少数群体是指在某一现存社会总人口中不占主导地位，政治性投票中也不能构成半数以上的一类社会群体。他们通常在民族、语言以及信仰方面与社会主流价值观存在着差异，或者职业、性取向等身份特征不被历史观念所接受，因而可能会受到歧视或者变相歧视。

为提高选举过程合法并避免有人质疑选举是否公平，一个种族分裂之国家最紧要考虑少数族群之代表性；相对地，在另外之新兴民主国家，少数族裔问题可能也是重要，或许有其他更需要优先考虑之情况——比如确保政府可以有效率推动立法而不会陷入政治僵局。

Minority group is a term referring to a category of people differentiated from the social majority, i.e., those who hold the majority of positions of social power in a society, and may be defined by law. Rather than a relational "social group", as the term would indicate, "minority group" refers to the above-described. The differentiation can be based on one or more observable human characteristics, including: ethnicity, race, religion, caste, gender, wealth, health or sexual orientation. Usage of the term is applied to various situations and civilizations within history, despite its popular mis-association with a numerical, statistical minority. In the social sciences, the term "minority" is used to refer to categories of persons who hold fewer positions of social power.