Non-Hispanic whites
Non-Hispanic Whites or Non-Latino Whites are White Americans classified by the United States census as "white" and not Hispanic.[3][4] According to the United States Census Bureau yearly estimates, as of July 1, 2023, Non-Hispanic whites make up about 58.9% of the U.S. population, or 197,639,521 people.[5] The United States Census Bureau defines white to include European Americans, Middle Eastern Americans, and North African Americans.[6] Americans of European ancestry are divided into various ethnic groups. More than half of the white population are German, Irish, English, French and Polish Americans. Many Americans are also the product of other European groups that migrated to parts of the US in the 19th and 20th centuries, as the bulk of immigrants from various countries in Northern, Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as the Caucasus region, migrated to the United States.
The Non-Hispanic White population was heavily derived from British, as well as French settlement of the Americas, in addition to settlement by other Europeans such as the Germans (see Pennsylvania Dutch), Swiss, Dutch, Austrians, and Swedes that began in the 17th century (see History of the United States). The early Spanish presence in the country contributed a certain degree of that ancestry to the white population in parts of the south and southwest, as many Americans of Isleño, Basque, or other colonial Spanish heritage do not necessarily identify as "Hispanic or Latino" on the census, or are interchangeable with the "non-Hispanic White" category, as they lack any ties to Latin America, or recent ties to Spain.
Continued growth since the early 19th century is attributed to sustained very high birth rates alongside relatively low death rates among settlers and natives alike. There has also been periodically massive immigration from European and West Asian countries, especially Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, France, as well as Poland, Russia, Norway, Finland, the Czech Republic, the countries of the former Ottoman Empire (Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria), Portugal, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Ukraine, Armenia, Iran and more. Significant migration of Jews of European, North African, and Middle Eastern descent into the United States is also notable.
The classification is also typically used to refer to an English-speaking American, in distinction to Spanish speakers.[7] In some parts of the country, the term Anglo-American is used to refer to non-Hispanic white English speakers as distinct from Spanish and Portuguese or Italian speakers although the term is more frequently used to refer to people of British or English descent and might include white people of Hispanic descent who no longer speak Spanish.[8][9][10]