page_title: Karen people
section_title: Distribution
hierarchical_section_title: Karen people / Distribution
caption_attribution_description: English: Entrance of a Karen house in Northern Thailand.
context_page_description: The Karen are an ethnolinguistic group of Sino-Tibetan language-speaking ethnic groups. The group as a whole is heterogeneous and disparate as many Karen ethnic groups do not associate or identify with each other culturally or linguistically. These Karen groups reside primarily in Kayin State, southern and southeastern Myanmar. The Karen, approximately five million people, account for approximately seven per cent of the Burmese population. Many Karen have migrated to Thailand, having settled mostly on the Thailand–Myanmar border. A few Karen have settled in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, and other Southeast Asian and East Asian countries.
  The Karen groups as a whole are often confused with the Padaung tribe, best known for the neck rings worn by their women, but they are just one sub-group of Red Karens, one of the tribes of Kayah in Kayah State, Myanmar.
  Some of the Karen, led primarily by the Karen National Union, have waged war against the Burmese government since early-1949. The aim of the KNU at first was independence. Since 1976 the armed group has called for a federal system rather than an independent Karen State.
context_section_description: The Karen constitute the third largest ethnic population in Myanmar, after the Bamars and Shans.
  The Karen people live mostly in the hills bordering the eastern mountainous region and Irrawaddy delta of Myanmar, primarily in Kayin State (formerly Karen State), with some in Kayah State, southern Shan State, Ayeyarwady Region, Tanintharyi Region, Bago Division and in northern and western Thailand.
  The total number of Karen is difficult to estimate. The last reliable census of Myanmar was conducted in 1931.  A 2006 Voice of America article cites an estimate of seven million Karen in Myanmar. There are another 400,000 Karen in Thailand, where they are by far the largest of the hill tribes. Others live in refugee camps in Thailand.
  Some Karen have left the refugee camps in Thailand to resettle elsewhere, including in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Scandinavia. In 2011, the Karen diaspora population was estimated to be approximately 67,000.
caption: Entrance of a Karen house, northern Thailand
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