List of ethnic groups demanding a separate state

The list of stateless ethnic groups covers those ethnic groups which may be living in a diaspora, or which may live within an ethnic homeland that they feel is not under their control. The level of support for the creation of a separate state varies from case to case, and there are often factions within an ethnic group which take very different stances on the matter. Support for independence is prone to fluctuate greatly over time in many cases.

There are also thousands of ethnic groups in the world which do not have a state but are not claiming one. Some of them, for example several in India, are larger than any of the groups listed here. There are also cases where a very small group of nationalists within an ethnic group advocates independence, but they are too few for the matter to become a serious political issue.

• Assyrians: Estimated between 3-5 million. An ancient persecuted ethnic group in the Middle East. Their area covers Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran.
• Basques: 3-4 million in north Spain and southwest France.
• Berbers: 20-25 million in North African states, their claimed area covers Morocco and parts of Algeria but Berbers are also found in Western Sahara, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt.
• Boers: 3.5 million. Dutch settlers in South Africa. There is a small movement to regain their autonomy, which was lost after the Boer War, and re-establish Orange Free State Republic and the Transvaal Republic.
• Chechens: 1,100,000 in Chechnya, a de jure autonomous region in Southern Russia.
• Crimean Tatars: 5 million in Turkey, 1-2 million in parts of Crimea, Uzbekistan, Romania, Bulgaria and 10,000 in United States.
• Kashmiris: 15-20 million in Northeast-Pakistan and Northwest-India. (The level of support for independence is disputed)
• Kurds: Estimated between 25-30 million. Their area covers sizeable parts of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and smaller parts of Armenia. They are also found in Lebanon, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Central Asian states.
• Lankan Tamils: 3.5 - 4 million in Northeast-Sri Lanka
• Palestinians: 7-8 million in the Levant, or the Mediterranean-adjacent Middle East region.
• Québecois: Inhabitants of French speaking province in Canada. (Note that the supporters of independence have lost two referendums on the issue).
• Roma: 15 to 16 million worldwide, primarily in Europe, despite a large population present, not the primary ethnic group or namesake of Romania.
• Saharawis: more than 200,000 in the Western Sahara claimed and mainly administered by Morocco.
• Sikhs: 19 million in northern India (see Khalistan). (Usually seen as a religious rather than an ethnic group. Support for the independence movement has fallen sharply since peaking in the 1980s.)
• African Sudanese: 6 million in southern Sudan.
• Tibetans: 6-7 million in Southwest-China, refugees in Dharamsala, India.