The town and district boast a Dari Persian speaking Tajik majority.Pashtuns, Uzbeks and Arabs form the smaller minorities in the town and district. Many identify themselves as ethnic Arabs although no one actually speaks Arabic. There are other such Persian-speaking “Arabs” to the west, between Mazar-i Sharif and Sheberghan.

Their self-identification as Arabs is largely based on their tribal identity and may in fact point to the 7th and 8th centuries migration to this and other Central Asian locales of many Arab tribes from Arabia in the wake of the Islamic conquests of the region.

The Pashtuns form a minority and live in approximately seven villages. Most Pashtuns living in Kholm, were brought in as settlers by the ultra-nationalist Minister of the Interior Mohammad Gul Khan or (Mahmud Golkhan), during the strong Pashtunization policies of the Zahir Shah government in the 1950s and 60s.