The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people are an ethnic group in the Sahara, Sahel, and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. Inhabiting many countries, they live mainly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa, South Sudan, Darfur, and regions near the Red Sea coast in Sudan. The approximate number of Fula people is unknown, due to clashing definitions regarding Fula ethnicity. Various estimates put the figure between 25 and 40 million people worldwide.

A significant proportion of the Fula—a third, or an estimated 7 to 10 million—are pastoralists, and their ethnic group has the largest nomadic pastoral community in the world. The majority of the Fula ethnic group consist of semi-sedentary people, as well as sedentary settled farmers, scholars, artisans, merchants, and nobility. As an ethnic group, they are bound together by the Fula language, their history and their culture. The Fula are almost completely Muslims, with a small minority being Christians and Animists.

Many West African leaders are of Fulani descent, including the former President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari; the first president of Cameroon Ahmadou Ahidjo; the former President of Senegal, Macky Sall; the President of Gambia, Adama Barrow; the President of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló; the prime minister of Guinea, Bah Oury; and the Prime Minister of Mali, Boubou Cissé. They also occupy positions in major international institutions, such as the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina J. Mohammed; the 74th President of the United Nations General Assembly, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande; and the Secretary-General of OPEC, Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo.

There are many names (and spellings of the names) used in other languages to refer to the Fulɓe. Fulani in English is borrowed from the Hausa term. Fula, from the Manding languages, is also used in English, and sometimes spelled Fulah or Fullah. Fula and Fulani are commonly used in English, including within Africa. The French borrowed the Wolof term Pël, which is variously spelled: Peul, Peulh, and even Peuhl. More recently the Fulfulde / Pulaar term Fulɓe, which is a plural noun (singular, Pullo) has been Anglicised as Fulbe, which is gaining popularity in use. In Portuguese, the terms Fula or Futafula are used. The terms Fallata, Fallatah, or Fellata are of Arabic origins, and are often the ethnonyms by which Fulani people are identified by in parts of Chad and Sudan.

The Toucouleur people of the central Senegal River valley speak Fulfulde / Pulaar and refer to themselves as Haalpulaaren, or those who speak Pulaar. The supposed distinction between them was invented by French ethnographers in the 19th century who differentiated between supposedly sedentary, agricultural, fanatical, and anti-European Toucouleurs on one hand and nomadic, pastoralist, docile and cooperative Peulhs on the other, but the dichotomy is false.

Common Fulani family names in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Southern Senegal are: Diallo (French speaking regions), Jallow or Jalloh (English speaking regions), Djalo (Cap Verde and Guinea-Bissau), Sow, Barry, Bah or Ba, Baldé, and Diouldé. Other Fulani (Toucouleur) family names in Guinea and northern Senegal are: Tall, Sall, Diengue, Sy, Anne, Ly, Wann, Dia and others.

Although most Fulbe of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon use their father's given name as surnames, there are some common Fulani last names such as Bello (likely from the Fulfulde word Ballo meaning "helper or assistant", this name is spread across several ethnic groups in Nigeria), Tukur (from Takrur), Gidado, Barkindo, Jallo, Ahidjo and Dikko.

In Mali, the most common Fulani family names are Diallo, Diakité, Dia, Sow, Sidibé, Sangaré, Bah, Dicko, Tall, etc. These names can be found among the Fulani populations of the following Malian regions and areas of Mopti, Macina, Nioro, Kidal, Tomboctou, Gao, Sikasso, and others. These names are also found among the Fula population of Burkina Faso, along with other names like Barry and Sankara (derived from Sangaré).