods.

Sources & data note

All population, ethnicity, language and religion figures are the final published counts of the National Population and Housing Census 2021 (National Statistics Office). The NSO enumerates 142 caste/ethnic groups and 124 mother tongues; entries for 'others/foreigners/not stated' explain small residuals. Where community-chosen names replaced older census labels (Bishwokarma for Kami, Pariyar for Damai/Dholi, Mijar for Sarki), both are shown. Language-family shares follow the NSO's own table (Indo-Aryan 83.07%, Sino-Tibetan 16.59%); some secondary sources round differently.