I was listening to a story on the radio yesterday in which the reporter talked about the "vast minority" of a group. This phrase struck me as odd, since the two words have opposing meanings. While I can see that using "vast" to describe a portion of a minority of a larger group might be correct, it still seems like a strange pairing to me. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this and whether this is a common phrase that I just haven't heard before.
I've long been conditioned to associate minority with not numerous or not that significant. Because of that (which I still maintain by no means wrong), I do share your point about the conflict of terms.
But in today's contexts of social and demographic discussions, we all know that an association to the opposite is more true. So vast is apt as amplification to minority, just as it has always been amplification to majority.
(Vast majority should have no demographic implications though, whereas vast minority would immediately bring that to mind .)
Vast minority is a person or even an incident that identifies an entire group.For example the corporate pop can be seen as a vast minority in the music industry.