There are many
ethnic groups in West Asia, (also known as the
Near East or
Middle East) and the region has historically been a crossroads of different cultures. Since the 1960s changes in political and economic factors (especially the enormous oil wealth in the region and conflicts) have significantly altered the ethnic composition of groups in the region. While some ethnic groups have been present in the region for millennia, others have arrived fairly recently through
immigration. The five largest ethnic groups in the region are
Arabs,
Azeris,
Kurds,
Persians, and
Turks but there are dozens of other ethnic groups which have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of members.