GC: n

S: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/measuring-equality/equality/ethnic-nat-identity-religion/ethnic-group/index.html (last access: 31 July 2015); http://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/ethnic_group.htm (last access: 31 July 2015).

N: 1. ethnic group, a social group or category of the population that, in a larger society, is set apart and bound together by common ties of race, language, nationality, or culture.
2. Ethnic diversity is one form of the social complexity found in most contemporary societies. Historically it is the legacy of conquests that brought diverse peoples under the rule of a dominant group; of rulers who in their own interests imported peoples for their labour or their technical and business skills; of industrialization, which intensified the age-old pattern of migration for economic reasons; or of political and religious persecutions that drove people from their native lands.
3. Until the 20th century ethnic diversity posed no great problems for empires. Its chief historic significance has been and remains its relationship to the nation-state, whose primary goal is political unity, which tends to be identified with social unity.
4. ethnic: Pertaining to or characteristic of a people, especially a group (ethnic group) sharing a common and distinctive culture, religion, language, or the like.

S: 1, 2 & 3. EncBrit – http://global.britannica.com/topic/ethnic-group (last access: 31 July 2015). 4. TERMIUM PLUS (last access: 31 July 2015).

SYN:
S:

CR: race