Abstract: In recent years, Chinese populations have usually been divided into South populations and North populations by scholars. Principal component analysis on dermatoglyphics from 59 Chinese populations showed that Northern populations could be divided into 2 sub-groups; Southern populations, 4 sub-groups. In addition to these there are Xinjiang populations and Tibet populations. Compared with North populations, Xinjiang populations have low finger W frequencies, high Lu, Lr frequencies and high frequencies of true patterns between H and Ⅱ, Ⅲ interdigital area.Tibet Populations have high fingerW frequencies and low Lu frequencies. Compared with South populations, North populations have high TFRC and frequencies of true patterns between H and Ⅱ, Ⅲ interdigital area.There are transitional and heterogeneous populations between South and North populations. Furthermore, 8 Han populations did not cluster, but scatter into other populations. There are exchanges of dermatoglyphics genes between Han nationality and minority nationalities or in nationalities between South and North China. So it may be too simple in dividing Chinese populations into South and North populations.

Key words: Chinese nationality; Principal component analysis; Dermatoglyphics