China is a multiethnic country, having 56 ethnic groups. The Han is the largest group, accounting for over 92 percent of the national total population, while the remaining 55 ethnic groups, collectively called ethnic minorities, comprise less than 8 percent. Of them, 18 ethnic minority groups have more than 1 million population. The Zhuang is the largest of them, with a population of more than 15.5 million, and the Lhoba is the smallest, having a population of only 2,300 or so. The Hans are distributed all over China, though living in compact communities in the Yellow, Yangtze and Pearl river valleys and in the Songliao Plain. The ethnic minorities inhabit 60 percent of the Chinese territory, despite their small population. The Han people have their own spoken and written language, which is also the national language of China, as well as one of the universally used languages in the world. Hui and Manchu also use Han Chinese. The remaining 53 ethnic groups normally use their own languages, 23 of which have a written form. Over the ages, the Han people have established extensive political and economic ties and cultural exchanges with various ethnic minorities and they have formed an interdependent relationship for common development.