This category collects articles about ethnic groups and sub-ethnic groups whose history is tied to the Nizhny Novgorod land: indigenous peoples, historical tribes, and local communities. The Nizhny Novgorod Volga region has historically been a zone of contact between Slavic, Finno-Ugric, and Turkic peoples, and this diversity is reflected in the category's materials.
Among the Finno-Ugric peoples, a special place belongs to the Erzya and the Mordvins, whose historical lands covered a significant part of the region; also represented here are vanished tribes — the Merya and the Muroma. Alongside them, the category includes articles about the Tatars, Mari, German colonists, and local sub-ethnic groups such as the Borchane and the Vachkasy — residents of particular districts of the region.