page_title: Demographics of Cameroon
section_title: Ethnic groups
hierarchical_section_title: Demographics of Cameroon / Ethnic groups
context_page_description: The demographic profile of Cameroon is complex for a country of its population. Cameroon comprises an estimated 250 distinct ethnic groups, which may be formed into five large regional-cultural divisions:
  western highlanders, including the Bamileke, Bamum, and many smaller Tikar groups in the Northwest;
  coastal tropical forest peoples, including the Bassa, Duala, and many smaller groups in the Southwest;
  southern tropical forest peoples, including the Beti-Pahuin, Bulu, Fang, Maka, Njem, and Baka pygmies;
  predominantly Islamic peoples of the northern semi-arid regions and central highlands, including the Fulani; and
  the "Kirdi", non-Islamic or recently Islamic peoples of the northern desert and central highlands.
  113,000 Igbo people live in Cameroon. The Cameroon government held two national censuses during the country's first 44 years as an independent country, in 1976 and again in 1987. Results from the second head count were never published. A third census, expected to take years to produce results, began on November 11, 2005, with a three-week interviewing phase.
context_section_description: Cameroon Highlanders 31%
  Equatorial Bantu 19%
  Kirdi 11%
  Fulani 10%
  Baggara Arabs (also called Arab Shuwa)
  Hausa
  Kanuri
  Northwestern Bantu 8%
  Eastern Nigritic 7%
  Other African 13%
  Non-African less than 1%
caption: The ethnic groups of Cameroon who speak Duala languages.
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