“People” is the plural form, making “people’s” the plural possessive form. “Peoples” is only used when referring to the plural of a group of people within a country or community. It’s rare to ever come across “peoples'” as the plural possessive form. If in doubt, use “people’s.”

People’s and peoples’ are possessive noun forms. While people’s is the possessive of the word people, peoples’ is the possessive of the word peoples – the plural of people. Use people’s when implying ownership of a collective group of humans belonging to a particular nation, community, or ethnicity.

Both persons and people can be used as plural forms of person. Persons is often used in formal, legal contexts to emphasize individuals as opposed to a group. People is the plural of person that’s most commonly used in everyday communication to simply refer to multiple humans.

The plural of person should be people in the vast majority of contexts, although legalese uses the plural persons. Peoples should be reserved for instances where you are referring to more than one distinct ethnic group.

Many usage guides over the years have suggested that there is a clear distinction between these two words; people is used when referring to a collective group or indeterminate number, and persons serves better when referring to individuals or to a number of individuals.