# What is the actual demographic composition of China's Tibetan Autonomous Region? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 13, 2007, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-actual-demographic-composition-of-chinas-tibetan-autonomous-region/403894 "2007-05-13T02:30:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-actual-demographic-composition-of-chinas-tibetan-autonomous-region/403894/1 "2007-05-13T02:30:51Z")
[Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibet_Autonomous_Region#Demographics) says 92.8% Tibetan, 6.1% Han-Chinese. **China Guy** [disputes this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=419093) (scroll to post #27), noting that since the '80s there has been a government program to resettle Han in the TAR. What’s the Straight Dope? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-actual-demographic-composition-of-chinas-tibetan-autonomous-region/403894/2 "2007-05-13T03:00:07Z")
**China Guy** is right about the Beijing-sponsored effort to resettle ethnic Han in Tibet, I recall from past reading. My distinct impression is that all you’re going to get is varying estimates (and note that they’ll be different in the several parts of the Region). I’d be happy but surprised to find any definite, non-extrapolated figures. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-actual-demographic-composition-of-chinas-tibetan-autonomous-region/403894/3 "2007-05-13T03:05:56Z")
FWIW I did remember that a Canadian group reported this about Tibet in 2004: > **[Canada Tibet – COMMITEE](https://canadatibet.com)** > [@](#): > > To the outside eye - and to Tibetans - the stream of ethnic Chinese moving > to the Roof of the World appears to have swollen into a flood. > > Officials say the trend is natural and tersely dismiss suggestions that it > is a result of an official strategy to dilute the Tibetan population. > Overseas Tibetan activists say the move is tantamount to ethnic and cultural > genocide. > > Like most of his hair stylists, manicurists, and masseuses, Mr Zhang hails > from the neighbouring, and heavily populated, Sichuan province. He set up > shop in Lhasa nearly 15 years ago after deciding that any inconvenience > caused by the city’s remote location was outweighed by the investment help > he got from the government. > > He is part of the ethnic Chinese migration, a term officials refuse to use > because it does not fit the party line - that the autonomous region is > simply another piece of greater China. > > “I want to say that the ethnic Chinese migration does not exist. China is a > unified economic body, movement around the country has no restrictions, > movement is ruled by the nation’s market economy,” said Yu Heping, deputy > director general of the Tibetan Autonomous Region’s Development and Reform > Committee. > > “There is no such question of an ethnic Chinese migration.” > > Officials say nearly 90 per cent of the population of Lhasa are ethnic > Tibetans. A walk down the city’s streets - lined with karaoke bars and > restaurants serving spicy Sichuan food packed with new-rich Chinese > businessmen - tells a different story. > > Almost every taxi driver is an ethnic Chinese. > > In the shrinking, run-down Tibetan quarter of Lhasa, away from the serried > rows of concrete Chinese dormitories and blue-glass bars, a Tibetan woman at > the counter of a small corner shop selling snacks to Chinese tourists shakes > her head. > > “There’s no way that Tibetans are that large a percentage here,” she said. > “It’s more like 50 per cent.” If that is correct, it seems to me that the wikipedia number is coming from official sources that would like to keep it that way so that other nations do not complain about that is going on; so the real numbers are not reported. It seems to me that for the Chinese government everyone that moves in from china is a Tibetan if he or she makes residence in Tibet. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-actual-demographic-composition-of-chinas-tibetan-autonomous-region/403894/4 "2007-05-14T16:42:55Z")
[QUOTE=GIGObuster] If that is correct, it seems to me that the wikipedia number is coming from official sources that would like to keep it that way so that other nations do not complain about that is going on; so the real numbers are not reported. [/QUOTE] So, are there any reliable non-official sources?