The current population of 8.7 million, of han tan sixty-seventh in the most popular nationwide, accounts for about 0.3% of the population.Tan population since the Ming dynasty 600 years from 260000 to nearly 3.7 million, growth for more than 14 times, tan's population is growing faster than the population growth in the country.Tan since song dynasty 1000 years the growth rate of population is on the rise.Tan in distribution throughout the country at present mainly concentrated in the three provinces in hunan, guangdong, sichuan, about 49% of the national tan population, second distribution in chongqing, guangxi, hubei, shandong, liaoning, anhui, six provinces and cities of tan and concentration of 29%.Hunan for tan first big province, representing about tan 22% of the total population of the country.Across the country to form the two large pieces of tan xiang YueGui, each a community.During the period of nearly 600, tan degree and direction of migration and reflecting period had the very big difference, especially the flow direction from the east to the central China, north China and sichuan back to weave is greater than the north to the southeast of migration, at the same time, to the northeast of immigration has become the important direction of flow.

Tan in the Midwest and the south is one of the more often find a surname.In eastern most of hunan YueGui sichuan, guizhou, sichuan, east yunnan, hubei, jiangxi, northeast of Inner Mongolia, a black frame in jiangxi province, north point, tan occupied more than 0.54%, the proportion of the population in central region more than 1.8%, the area coverage area is about 14.2% of the total area of the country, for about 59% of the tan.In most, western guizhou, hainan, fujian YunChuan most most of north, northeast jiangxi, hubei, anhui, henan, ningxia, qinghai south, but so do dungans southeast, most of eastern shandong, liaoning, jilin, heilongjiang, western and eastern Inner Mongolia tan accounted for 0.18% of the proportion of the population in a o. 54%, its coverage area is about 27% of the total area of the country, for about 28% of the tan.