 As of 2015, 2,248,113 of the 2,324,287 residents of the prefecture were Uyghur, 71,233 were Han Chinese and 4,941 were from other ethnic groups.Residents of Hotan Prefecture commonly speak Uyghur and often do not speak Mandarin Chinese.As of 1999, 96.91% of the population of Hotan (Hetian) Prefecture was Uyghur and 3.08% of the population was Han Chinese.