In sociology and in voting theory, a minority is a sub-group that forms less than half of the population. (That is, it does not form either a majority or a plurality.) Sociology is the study of the social lives of humans, groups and societies. ... For the Finno-Ugric people, see Votes. ... In sociology, a group is usually defined as a collection consisting of a number of people who share certain aspects, interact with one another, accept rights and obligations as members of the group and share a common identity. ... A majority is a subset of a group that is more than half of the entire group. ... A plurality (or relative majority) is the largest share of something, which may or may not be a majority. ...

Often this means it is outnumbered by at least one other sub-group, but not always. A minority government, for example, may be one which is formed by the largest sub-group, when all sub-groups are minorities, that is when no sub-group or group of sub-groups has more than 50% of the vote.

Minority may also be used to categorize people of a different language, nationality, religion, culture, lifestyle or any characteristic, provided these people are accepted as part of the referent group. Alternate meanings: People (magazine); surat an-Nas (The People) in the Quran. ... As with any complex, emergent concept, language is somewhat resistant to definition. ... Nationality is, in English usage, a legal relationship existing between a person and a state. ... Religion, sometimes used interchangeably with faith, is commonly defined as belief concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the practices and institutions associated with such belief. ... Culture refers to the customs, arts, attitudes, institutions, and other traits that characterize a particular society or nation. ... In sociology, a lifestyle is the way a person (or a group) lives. ...

A majority, in sociological terms, is that segment of the population that outnumbers all others combined, one that is dominant. The term minority is unavoidably associated with the political movements which push for assimilation, in which the minority group sheds its distinctive traits and is absorbed into the dominant group. A majority is a subset of a group that is more than half of the entire group. ... In the sociology, assimilation is the process of integration whereby immigrants, or other minority groups, are absorbed into a generally larger community. ...

In the politics of some countries, a minority is an ethnic group that is recognized as such by respective laws of its country and therefore has some rights that other groups lack. Speakers of a legally-recognized minority language, for instance, might have the right to education or communication with the government in their mother tongue. Countries that have special provisions for minorities include Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (which does maintain the concept of a British supra-nation, however). Politics is the process and method of decision-making for groups of human beings. ... This article describes a type of political entity. ... This article or section should be merged with ethnicity An ethnic group is a group of people who identify with one another, or are so identified by others, on the basis of a boundary that distinguishes them from other groups. ... A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a country. ... The Federal Republic of Germany ( German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is one of the worlds leading industrialised countries, located in the heart of Europe. ... The Kingdom of Sweden ( Swedish: Konungariket Sverige  listen?) is a Nordic country in Scandinavia, in Northern Europe. ... The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a country in western Europe, and a member of the British Commonwealth and European Union. ... The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a country in western Europe, and a member of the British Commonwealth and European Union. ...

Differing minority groups often are not given identical treatment. Some groups are too small or too indistinct compared to the majority, that they either identify as part of the same nation as the members of the majority, or they identify as a separate nation but are are ignored by the majority because of the costs or some other aspect of providing preferences. For example, a member of a particularly small ethnic group might be forced to check "Other" on a checklist of different backgrounds, and consequently might receive fewer privileges than a member of a more defined group.

Many contemporary governments prefer to assume the people they rule all belong to the same nationality rather than separate ones based on ethnicity. Examples of this are France and Greece. The United States asks for race and ethnicity on its official census forms, which thus breaks up and organizes its population into different sub-groups, but primarily on racial origin rather than national one. Spain does not divide its nationals by ethnic group, although it does maintain an official notion of minority languages. France - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... Greece, formally called the Hellenic Republic ( Greek: Ελληνική Δημοκρατία), is a country in the southeast of Europe on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula. ... The United States of America — also referred to as the United States, the U.S.A., the U.S., America¹, the States, or (archaically) Columbia — is a federal republic of 50 states located primarily in central North America (with the exception of two states: Alaska and Hawaii). ... The United States Census Bureau uses the federal governments definitions of race when performing a census. ... The Kingdom of Spain or Spain ( Spanish: Reino de España or España; Catalan: Regne dEspanya; Basque: Espainiako Erresuma; Galician: Reino da España) is a country located in the southwest of Europe. ...

Some minorities are so relatively large or historically or otherwise important that the system is set up in a way to ensure complete equality. As an example, the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina recognizes the three main nations, none of which constitute a numerical majority, as constitutive nations, see nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnia and Herzegovina (officially Bosna i Hercegovina, shortened to BiH, also in English variously written Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Bosnia-Hercegovina) is a mountainous country in the western Balkans. ... For the entry on the naval ship U.S.S. Constitution, see: USS Constitution. ... A nation is an imagined community of people created by a national ideology, to which certain norms and behavior are usually attributed. ... -1...

The issue of establishing minority groups, and determining the extent of privileges they might derive from their status, is controversial. There are some who argue that minorities are owed special recognition and rights, while others feel that minorities are unjustified in demanding special rights, as this amounts to preferential discrimination and could hamper the ability of the minority to integrate itself into mainstream society - perhaps to the point at which the minority follows a path to separatism or supremacism. In Canada, some feel that the failure of the dominant English-speaking majority to assimilate French Canadians has given rise to Quebec separatism. To discriminate is to make a distinction. ... Political separatism is a movement to obtain sovereignty and split a territory or group of people (usually a people with a distinctive national consciousness) from one another (or one nation from another; a colony from the metropolis). ... Supremacism is the belief that ones race or religion is the supreme, and that those of other distinctions are (by various arbitrary criteria) unfit for social or religious interaction, and sexual reproduction. ... Canada is a sovereign state in northern North America, the northern-most country in the world, and the second largest in total area. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Quebec The Quebec sovereignty movement is a movement calling for the attainment of sovereignty for Quebec, a province of the country of Canada. ...

One particularly controversial issue is affirmative action, or positive discrimination: the idea that minorities should be granted special privileges that the majority does not enjoy. An example of this is when an individual of minority status is given preference for acceptance to a university over a more- or equally-qualified non-minority, in order to fulfill a quota of minorities in the student body. Critics of these policies often refer to them as reverse discrimination and argue that they are perpetrating new wrongs to counter old ones, and instilling a sense of victimhood in the majority. Proponents of the polices argue that the end result—a more diversified student body—justifies the means. The debate is likely to continue into the future. Affirmative action ( US English), or positive discrimination ( British English), is a policy or a program providing advantages for people of a minority group who are seen to have traditionally been discriminated against, with the aim of creating a more egalitarian society. ... Affirmative action (US English), or positive discrimination (British English), is a policy or a program providing advantages for people of a minority group who are seen to have traditionally been discriminated against. ... A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees. ... Reverse discrimination is a colloquial term used to describe discriminatory policies or acts that benefit a historically sociopolitically nondominant group (typically minorities), rather than the historically sociopolitically dominant group. ...

See also

• dominant minority
• model minority
• majority

A dominant minority is a group that has overwhelming political, economic or cultural dominance in a country or region despite representing a small fraction of the overall population (a demographic minority). ... The term model minority refers to a stereotype about a minority group that is apparently unusually successful in the country they are in. ... A majority is a subset of a group that is more than half of the entire group. ...

Links

• Eurominority - Organization for the European Minorities (Stateless Nations and national minorities) (http://www.eurominority.org)
• ECMI - European Centre for Minority Issues (http://www.ecmi.de)