European Americans are Americans of European ancestry. This term includes both people who descend from the first European settlers in the area of the present-day United States and people who descend from more recent European arrivals. Since the 17th century, European Americans have been the largest panethnic group in what is now the United States. According to the 2020 United States census, 58.8% of the White alone population and 56.1% of the White alone or in combination gave a detailed European write-in response.
The Spaniards were the first Europeans to establish a continuous presence in what is now the contiguous United States, although arriving in small numbers, with Martín de Argüelles ( 1566) in St. Augustine, then a part of Spanish Florida, and the Russians were the first Europeans to settle in Alaska, establishing Russian America. The first British child born in the Americas was Virginia Dare, born August 18, 1587. She was born in Roanoke Colony, located in present-day North Carolina, which was the first attempt, made during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, to establish a permanent English settlement in North America.
In the 2020 United States census, British Americans (46.6 million), German Americans (45 million), Irish Americans (38.6 million), Italian Americans (16.8 million) and Polish Americans (8.6 million) were the five largest self-reported European ancestry groups in the United States.
The 2020 census was the first census to allow data collection on subtypes of Europeans. During previous surveys, the number of people with British ancestry was considered to be significantly under-counted, as many people in that demographic tended to identify themselves simply as Americans (20,151,829 or 7.2%). A 2015 genetic study of 148,789 European Americans concluded that British ancestry was the most common European ancestry among white Americans, with this component ranging between 20% and 55% of the total population in all 50 states, showing its highest levels in the same states where "American" ancestry predominated on the census. The same applies to the number Americans of Spanish ancestry, as most people in that demographic tend to identify themselves as Hispanic and Latino Americans (65,140,276 or 19.4%), especially since the vast majority of this group and their ancestors came to the U.S. from Latin American countries rather than immigrating directly from Spain. Studies show that European genetic ancestry, mainly from Spain, is the largest component in Hispanic Americans, with a mean of 65.1% European genetic ancestry according to one study from 2014.
An increasing number of people ignore the ancestry or origins question or chose no specific ancestral group such as "American or United States". In the 2000 census this represented over 56.1 million or 19.9% of the United States population, an increase from 26.2 million (10.5%) in 1990 and 38.2 million (16.9%) in 1980 and are specified as "unclassified" and "not reported". In the 2020 U.S. census, 96.58 million people did not report any detailed white ethnic origins and are "Not specified".
Terminology
thumb|<div style="text-align: center">Proportion of White Americans in each county of the [[List of states and territories of the United States|fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States census</div>|300x300px]]
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right" font-size:90%;"
! colspan="5" | European Americans 1800–2010
|-
! Year
! Population
! % of the U.S.
|-
| 1800 || 4,306,446 || 81.1
|-
| 1850 || 19,553,068 || 84.3
|-
| 1900 || 66,809,196 || 87.9
|-
| 1950 || 134,942,028 || 89.5
|-
| 2000 || 211,460,626 || 75.1
|-
| 2010 || 223,553,265 || 72.4
|-
|}
Use
In 1995, as part of a review of the Office of Management and Budget's Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 (Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting), a survey was conducted of census recipients to determine their preferred terminology for the racial/ethnic groups defined in the Directive. For the White group, European American came a distant third, preferred by only 2.35% of panel interviewees, as opposed to White, which was preferred by 61.66%.
The term is sometimes used interchangeably with Caucasian American, White American, and Anglo-American in the United States.
Origin
In contexts such as medical research, terms such as "white" and "European" have been criticized for vagueness and blurring important distinctions between different groups that happen to fit within the label. Margo Adair suggests that viewing Americans of European descent as a single group contributes to the "wonder-breading" of the United States, eradicating the cultural heritage of individual European ethnicities.
Subgroups
right|thumb|320px|Racial types of European Americans as published in "The American Museum Journal" between 1900 and 1918.
