What are the estimated global population percentages for major racial or ethnic groups in 2025?

1. Why a global “race” pie is not available from official UN data

International authorities such as the UN World Population Prospects compile population totals, age structure and projections but do not publish a single, standardized global classification by race or ethnicity. The UN dataset is the foundation for most 2025 population totals and projections used by aggregators, but it does not produce a definitive racial-ethnic breakdown for the planet ^[1]. National censuses vary in definitions and many countries legally prohibit collecting racial or ethnic categories, so global aggregation by race requires additional, often inconsistent, assumptions ^{[1] [4]}.

2. What mainstream sources do provide: region and country shares

Authoritative sources cited in your search describe population by country and region. The UN-based World Population Prospects and country lists (as republished by Worldometer, World Population Review, U.S. Census pop clocks) place world population in 2025 around 8.2–8.3 billion and show that nearly 60% live in Asia, with India and China together accounting for more than 2.8 billion people — figures used as the backbone for any downstream racial or ancestral estimates ^{[5] [1] [2] [3]}.

3. Non‑official attempts at “global race” percentages exist but vary

Commercial and independent sites (examples in the search results) present pie‑chart style breakdowns of “world population by race” or specific counts (e.g., Black, White) for 2025, but those products rely on secondary estimation methods and differ markedly between publishers. TheWorldData reports Africa’s Black population at 1.55 billion (18.83% of the world) in 2025; other outlets extrapolate European “White” counts from older surveys and migration models, producing different totals and large uncertainty ranges ^{[6] [4]}. These figures are not endorsed by UN or national statistical offices and reflect varying methodology ^{[6] [4]}.

4. Methodological obstacles that drive divergent estimates

Three problems explain disagreement: (a) inconsistent categories — “race,” “ethnicity,” “ancestry” and “nationality” are defined differently across countries; (b) legal limits — several European countries prohibit collecting race/ethnicity in censuses, forcing researchers to use proxies (country of birth, citizenship) that undercount minorities; (c) mixing scales — some estimates count diaspora populations separately, others fold them into continental totals. TheWorldData and similar sites explicitly note these limitations when reporting 2025 figures ^{[6] [4]}.

5. How journalists and analysts construct plausible ranges

Practitioners typically start from UN country totals (WPP 2024 revision) and apply national or regional survey proportions where available, then adjust for migration and demographic trends. The UN data and satellite/ spatial population products (e.g., WorldPop) supply the baseline counts and spatial distribution; demographic modelers then layer on ethnicity/race estimates using national survey data, censuses where permitted, and migration statistics — a process the UN dataset enables but does not itself perform ^{[1] [7]}.

6. What the provided searches do and do not say about specific percentages

Provided sources supply world totals and regional dominance (Asia ~60%, India+China >2.8 billion) and offer several private estimates for racial groups (e.g., TheWorldData’s Black population number and claims about White population shares in Europe), but they do not converge on a single global percentage table. The UN WPP supplies the necessary population counts but not a universal racial breakdown; Worldometer/Census/World Population Review report overall totals and country shares used by downstream estimators ^{[5] [1] [2] [3] [6] [4]}.

7. Practical takeaway for readers seeking “percentages by race” in 2025

If you need approximate global shares by broad ancestral groups, you must accept large methodological uncertainty and consult multiple sources: use UN country/region totals (WPP) as the baseline ^[1], supplement with national surveys where race/ethnicity is measured, and treat private-site pie charts as illustrative rather than definitive ^{[6] [4]}. The available reporting here does not provide a single, authoritative global racial/ethnic percentage table for 2025 ^[1].

Limitations: National differences in data collection, legal prohibitions on race questions, and varying researcher methods mean any global racial percentages in 2025 are model-based estimates, not standardized official statistics ^{[1] [4]}.