European diaspora

European diaspora

Total population
480,000,000 + 7% of the total world population Americas - approximately 446,394,000 Oceania - 23,185,000
Regions with significant populations
European descended population
United States	223,553,265[1]
Brazil	91,051,646[2]
Argentina	36,200,000[3]
Canada	25,186,890[4]
Australia	20,982,665
Mexico	20,100,000+[5][6]
Colombia	17,519,500[7][8]
Venezuela	13,169,949[9][10] [11]
Cuba	7,160,399[12]
South Africa	4,472,100[13]
Chile	3,5M-5,128,000[14][15]
Costa Rica	3,500,000[5]
New Zealand	3,381,076[16]
Puerto Rico	3,064,862[17]
Uruguay	2,851,095[18]
Dominican Republic	2,000,000+[11]
Bolivia	2,000,000+[11]
Peru	1,4M-4,4M+[11][19]
Ecuador	1,400,000+[20]
Paraguay	1,300,000+[5]
Nicaragua	1,000,000+[11]
Languages
Languages of Europe
Religion
Majority (Christianity, mostly Catholic and Protestant) · Atheism  · other Jewish · Muslim · Buddhist · Hinduism
Related ethnic groups
Europeans

The European diaspora refers to the communities throughout the world that are descended from the historic movement of Europeans, predominantly to the Americas, Africa, and Australasia, among other areas around the globe.

Emigration from Europe began on a large scale during the European colonial empires of the 17th to 19th centuries and continues to the present day. This concerns especially the Spanish Empire in the 16th to 17th centuries (expansion of the Hispanosphere), the British Empire in the 18th to 19th centuries (expansion of the Anglosphere), the Portuguese Empire and the Russian Empire in the 19th century (expansion to Central Asia and the Russian Far East).

From 1815 to 1932, 60 million people left Europe (with many returning home), primarily to "areas of European settlement" in the Americas (especially to the United States, Canada, Argentina and Brazil), Australia, New Zealand and Siberia.^[21] These populations also multiplied rapidly in their new habitat; much more so than the populations of Africa and Asia. As a result, on the eve of World War One, 38% of the world’s total population was of European ancestry.^[21]

In Asia, European-derived populations (specifically Russians) predominate in Northern Asia, which is part of the Russian Federation. Africa has no countries with European-derived majorities, but there are significant minorities in South Africa and Namibia.

The countries in the Americas that received a major wave of European immigrants from 1871 to 1960 were: the United States (27 million), Argentina (6.5 million), Brazil (4.5 million), Canada (4 million), Venezuela (more than 1 million),^[22] Cuba (610,000), Uruguay (600,000); other countries received a more modest immigration flow (accounting for less than 10% of total European emigration to Latin America) were: Chile (183,000),^[23] Peru (150,000),^[24] and Mexico (25,000).^[25][26][27]

Early emigration

• Antiquity
  • North Africa (Vandals)^[28]
  • Asia Minor (Greeks and Galatians)^[29]

• • Egypt (Greeks in Egypt)^[30]
  • Hindukush and Northern India (Indo-Greeks)^[31]

• Middle Ages
  • Asia Minor (Slavs)^[32]
  • Greenland (Greenland Vikings)^[33]
  • Kingdom of Jerusalem (Franks) - 25-35% of the population^[34][35]

Colonial period

The discovery of the Americas in 1492 stimulated a steady stream of voluntary migration from Europe. About 200,000 Spaniards settled in their American colonies prior to 1600, a small settlement compared to the 3 to 4 million Amerindians who lived in Spanish territory in the Americas. In Brazil the European emigration remained very small in the first two centuries of colonization: between 1500 and 1700, only 100,000 Portuguese settled there. However, the development of the mining economy in the 18th century raised the wages and employment opportunities in the Portuguese colony and the emigration grew: in the 18th century alone, about 600,000 Portuguese settled in Brazil, a mass emigration given that Portugal had a population of only 2 million people. In North America the immigration was dominated by British, Irish and other Northern Europeans.^[36]

Post-independence emigration

Mass European emigration to the Americas happened in the 19th and 20th centuries. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars until 1920, some 60 million Europeans (and 10 million Asians) emigrated. Of these, 71% went to North America, 21% to Latin America (mainly Argentina and Brazil) and 7% to Australia. About 11 million of these people went to Latin America, of whom 38% were Italians, 28% were Spaniards and 11% were Portuguese.^[37]

