Stateless Nation

The term stateless nation is used of ethnic groups which are not the majority population in any nation state and for whom it is implied that they "should have" such a state. As such, the term expresses irredentism. Stateless nations are either dispersed across a number of states (for example, the Kurdish people are found in Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Armenia and Syria), or they form the native population of a province within a larger state (such as the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region within the People's Republic of China). The Romani people may be a special case, being distributed among numerous countries with no clear homeland; as a traditionally "nomadic" people, the Romani/Roma are a classical "stateless nation" without aspiration to sovereign territory.

As not all states are nation states, there are a number of ethnic groups who live in a multinational state without necessarily being considered as "stateless nations". As there are several thousand individual languages and less than 200 independent states, it follows that the vast majority of ethnic groups is "stateless" in the sense that they do not have their own nation state.

List of the larger (> 1 million) ethnic groups without nation states for which an irredentist movement is known to exist:

Further information: List of active autonomist and secessionist movements

people	language	pop. (ca.)	states	homeland	irredentist movement	comments
Rohingya people	Rohingya language	3.6 M	Burma, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia	Bangladesh	Rohingya conflict in Western Burma
Tamils	Tamil language	77 M	Republic of India, Sri Lanka	Tamilakam	Tamil nationalism (see also Dravida Nadu)	regional autonomy in Tamil Nadu
Yoruba people	Yoruba language	38 M	Nigeria, Benin, Togo	Yorubaland	Oodua Peoples Congress
Kurds	Kurdish language	35 M	Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Syria	Kurdistan	Kurdish–Turkish conflict	regional autonomy in Iraqi Kurdistan
Igbo people	Igbo language	20 M	Nigeria	Biafra	Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra
Bakongo	Kikongo	10 M	Angola	Cabinda Province	Cabinda Conflict
Uyghur people	Uyghur language	9 M	People's Republic of China	Chinese Turkestan	irredentism is politically fragmented (East Turkestan Liberation Organization, East Turkestan independence movement)	limited autonomy in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
Catalan people	Catalan language	8 M	Spain, France, Italy	Catalonia	Catalan separatism	See also Nationalisms and regionalisms of Spain
Tatars	Tatar language	7 M	Russian Federation	Tatarstan	All-Tatar Public Center	regional autonomy in Tatarstan
Scottish people	English, Scots, Scottish Gaelic	5.2 M	United Kingdom	Scotland	Scottish independence	regional autonomy in Scotland
Shan people	Shan language	6 M	Myanmar	Shan State	Declaration of independence in 2005; see also Hso Khan Pha
Baganda	Luganda	6 M	Uganda	Buganda
Tibetan people	Tibetan language	5.5 M	People's Republic of China	Tibet	Tibetan independence movement	limited autonomy in the Tibet Autonomous Region
Kabyle people	Kabyle language, Algerian Arabic	5 M		Kabylie
Acehnese people	Acehnese language	4 M	Indonesia	Aceh	Insurgency in Aceh	regional autonomy in Aceh
Hmong people	Hmong language	4 M	Laos, People's Republic of China, Vietnam, Thailand		Insurgency in Laos
Assyrian people (aka Syriac/Aramaean people)	Neo-Aramaic language	3.5 M	Syria, Iraq. Iran, Turkey	Assyrian homeland	Assyrian nationalism, Assyrian independence
Welsh people	English, Welsh language	3 M	United Kingdom	Wales	Welsh independence	regional autonomy in Wales
Basque people	Basque language	2.6 M	France, Spain	Basque Country	Basque nationalism
Naga people	Tibeto-Burman dialects / Nagamese creole	2 M	Republic of India	Nagaland	Naga National Council, Insurgency in Northeast India
Chechens	Chechen language	1.3 M	Russian Federation	Chechnya and Dagestan	Chechen insurgency, Chechen Republic of Ichkeria	regional autonomy in Chechnya
C'ekakawwon people	Algonquian language	<1 M	United States of America	Virginia	European Colonization of the Americas
Bodo people	Bodo language	1.3 M	Republic of India	Bodoland
Tuareg people	Tuareg language	1.2 M	Mali, Niger	Azawad	Tuareg rebellion (2012)
Mapuche	Mapudungun	1 M	Argentinia, Chile	Araucanía	Mapuche conflict