European ethnic groups

Languages of Europe:
                         North Germanic                     West Germanic                     Celtic
                         Western Romance     Italian+Southern      Eastern Romance      Basque
                         East Slavic                     West Slavic                South Slavic           Baltic
     Greek      Albanian      Armenian      Iranian
               Finno-Permic      Hungarian      Ob-Ugric
     Caucasian      Turkic      Kalmyk      Arabic+Maltese      Berber

Of the total population of Europe of some 730 million (as of 2005), some 85% or 630 million fall within three large ethno-linguistic super-groups, viz., Slavic, Latin (Romance) and Germanic. The largest groups that do not fall within either of these are the Greeks and the Hungarians (about thirteen million each). About 20-25 million residents are members of diasporas of non-European origin. The population of the European Union, with some five hundred million residents, accounts for two thirds of the European population.

The largest ethnic groups of Europe are the Russians (with some 90 million settling in the European parts of Russia), followed by the Germans (76 million), Italians (58 million), French (49 million^[1]), English (45 million), Spanish (42 million), Poles (42 million) and the Ukrainians (41 million).

Inasmuch as ethnic Jews are considered a separate ethnicity, Europe has a population of about 2 million ethnic Jews (mostly also counted as part of the ethnic group of their respective home countries):

Depending on what parts of the Caucasus are considered part of Europe, various peoples of the Caucasus may also be considered "European peoples":

Indigeneity

Prehistoric populations

Regarding the European Bronze Age, the only secure reconstruction is that of Proto-Greek (ca. 2000 BC). A Proto-Italo-Celtic ancestor of both Italic and Celtic (assumed for the Bell beaker period), and a Proto-Balto-Slavic language (assumed for roughly the Corded Ware horizon) has been postulated with less confidence. Old European hydronymy has been taken as indicating an early (Bronze Age) Indo-European predecessor of the later centum languages.

Historical populations

Historical immigration

Ethno-linguistic groups that arrived from outside Europe during historical times are:

Indigenous minorities

In a more narrow sense of "indigenous peoples", ethnic minorities marginalized by historical expansion of their neighbour populations, Europe's present-day indigenous populations are relatively few, mainly confined to northern and far-eastern reaches of this Eurasian peninsula. Whilst there are numerous ethnic minorities distributed within European countries, few of these still maintain traditional subsistence cultures and are recognized as indigenous peoples, per se. The following groups can be considered "indigenous peoples" of Europe in this narrow sense:^[9]

Physical appearance and genetic origins

Over the prehistoric period there was continual immigration to Europe, notably with the neolithic revolution.^[13]

The vast majority of Europe’s inhabitants are of the European (or Caucasoid) geographic race, characterized by white or lightly pigmented skins and variability in eye and hair colour and by a number of biochemical similarities. ^[14].

Genetically, the main substructure within European populations is between the Atlantic ("Basque"), the Balkans ("Near East") and the Northern ("Finnic") poles. The main components in the European genomes appear to derive from ancestors whose features were similar to those of modern Basques and Near Easterners. The lowest degree of either Basque or Near Eastern admixture is found in Finland, whereas the highest values are, respectively, 70% ("Basque") in Spain and more than 60% ("Near Eastern") in the Balkans.[8][9]

A 2007 study using samples exclusively from Europe found an unusually high degree of European homogeneity: "there is low apparent diversity in Europe with the entire continent-wide samples only marginally more dispersed than single population samples elsewhere in the world." The main component of genetic differentiation in Europe was found to occur on a line from the north to the south-east (northern Europe to the Balkans), ^[15] with another east-west axis of differentiation across Europe.^[16]

Haplogroups

There are three major Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups which largely account for most of Europe's present-day population^[17]^[18]. Such haplogroups indicate that individuals share one male ancestor (they do not mean that individuals do not share ancestors with individuals with other haplogroups, only that such ancestry cannot be traced using currently available methods).

European identity and culture

The culture of Europe might better be described as a series of overlapping cultures. Whether it is a question of West as opposed to East; Christianity as opposed to Islam; many have claimed to identify cultural fault lines across the continent.

European culture also has a broad influence beyond the continent of Europe due to the legacy of colonialism. European culture has been significantly influenced by cultures from overseas. For example popular European foods made from, Irish potatoes or French fries are derived from products that aren't actually European, but are indigenous to South America. Nearly all of the Americas and all of Africa were European colonies at one time or another. However, in previous times, many European nations were colonies of other European nations or even Non-Europeans. For example, North African Moors did colonize the Iberian peninsula leaving a significant Arabic influence on the Spanish language.

