The African community, close to 99% of Zambia's total population, belongs to various Bantu groups. (The term "Bantu" refers roughly to all peoples in whose language the root ntu means "man.") The Bemba group—37% of the African population—inhabits the Northern and Copperbelt provinces. Other African societies include the Tonga (19%), Lunda (12%), Nyanja (11%), Mambwe (8%), and Lozi or Barotse (7%). In all, there are at least 73 different African societal classifications.
The Europeans, accounting for about 1% of the population in 1998, are mainly of British stock, either immigrants or their descendants from the UK or South Africa. Other European groups include those of Dutch, Italian, and Greek descent. Counting Asians, mainly migrants from the Indian subcontinent, and people of mixed race, other non-Africans constitute only about 0.2% of the population.