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A multinational state is a state (country) in which the population consists of two or more ethnically distinct nations (peoples) that are of significant size. This contrasts with a nation-state where a single nation comprises the bulk of the population. An example is the United Kingdom of England (English people), Wales (Welsh), Scotland (Scottish), and Northern Ireland (Irish).
The phrase refers to the objective existence of distinct ethnic groups in a country; whereas multiculturalism refers to an official policy of acknowledging the equality of these distinct groups. A country may be, or may have been, multi-national but not multicultural.
Multinational states differ from states like Japan in which an overwhelming majority of the population is ethnically homogeneous. India is the largest multinational state in the world with a population of over a billion people.
Empires may be dominated by one particular nation, sometimes organized as a nation-state. For example, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which consisted of Austrian Germans, Magyars (Hungarians), Czechs, Romanians, Slovenes, Poles, Croats, Serbians, and Italians.
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