Between 1821 and 1880, 9.5 million Europeans settled in the United States, mainly Germans and Irish. Other waves included British and Scandinavian people. Despite the large number of immigrants arriving, people born outside of the United States formed a relatively small number of U.S. population: in 1910, foreigners were 14.7% of the country's population. Nothing similar to what happened in Argentina, which was the American country where immigrants had a larger impact in the ethnic composition. By 1914, 30% of Argentina's population was foreign-born, with 12% of its population born in Italy, the largest immigrant group. Next was Canada: by 1881, 14% of Canada's population was foreign-born, and the proportion increased to 22% in 1921. In Brazil the proportion of immigrants in the national population was much smaller, and immigrants tended to be concentrated in the central and Southern parts of the country. The proportion of foreigners in Brazil peaked in 1920, with just 7%, mostly Italians, Portuguese, and Spaniards.^[36] In 1901–1920 immigration was responsible for only 7 percent of Brazilian population growth but in the years of high immigration, 1891–1900, the share was as high as 30 percent (higher than Argentina's 26% in the 1880s).^[38]

Immigration arrivals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Destination	Years	Arrivals	Reference
United States	1821–1932	32,244,000	[39]
Argentina	1856–1932	6,405,000	[39]
Canada	1831–1932	5,206,000	[39]
Brazil	1821–1932	4,431,000	[39]
Australia	1821–1932	2,913,000	[39]
Cuba	1901–1931	857,000	[39]
South Africa	1881–1932	852,000	[39]
Chile	1882–1932	726,000*	*Incomplete series[39]
Uruguay	1836–1932	713,000	[39]
New Zealand	1821–1932	594,000	[39]
Mexico	1911–1931	226,000	[39]

By populations

Country	Percentage of the local population	Population in (millions)	Year	Ref
Uruguay	90.7	2.8	2011 Census	[18]
Australia	90	20	2006 Census	[40]
Argentina	44.0	19.0	Lizcano	[5]
Canada	76.7	25.1	2011 Census	[4]
Puerto Rico	75.8	3.1	2010 Census	[41]
New Zealand	74.0	2.9	2013 Census	[42]
United States	72.4	223.5	2010 Census	[1]
Cuba	64.1	7.2	2012 Census	[43]
Costa Rica	40	1.7 or 3.8	2011 Latinobarometro survey, Lizcano	[5][44]
Brazil	47.7	91.0	2010 Census	[45]
Venezuela	42.2	11.9	2011 Census	[46]
Colombia	37.0	17	Library of Congress Country Studies & Colombia a country study, 2010	[47][48][49]
Chile	20 or 30	3.5 or 5.1	britannica.com & E.Medina-and-A.M.Kaempffer	[14][15]
Paraguay	20.0	1.3	Lizcano	[5]
Nicaragua	17.0	1	CIA World Factbook	[50]
Dominican Republic	13.6 or 16	2.0	Fuente: Encuesta Latin American Public Opinion Project, LAPOP, (2006 survey) & CIA World Factbook	[51][52]
Mexico	20 or 40	25.1 or 35.8 or 45	CIA World Factbook & Lizcano	[5][6]
Bolivia	15.0	2.0	CIA World Factbook	[53]
El Salvador	12.7	??	2007 Census	[54]
South Africa	8.9	4.5	2011 Census	[55]
Ecuador	6.1	1.3	2010 Census	[56]
Peru	4.9 or 15	1.4 or 4.4	2006 Survey & CIA World Factbook	[19][57]

The number above refer to those who self-described as white in the census. Exclude those who self describe as mixed race with European descent such as mestizo and mulatto.

By region

Nations and regions outside of Europe with significant populations of European ancestry:^[58]

Map of percentage of people with European ancestry, showing the European diaspora. (The map is based on data from this article: European diaspora.)

