The Han Chinese (alternatively Han people, or colloquially simply Chinese) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 17.5% of the global population. The Han Chinese represent 92% of the population in mainland China and 97% of the population in Taiwan. Han Chinese form large diaspora populations throughout Southeast Asia, comprising large minorities in countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. In Singapore, people of Han Chinese descent make up around 75 percent of the country's population.

The Han Chinese have exerted the primary formative influence in shaping the development and growth of Chinese civilization. Originating from the Central Plains, the Han Chinese trace their ancestry to the Huaxia people, a confederation of agricultural tribes that lived along the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in northern China. The Huaxia are the progenitors of Chinese civilization and the ancestors of modern Han Chinese.

The lands of southern China were acquired through conquest and colonization during the Qin and Han dynasty. Han Chinese people and culture then spread south from the northern heartland in the Yellow River valley, driven by large and sustained waves of migration during successive periods of Chinese history, leading to a demographic and economic tilt towards the south, and to the absorption of various non-Han ethnic groups over the centuries at various points in Chinese history. By the time of the Tang and Song dynasties, Han Chinese were the main inhabitants of the fertile lowland areas and cities of southern China, with minority tribes occupying the highlands.