The current population is more than 350,000 people, mainly distributed in the mountainous and semi-mountainous areas of Ximeng, Cangyuan, Lancang, Menglian, Shuangjiang, Gengma, Yongde and Zhenkang counties in southwest Yunnan Province, namely "Awa Mountain" between Lancang River and salween and the southern section of Nushan Mountain.
Mixed with Han, Dai, Bulang, De 'ang, Lisu and Lahu nationalities.
The Wa people in China are mainly distributed in Ximeng, Cangyuan and Menglian counties, but also in Gengma, Lancang, Shuangjiang, Zhenkang, Yongde, Changning and Menghai counties.
Because the Wa people are mainly distributed in the southern section of Nvshan Mountain between Lancang River and salween, the mountains are undulating and there are few flat dams, so it is also called Wa mountain area.
It uses the Wa language and belongs to the Wa branch of the Mon-Khmer language family of the South Asian language family.
It is divided into three dialects: Balaok, Wa and Wa, and each dialect is divided into several dialects.
There is no national language.
Before the founding of New China, British and American missionaries compiled a script to spread Christianity, which was very rough and used in a small scope.
After the founding of New China, the people's government sent linguists to make an in-depth investigation on the Wa language, and designed the characters in Latin alphabet in 1957.