Africa

• Africa
  •  South Africa (White South African) - 9.6-13% of the population (mostly Afrikaners and British diaspora), Cape Coloureds have Afrikaner ancestry included with African and Asian ancestry from the 17th to 19th centuries.^[59]
  •  Namibia (White Namibians) - 6% of the population, of which most are Afrikaans-speaking, in addition to a German-speaking minority.^[60]
  •  Madagascar (French people in Madagascar) - 113,000 people or 0.5% of the total population are white, mostly French. A further 76,000 are Réunionese Creole, bringing this total to 200,000 people and 1% of the total population.^[61]
  •  Réunion (mostly of French descent) approx. 25% of the population.^[62] Cafres usually have some degree of European descent.
  •  Zimbabwe - about 2% in the 2001 census. (Whites in Zimbabwe).
  •  Botswana - 5% European.^[63]
  •  Kenya (Whites in Kenya).
  •  Algeria (Pied-noir).
  •  Mauritius (Franco-Mauritian).
  •  Senegal - French/European and Lebanese communities.^[64]
  •  Canary Islands (Spaniards), known as Canarians.
  •  Seychelles (Franco-Seychellois).
  •  Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (UK) - predominantly British.
  •  Swaziland - 3% of the population^[65]
  •  Morocco - European expatriates, Spanish-descent Muslims (the Moorish era in Spain), Spanish Moroccan Roman Catholics from Spanish colonial time, and Franco-Moroccans from French colonial period.^[66]
  •  Tunisia - Small community of Europeans.^[67]
  •  Angola (Portuguese Angolans) - 1% are mostly Portuguese, with 2% are of mixed Portuguese and Angolan descent
  •  Mozambique (Portuguese Mozambicans) - 0.1% of the population is mostly Portuguese, with 0.2% of mixed Portuguese and native ancestry

About 0-1 percent of the populations in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, usually are in the professional business elites. Not limited to Europeans, the "white" population includes Arab peoples: Lebanese and Syrians.^[64]

Asia

• Asia
  •  Vietnam - approximately 441,000 people or 0.5% of the total population are Vietnamese Eurasians, mainly of French and American ancestry from former French and American soldiers and settlers.^[68]
  •  India (Anglo-Indian) - approximately 312,000 people or 0.02% of the total population are mixed White (mainly British) and Indian.^[69]
  •  Bangladesh (Anglo-Indian, Firingis or Portuguese) approximately 113,000 people or 0.1% of the total population are the descendents of former British settlers who intermarried with local populations. People of Chittagong are mixture of Bengali, Portuguese and Arab descent.^[70]
  •  Myanmar (Anglo-Burmese) - approximately 51,000 people or 0.1% of the total population are the descendents of former British settlers who intermarried with local populations.^[71]
  •  Malaysia (Kristang people) - approximately 52,000 people or 0.2% of the total population are the descendents of former White settlers (including Portuguese, British, and Dutch) who intermaried with local populations.^[72]
  •  Sri Lanka (Burghers)- often from settlers in former British, Dutch, French and Portuguese colonies.
  • Siberia (Russians)^[73] - most are Russians and Russified Ukrainians, with approximately 400,000 Russified ethnic Germans, a number are part-European.
  •  Kazakhstan (Russians in Kazakhstan, Tatars of Kazakhstan, Germans of Kazakhstan) - 31.5% of the population
  •  Uzbekistan - 7% of the population^[74] (See Demographics of Uzbekistan).
  •  Kyrgyzstan - 13.5% of the population^[75]
  •  Turkmenistan - 4% of the population^[76]
  •  Tajikistan - Tajiks are ethnic relatives of both Turkic and Indo-Iranian peoples, but has a small European minority.
  •  Azerbaijan (Russians in Azerbaijan)^[77]
  •  Georgia (Russians in Georgia)^[78]
  •  Armenia - Armenia has a small minority of 21,000 Europeans, mostly of Russian and Ukrainian origin.^[79]
  •  Mongolia - 0.5% of the population or approximately 12,000 people are European, mostly of Ukrainian or Russian descent.^[80]
  •  China (Russians in China)
  •  Hong Kong (Britons in Hong Kong, Canadians in Hong Kong, Americans in Hong Kong, Russians in Hong Kong)^[81]
  •  Macau (Macanese people) of Portuguese descent.
  •  Singapore (Eurasians in Singapore) - approximately 60,000 White people reside in Singapore, or 1.3% of the total population. An additional 46,000 Eurasians (or 1% of the total population) reside in Singapore, bringing this total to approximately 106,000 people or 2.3% of the total population.^[82] Both these racial groups are mostly of British, Portuguese, and Dutch descent.
  •  Philippines (Filipino mestizo, Spanish settlement in the Philippines, American settlement in the Philippines) - Filipino-Eurasians, either of Spanish or U.S. American ancestry.

Today, the official percentage of Filipinos with Spanish ancestry is unknown. The Philippine Statistics Department does not account for the racial background or ancestry of an individual. The official population of all types of mestizos (Asian, American, Hispanic, etc.) that reside inside and outside of the Philippines remains unknown. Although a study provided by Stanford University^[83] claimed that around 3.6% of the population have White or Caucasian ancestries from both Spanish and American colonization, it only genotyped 28 individuals from the Philippines, a sample size far too small to draw conclusions on a population of over 90 million people.

