According to the sample survey of population in 2012, Shanxi Province has 36.1083 million permanent residents, up by 175,500 persons. The newborn population is 385,300 with the rate of 10.7 per thousand while the death toll is 209,900 with the rate of 5.83 per thousand. The natural growth is 4.87 per thousand. The sex ratio at birth is 113.05.

Shanxi is an interracial province with 54 minority ethnic groups apart from Han, and the population of minority ethnic groups accounts for 0.3% of the overall population of Shanxi, scattered throughout the province. Among those minority ethnic groups, the Hui nationality is in the majority followed by Manchu and the Mongolian nationality.