Various parts of the Americas are also considered overseas territories of France which are considered integral parts of the French Republic. A large proportion of the population of the Americas are descendants of European immigrants who left harsh economic times and oppressive regimes in Europe in search of a better a life. As a consequence most people in the Americas speak languages that are to varying degrees, derived from European languages. These include Latin American Spanish, American English, Caribbean English, Brazilian Portuguese, Haitian Kreyol and Papiamento. In addition, there are still significant cultural, economic and political ties between the former European colonial nations (Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium and France) and the former colonies around the world.

Pan-European identity refers to both the sense of personal identification with Europe, and to the identity possessed by 'Europe' as a whole. 'Europe' is widely used as a synonym for the European Union even though there are millions of people living on the European continent in non-EU states. The prefix pan implies that the identity applies throughout Europe, and especially in an EU context, 'pan-European' is often contrasted with national.

Religion

Since the High Middle Ages, most of Europe has been dominated by Christianity. There are three major denominations, Roman Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox, with Protestantism restricted mostly to Germanic regions, and Orthodoxy to Slavic regions, Greece and Georgia. Catholicism, while centered in the Latin parts, has a significant following also in Germanic, Slavic and Celtic regions.

Judaism has a long history in Europe, but is a small minority religion, with France (1%) the only European country with a Jewish population in excess of 0.5%. The Jewish population of Europe is comprised primarily of two groups, the Ashkenazi and the Sephardi. Ashkenazi Jews migrated to Europe as early as the 8th century, while Sephardi Jews established themselves in Spain and Portugal at least one thousand years before that. Jewish European history was notably affected by the Holocaust and resulting emigration in the 20th century.

In modern times, significant secularization has taken place, notably in laicist France in the 19th century and in Communist Eastern Europe in the 20th century. Currently, distribution of theism in Europe is very heterogeneous, with more than 95% in Poland, and less than 20% in the Czech Republic. On average, the 2005 Eurobarometer poll^[21] found that 52% of the citizens of EU member state that they believe in God.

Immigration

Populations of non-European origin in Europe (approx. 25 - 30+ million, or approx. 3% to 4% [depending on definition of non-European origin], out of a total population of approx. 730 million):

European diasporas

Nations and regions outside of Europe with significant populations of European ancestry ^[25]:

Historical

Contemporary

References

^ Recensement officiel de l'Insee [1]
^ CIA - The World Factbook - Switzerland
^ CIA factbook. Turkey is a transcontinentalc country, with 80% of its population Turkish and 20% Kurdish.
^ CIA factbook Statistics for Germany.
^ Turkish Statistical Institute
^ As a transcontinental country, Georgia may be considered to be in Asia and/or Europe. The UN classification of world regions places Georgia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook [2], National Geographic, and Encyclopædia Britannica also place Georgia in Asia. Conversely, numerous sources place Georgia in Europe such as the BBC [3], Oxford Reference Online [4], Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, and www.worldatlas.com.
^ My Jewish Learning - European Origins
^ The Last Christians Of North-West Africa
^ see also Definitions and identity of indigenous peoples.
^ Georgian Homo Erectus Published by Angela M.H. Schuster. Archaeology May 2000
^ The million year old tooth from Atapuerca, Spain, found in June 2007
^ The Genographic Project, National Geographic
^ Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "Europe : The people".
^ Europe, Encyclopædia Britannica Online
^ In 2006, an autosomal analysis comparing samples from various European populations concluded that “there is a consistent and reproducible distinction between ‘northern’ and ‘southern’ European population groups”. [5]
^ Measuring European Population Stratification using Microarray Genotype Data [6]
^ DNA Heritage [7]
^ Semino et al (2000),The Genetic Legacy of Paleolithic Homo sapiens sapiens in Extant Europeans, Science Vol 290. Note: Haplogroup names are different in this article. For ex: Haplogroup I is referred as M170
^ mtDNA (Mitochondria) Tests Interpretation
^ description of paper entitled Disuniting Uniformity: A Pied Cladistic Canvas of mtDNA haplogroup H in Eurasia
^ ReportDGResearchSocialValuesEN2.PDF

Contents

Ethnic groups of Europe