In addition there are different estimates of this mixed descent, either by the parent side, it is calculated that some 3,500,000 to 5,000,000. In other cases it is also estimated with a proximity of 17,000,000 to 36,550,197 (15-39% of the Philippine population) people of Hispanic descent. But none of these estimates are supported by genetic studies.^[84]

• •  Indonesia (Indo people) - 14,000 people, mostly of mixed Indonesian and Dutch descent.^[85]
  •  Cambodia - approximately 16,000 people or 0.1% of the total population are Cambodian Eurasians, mainly of French ancestry from former French settlers.^[86]
  •  Pakistan (Anglo-Indian) (Anglo-Pakistani) - approximately 11,000 people or 0.005% of the total population are the descendents of former British settlers who intermarried with local populations.^[87]
  •  East Timor - approximately 1,100 people or 0.08% of the total population are Portuguese, descended from former Portuguese settlers.^[88]
  •  Laos - an unknown number of Eurasians with French ancestry who are the descendents of former French settlers reside in Laos.
  •  Christmas Island - approximately 13% of the total population are white, with a further 2% Eurasian, both are British Australian.^[89]
  •  Cocos (Keeling) Islands - 28.5% or one third of the total population are White, mostly British Australian.^[90]

Small communities of European and American expatriates live in East Asia, such as China, Japan, Korea and Thailand.

• The Middle East
  •  Lebanon (French Lebanese, Italian Lebanese, Greeks in Lebanon) - Small community of Europeans. (mainly from French, Italian, Greek and Americans from European origin) ^[91]

Small communities of European and American expatriates in the Persian Gulf countries like Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE; and in Aramco compounds in Saudi Arabia. Historically before 1970, small ethnic European (esp. Greek and Italian) enclaves were found in Egypt (Greeks in Egypt, Italian Egyptians) and Syria (Greeks in Syria).

Americas

Total European population in the Americas—approximately 446,394,000

Europeans in Northern America

• Northern America -- Total European population approximately 249,300,000
  •  Greenland - 12% of the population or about 7,000 people, however the Greenlandic people are of any Scandinavian (majority being Danes) or Inuit-Eskimo descent.^[92]
  •  Canada (Euro-Canadian) - 80% of the population, or 28,000,000 people, mostly divided into Anglophone (18 million) and Francophone (10 million).^[93]
  •  United States of America (European American) - 74% of the population, or 221,300,000 including Non-Hispanic Whites and White Hispanics.

