The 59 Indigenous Nationalities of Nepal: NFDIN List & NEFIN Categories

Adivasi Janajati is the collective term for Nepal's officially recognised indigenous nationalities. The National Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities Act, 2058 BS (2002 AD) defines them as communities that have their own mother tongue and traditional customs, a distinct cultural identity, a distinct social structure, and a written or oral history of their own. The Act also emphasises a traditional homeland and geographical area and a comparatively egalitarian social structure, distinguishing Janajati from the caste-based Hindu social order.

The government first grappled with the list in 1996, when a task force identified 61 groups. When Parliament passed the NFDIN Act in 2002, the schedule was settled at 59 indigenous nationalities. That figure of 59 became the standard reference used across census work, reservation policy, and development planning. In July 2024 the Council of Ministers recognised the Humlo as a new nationality, taking the official count to 60.

According to Nepal's 2011 census, Adivasi Janajati made up roughly 35.8% of the national population, though indigenous organisations argue the real share is higher, often citing figures above 50%. The largest single groups are the Magar, Tharu, Tamang, Newar, Rai, Gurung, and Limbu. Together, the 59 recognised nationalities speak dozens of distinct languages, mostly of the Tibeto-Burman family, alongside several Indo-Aryan and isolate languages such as Kusunda.

The Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN), the umbrella body of Janajati organisations, sorts the 59 recognised groups into five categories based on their level of development and vulnerability. The categories are Endangered, Highly Marginalized, Marginalized, Disadvantaged, and Advanced (sometimes written Advantaged). This tiering is used to target affirmative-action and development support toward the groups that need it most.

The classification is built on socio-economic variables including literacy, housing conditions, occupation, language vitality, landholding, area of residence, and population size. Groups with tiny populations and rapidly eroding languages, such as the Kusunda and Raute, sit in the Endangered tier, while comparatively urban, trade-oriented communities such as the Newar and Thakali are placed in the Advanced tier. The categories are not a ranking of cultural worth; they are a policy tool for prioritising scarce resources.

The five tiers cover the full set of 59 groups: 10 Endangered, 12 Highly Marginalized, 20 Marginalized, 15 Disadvantaged, and 2 Advanced. Because the classification pre-dates the 2024 Humlo recognition, the Humlo have not yet been slotted into a NEFIN tier. Note that some group names appear differently across sources (for example, Yolmo/Hyolmo, Rajbansi/Rajbanshi, Baramu/Bramu), reflecting differences in romanisation rather than separate peoples.

NFDIN also groups the 59 nationalities by Nepal's three main ecological belts, splitting the lowland Terai into outer Terai and inner Terai (Bhitri Madhes). The official breakdown is 18 from the mountains (Himal), 24 from the hills (Pahad), 7 from the inner Terai, and 10 from the Terai. This geographic mapping matters because a group's homeland shapes its language, livelihood, and the development challenges it faces.

The mountain nationalities are high-altitude, largely Buddhist herding and trading communities of the Himalayan valleys, including the Sherpa, Thakali, Dolpo, Lhopa, Larke, Walung, Topkegola, Mugal and other Bhote peoples. The hill nationalities form the largest cluster and include populous, widely distributed groups such as the Magar, Gurung, Tamang, Rai, Limbu, Sunuwar, Newar, Yakkha, Chepang and Thami.

The inner Terai (the forested Dun valleys between the hills and the plains) is home to groups such as the Bote, Danuwar, Darai, Kumal, Majhi, Raji and Raute. The Terai nationalities of the southern plains include the Tharu (by far the largest), plus the Dhimal, Rajbansi, Gangai, Tajpuriya, Dhanuk, Jhangad, Kisan, Meche and Santhal. Some communities straddle more than one belt, so a handful of groups appear under different regions in different sources.

Ten nationalities are classed as Endangered, meaning their populations are very small and their languages and distinct cultures are at acute risk of disappearing. The Kusunda are the most striking example: their language is a genuine isolate, unrelated to any other, with only a tiny handful of fluent speakers remaining, making language documentation an urgent priority. The Raute are among Nepal's last nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples and remain highly vulnerable to loss of forest access.

Other endangered groups include the Bankariya, a very small forest-dwelling community; the Hayu and Surel of the eastern hills; the Lepcha of the far east; and the Meche and Kisan of the eastern Terai. For these communities, even modest population decline or a generation choosing not to speak the mother tongue can threaten the group's survival as a distinct people.

Endangered status is intended to unlock the strongest form of state support, including targeted scholarships, mother-tongue education, and livelihood programmes. In practice, indigenous advocates argue that delivery has lagged behind recognition, and that many endangered groups still lack basic services, secure land tenure, and reliable data about their own populations.

On 11 July 2024 (2081 BS), Nepal's Council of Ministers formally recognised the Humlo as an indigenous nationality, the first addition to the NFDIN schedule since the original 59 were listed in 2002. The decision was announced by the then government spokesperson and Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Rekha Sharma. Recognition followed years of petitioning by the Humlo community and a high-level NFDIN expert committee that reviewed earlier task-force reports and census data.

The Humlo live in the remote Himalayan district of Humla in Karnali Province and number roughly 6,000 people, most of whom are Buddhist. Their language, called Humlo Ke (also Kham Ke or Bo Ke), is distinct enough to set them apart from neighbouring Tibetan-speaking communities and was central to the case for a separate identity. The community brings together five local groups, the Changba, Ninwa, Tukchyu Lungwa, Yulcho Dun and Limba, under a single Humlo identity.

Recognition is significant because, without legal status, the Humlo had been excluded from the reservations, scholarships and social-protection schemes available to recognised Janajati. Being listed makes them eligible for these programmes and for representation through NFDIN. Because the group was added after NEFIN's five-tier classification was drawn up, the Humlo have not yet been assigned to a marginalisation category.

The 59 (now 60) recognised nationalities are the legal backbone of indigenous rights in Nepal. Recognition determines who can claim reservation quotas in the civil service and education, who is counted as Adivasi Janajati in the census, and which communities NFDIN and NEFIN represent in policy. The NEFIN tiers then decide how support is prioritised among recognised groups.

The list is contested at the edges. Some communities that consider themselves distinct indigenous peoples are not on the schedule, while a few recognised names overlap or split hairs between closely related groups. Indigenous organisations have long pressed for the schedule to be reviewed and updated, and the Humlo case shows the list can change, though slowly. Nepal is also a party to ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, which underpins many of these claims.

For readers checking whether a specific community is a Janajati, the practical test is whether the group appears on the NFDIN schedule. If it does, it carries indigenous-nationality status and the entitlements that follow; if it does not, the community may still be seeking recognition. This directory reproduces the NFDIN list and the NEFIN classification so that status, category, and region can be checked at a glance.