There are several subgroupings of European Americans. While these categories may be approximately defined, often due to the imprecise or cultural regionalization of Europe, the subgroups are nevertheless used widely in cultural or ethnic identification. This is particularly the case in diasporic populations, as with European people in the United States generally. In alphabetical order, some of the subgroups are:
- Northwestern European Americans, including Austrian Americans, Belgian Americans, British Americans (Cornish Americans, English Americans, Manx Americans, Scotch-Irish Americans, Scottish Americans, Welsh Americans), Dutch Americans, French Americans (Breton Americans), German Americans, Irish Americans, Luxembourger Americans, Nordic and Scandinavian Americans (Danish Americans, Finnish Americans, Icelandic Americans, Norwegian Americans, Swedish Americans), and Swiss Americans, or "Old Immigrants" (the first waves of which arrived pre-1881)
- Eastern European Americans, including Belarusian Americans, Czech Americans, Estonian Americans, Hungarian Americans, Latvian Americans, Lithuanian Americans, Polish Americans, Russian Americans, Slovak Americans, and Ukrainian Americans, or "New Immigrants" (the first large waves of which arrived 1881–1965)
- Southern European Americans, including Albanian Americans, Bosnian Americans, Bulgarian Americans, Croatian Americans, Cypriot Americans, Greek Americans, Italian Americans, Maltese Americans, Macedonian Americans, Moldovan Americans, Montenegrin Americans, Portuguese Americans, Romanian Americans, Serbian Americans, Slovenian Americans, and Spanish Americans (Basque Americans, Catalan Americans, Galician Americans), also "New Immigrants" or "New Immigrants"(the first large waves of which arrived 1881–1965)
History
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right"
|-
! colspan="3" | Historical immigration estimates
|-
! Country
! Before 1790
! Ancestry (1790)
|-
| England* || 230,000 || 1,900,000
|-
| France || 150,000 || 500,000
|-
| Ulster Scotch-Irish* || 135,000 || 320,000
|-
| Germany || 103,000 || 280,000
|-
| Scotland* || 48,500 || 160,000
|-
| Ireland|| 8,000 || 200,000
|-
| Netherlands || 6,000 || 100,000
|-
| Wales* || 4,000 || 120,000
|-
| Sweden and Other|| 500 || 20,000
|-
| *Totals, British|| 417,500 || 2,500,000+
|-
! United States || 950,000 || 3,929,214
|-
|}
Before the arrival of Europeans, Native Americans predominantly inhabited the United States. The earliest Europeans to colonize North America were the small number of Spaniards. The first Spanish colonization was in 1565 at St. Augustine, Florida. One of the most significant Spanish explorers was Hernando De Soto, a conquistador who accompanied Francisco Pizzaro during his conquest of the Inca Empire.
Leaving Havana, Cuba, in 1539, De Soto's expedition landed in Florida. It explored the southeastern area of the United States. They reached as far as the Mississippi River in search of riches and fortune. Another Spaniard who explored the United States, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, set out from New Spain in 1540 in search of the mythical Seven Cities of Gold. Coronado's expedition traveled to Kansas and the Grand Canyon but failed to discover gold or treasure. However, Coronado left a gift of horses to the Plains Indians. Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano and Frenchman Jacques Cartier are other Europeans who explored the United States. The Spaniards viewed the French as threatening their trade route along the Gulf Stream.
Since 1607, some 57 million immigrants from other lands have come to the United States. Approximately 10 million passed through on their way to some other place or returned to their homelands, leaving a net gain of 47 million people.
During the 1600s and 1700s, Europeans arrived in North America in search of religious freedom, economic prospects, and political independence.
Europeans brought black slaves to the United States because they believed Africans were inferior to Europeans.