Europeans in Latin America and the Caribbean

• Middle America (including Central America and the Caribbean) and South America (see White Latin American) -- Total European population approximately 197,094,000
  •  Argentina - 97% of the population or 38,913,000, may include a still unknown percentage of mestizos and mulattos.^[94]
  •  Bahamas (European Bahamian) - 12% of the population or 39,600, the majority are African or other races.^[95]
  •  Barbados (White Barbadian) - 4% of the population or 11,238, it's thought to be the highest of all British West Indies islands.^[96]
  •  Bermuda - 34.1% of the population or 23,064, with a black or part-white/black majority.^[97]
  •  Bolivia - 15% of the population or 1,636,000, the country except for Paraguay have the lowest white populations of South America.^[98]
  •  Brazil (White Brazilian) - 49.7% of the population or 93,000,000. Another 42.6% are pardos of mixed White, African and/or Amerindian descent (showed by genetic research to be of predominant European ancestry). Afro-Brazilians by genetical research showed to be of about 37.1% European ancestry (the majority inherited by colonial or Imperial times and of Portuguese origin). Some people of claimed Asian and Indigenous origin can also have European descent.^[99]
  •  Chile - 20% of population (4,500,000),^[14] or 30% of the population (5,128,000) is from European descent;^[15] Francisco Lizcano estimates whites Chilean in a cultural base (not ethnic) at 52.7% (9,100,000).^[5]
  •  Colombia - 86% of the population are (white Colombian) or part white (mestizo or mulatto).^[7][8]
  •  Costa Rica - up to 90% white and/or mestizo (European and Amerindian descent), or 3,827,000.^[100]
  •  Cuba - 64.1% of the population or 7,160,399^[101]
  •  Dominican Republic - 16% of the population or 1,655,959 is white and an additional 73% are mulatto or 7,555,311. In total, 89% of the Dominican population is either fully or partially of European ancestry.^[102]
  •  Ecuador - 6% of the population or 940,000, while 72% are mestizos.^[103]
  •  El Salvador - 9% of the population or 720,000, but the remainder 90% have some European ancestry.^[104]
  •  French Guiana - 12% of the population or 26,000, but the French government insists all citizens of France regardless of race are "French".^[105]
  •  Guatemala 18% of the population or 2,490,000 people.
  •  Haiti - 4% of the population in Haiti are white and mulatto (both African and European ancestry) and 1% European, or 97,000. White Haitians are chiefly of French, Italian, or German origin not including Middle Eastern & North American whites. This figure excludes the percentage of Haitians with less than noticeable European admixture.
  •  Jamaica - Approximately 2% of the population or 40,000 people are White, mainly British, American, and Portuguese (This number increases to 60,000 people and 3% of the total population when Arabs and Lebanese are included). However, the vast majority of the population in Jamaica have some degree of European Ancestry.^[106]
  •  Martinique - 2% of the population or 8,000, with another 3% mulatto descent.^[107]
  •  Mexico^[108] (White Mexican) - About 18% of the population European or about 20,160,000, and an additional 72% of mixed European and Amerindian descent ^{[109][110][111]}
  •  Nicaragua - 17% of the population or 1,000,000 people, and 70% mestizo.^[112]
  •  Panama 14.0% of the population is White of European origin or 352,000 people, 58.1% mestizo, 7% mulatto, 6.7% Amerindian, 5.5% Asian, and 7.1% other (2000 Census).
  •  Puerto Rico 75.8% of the population or 3,620,897 self identify as having European ancestry. 12.4% is of black or African-American ancestry and 8.5% are of other ancestry, including American Indian. 3.3% identify as mixed.^[113]
  •  Peru (European Peruvian) - 15% of the population or 3,425,000, about 40% mestizo or partial European descent.^[114]
  •  Trinidad and Tobago - 1.7% of European descent or 24,600, mainly British, Spanish, French, German, and Portuguese, with a number of Scandinavian descent, although 30-40% have East Indian or 5% are Lebanese/Syrian Arab backgrounds.^[115]
  •  Venezuela (white Venezuelan) - 42,2% of the population or 11,490,018, about 49,9% are part white (mestizo or partial European descent.) making it 92,1% of the population white and/or mestizo (European and Amerindian descent) or 25,076,755.^[116]
  •  Uruguay - 88% of the population or 3,074,000, the rest have various levels of European descent.^[117]
  •  Saint Barthélemy—90% or 7,940; Saint Martin (Statistics not available).^[118]
  •  Falkland Islands, 100% European of British descent—total population 3,140.

The Virgin Islands divided between U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands, each have a small European minority.

Oceania

• Oceania -- Total population of Europeans in Oceania is approximately 23,185,000 or approximately 22,818,000 excluding Hawaii.
  •  Australia (European Australian) - 93.2% of the population or 20,299,000 people. People of aboriginal extraction number about 548,400, of which approximately 60,000 can speak Australian languages or Kriol.^[119]
  •  New Zealand (New Zealand European) - 59.1% of the population or 2,361,000, plus some Māori of mixed white-European descent.
  •  New Caledonia (Caldoche) - 44.6% of the population or about 112,050; the territory is under French rule.
  •  French Polynesia - 10% of the population (mostly French with some white Americans) or 26,700, and 6 to 8% are Euronesian (part white-Polynesian).^[120]
  •  Hawaii - Europeans are 27.1% of the population (2008 survey) or 367,000 (called Haoles), although 65% of all Hawaiians have white-European descent.
  •  Guam - 10% of the population have Spanish and white American descent (2000 Census) or about 17,800 people. Guam has a history of Spanish settlement before 1900, now a U.S. territory.^[121]
  •  Norfolk Island, about 50% British-Polynesian from Pitcairn Island (1,070 people) and 50% white-British descent mainly via Australia (1,070 people).

Contemporary European diasporas

Potential emigrants

According to a 2010 Gallup study, an estimated 80 million adults in the European Union would prefer to emigrate if given free choice. About half of these would migrate to another country within the EU. The remaining 40 million have a desired destination outside of the EU, about 14 million would migrate to North America (USA or Canada), and 9 million to Australia or New Zealand.^[122]

See also

• Emigration from Africa
• History of colonialism
• Immigration to Europe
• Indigenous people
• Western world
• Western culture
• White people

References