Multinational state

A multinational state is a state (country) in which the population consists of two or more ethnically distinct nations (peoples) that are of significant size. This contrasts with a nation-state where a single nation comprises the bulk of the population. An example is the United Kingdom of England (English people), Wales (Welsh), Scotland (Scottish), and Northern Ireland (Irish).^{[citation needed]}

The phrase refers to the objective existence of distinct ethnic groups in a country; whereas multiculturalism refers to an official policy of acknowledging the equality of these distinct groups. A country may be, or may have been, multi-national but not multicultural.

Multinational states differ from states like Japan and Iceland in which an overwhelming majority of the population is ethnically homogeneous. China^{[citation needed]} and India^{[citation needed]} are the largest multinational states in the world, each having a population of over a billion people.

Empires may be dominated by one particular nation, sometimes organized as a nation-state. For example, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which consisted of Austrian Germans, Magyars (Hungarians), Czechs, Slovaks, Romanians, Slovenes, Poles, Croats, Serbians, and Italians.

See also