Shifts in European migration
Before 1881, the vast majority of immigrants, almost 86% of the total, arrived from Northwestern Europe, principally Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia, known as "Old Immigration". Between 1881 and 1893, the pattern shifted in the sources of U.S. "New Immigration." Between 1894 and 1914, immigrants from Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe accounted for 69% of the total. Prior to 1960, the overwhelming majority came from Europe or of European descent from Canada. Immigration from Europe as a proportion of new arrivals has declined since the mid-20th century, with 75.0% of the total foreign-born population born in Europe compared to 12.1% recorded in the 2010 census.
Immigration since 1820
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:100%; display: inline-table"
|-
! colspan="6" | European immigration to the U.S. 1820–1970
|-
! Years
! Arrivals
! Years
! Arrivals
! Years
! Arrivals
|-
| 1820–1830 || 98,816 || 1901–1910 || 8,136,016 || 1981–1990 ||
|-
| 1831–1840 || 495,688 || 1911–1920 || 4,376,564 || 1991–2000 ||
|-
| 1841–1850 || 1,597,502 || 1921–1930 || 2,477,853 || 2001-2010 ||
|-
| 1851–1860 || 2,452,657 || 1931–1940 || 348,289 ||2011-2020 ||
|-
| 1861–1870 || 2,064,407 || 1941–1950 || 621,704 || ||
|-
| 1871–1880 || 2,261,904 || 1951–1960 || 1,328,293 || ||
|-
| 1881–1890 || 4,731,607 || 1961–1970 || 1,129,670 || ||
|-
| 1891–1900 || 3,558,793 || 1971–1980 || || ||
|- class="sortbottom" style="background:lightgrey;"
! || || || Arrivals || Total || 35,679,763
|-
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|-
! colspan="6" | Country of origin 1820–1978
|-
! Country
! Arrivals
! % of total
! Country
! Arrivals
! % of total
|-
| Germany<sup>1</sup> || 6,978,000 || 14.3% || Norway || 856,000 || 1.8%
|-
| Italy || 5,294,000 || 10.9% || France || 4,351,000 || 9.5%
|-
| Great Britain || 4,298,000 || 9.4% || Greece || 655,000 || 1.3%
|-
| Ireland || 4,723,000 || 9.7% || Portugal || 446,000 || 0.9%
|-
| Austria-Hungary<sup>1,</sup> <sup>2</sup> || 4,315,000 || 8.9% || Denmark || 364,000 || 0.7%
|-
| Russia<sup>1,</sup> <sup>2</sup> || 3,374,000 || 6.9% || Netherlands || 359,000 || 0.7%
|-
| Sweden || 1,272,000 || 2.6% || Finland || 33,000 || 0.1%
|-
! || || || || Total || 34,318,000
|-
|}
Population born in Europe
The figures below show that of the total population of the specified birthplace in the United States, 11.1% were born overseas.
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%; display: inline-table"
|-
! colspan="3" | Population / Proportion<br />born in Europe in 1850–2020
|-
! Year
! Population
! % of foreign-born
|-
| 1850 || 2,031,867 || 92.2%
|-
| 1860 || 3,807,062 || 92.1%
|-
| 1870 || 4,941,049 || 88.8%
|-
| 1880 || 5,751,823 || 86.2%
|-
| 1890 || 8,030,347 || 86.9%
|-
| 1900 || 8,881,548 || 86.0%
|-
| 1910 || 11,810,115 || 87.4%
|-
| 1920 || 11,916,048 || 85.7%
|-
| 1930 || 11,784,010 || 83.0%
|-
| 1960 || 7,256,311 || 75.0%
|-
| 1970 || 5,740,891 || 61.7%
|-
| 1980 || 5,149,572 || 39.0%
|-
| 1990 || 4,350,403 || 22.9%
|-
| 2000 || 4,915,557 || 15.8%
|-
| 2010 || 4,817,437 || 12.1%
|-
| 2020 || - || -
|-
| colspan="4" style="text-align:left;" |
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; display: inline-table"
|-
! Birthplace
! Population<br />in 2010
! Percent<br />in 2010
! Population<br />in 2016
! Percent<br />in 2016
|-
| align="left" | Totals, European-born || 4,817,437 || 12.0% || 4,785,267 || 10.9%
|-
| align="left" | Northern Europe || 923,564 || 2.3% || 950,872 || 2.2%
|-
| United Kingdom || 669,794 || 1.7% || 696,896 || 1.6%
|-
| Ireland || 124,457 || 0.3% || 125,840 || 0.3%
|-
| align="left" | Other Northern Europe || 129,313 || 0.3% || 128,136 || 0.3%
|-
| align="left" | Western Europe || 961,791 || 2.4% || 939,383 || 2.1%
|-
| Germany || 604,616 || 1.5% || 563,985 || 1.3%
|-
| France || 402,373 || 0.9% || 575,383 || 1.2%
|-
| Other Western Europe || 209,216 || 0.5% || 200,148 || 0.4%
|-
| align="left" | Southern Europe || 779,294 || 2.0% || 760,352 || 1.7%
|-
| Italy || 364,972 || 0.9% || 335,763 || 0.8%
|-
| Portugal || 189,333 || 0.5% || 176,638 || 0.4%
|-
| Other Southern Europe || 224,989 || 0.6% || 247,951 || 0.5%
|-
| align="left" | Eastern Europe || 2,143,055 || 5.4% || 2,122,951 || 4.9%
|-
| Poland || 475,503 || 1.2% || 424,928 || 1.0%
|-
| Russia || 383,166 || 1.0% || 397,236 || 0.9%
|-
| Other Eastern Europe || 1,284,286 || 3.2% || 1,300,787 || 3.0%
|-
| <small>Other Europe (no country specified)</small> || 9,733 || 0.0% || 11,709 || 0.0%
|-
| colspan="6" style="text-align:left;" | <small>Source: 2010 and 2016</small>
|}
Demographics
thumb|upright=1.15|The [[New York City Metropolitan Area is home to the largest European population in the United States.]]
Breakdowns of the European American population into sub-components is a difficult and rather arbitrary exercise. Farley (1991) argues that "because of ethnic intermarriage, the numerous generations that separate respondents from their forebears and the apparent unimportance to many whites of European origin, responses appear quite inconsistent".
Ancestral origins
{| class="wikitable sortable collapsible nowrap" style="font-size:90%; text-align: right"
|-
! Ethnic origin
! colspan="2" | 1980 / %
! colspan="2" | 1990 / %
! colspan="2" | 2000 / %
! colspan="2" | 2020 / %
!data-sort-type="number"|
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | United States pop.
| 226,545,805
| 100.0
| 248,709,873
| 100.0
| 281,421,906
| 100.0
| 331,449,281
| 100.0
|
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | At least one ancestry <br />reported
| 188,302,438
| 83.1
| 224,788,502
| 90.4
| 225,310,411
| 80.1
| TBA
| TBA
|
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | Acadian/Cajun
|
|
| 668,271
| 0.3
| 85,414
| 0.0
| 132,624
| 0.1
|
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | Albanian
| 38,658
| 0.02
| 47,710
| 0.0
| 113,661
| 0.0
| 236,635
| 0.1
|
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | Alsatian
| 42,390
| 0.02
| 16,465
| 0.0
| 15,601
| 0.0
| 12,056
| 0.00
|
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | American
| 13,298,761
| 5.9
| 12,395,999
| 5.0
| 20,625,093
| 7.3
| -
| -
|
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | Austrian
| 948,558
| 0.42
| 864,783
| 0.3
| 735,128
| 0.3
| 697,425
| 0.3
|
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | Basque
| 43,140
| 0.0
| 47,956
| 0.0
| 57,793
| 0.0
| 52,559
| 0.0
|
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | Bavarian
|
|
| 4,348
| 0.0
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | Belarusian
| 7,381
| 0.00
| 4,277
| 0.0
| -
| -
| 67,599
| 0.0
|
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | Belgian
| 360,277
| 0.16
| 380,498