Европейские американцы: история и современное состояние

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European Americans, or Americans of European descent, are descendants of European settlers and immigrants. 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 are now the United States. The Spaniards are thought to have been the first Europeans to establish a continuous presence in what is now the contiguous United States, with Martín de Argüelles (b. (born) 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 English 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, English Americans (46.5 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. However, the number of people with British ancestry is considered to be significantly under counted, as many people in that demographic tend to identify themselves simply as Americans (20,151,829 or 7.2%). The same applies to Americans of Spanish ancestry, as many people in that demographic tend to identify themselves as Hispanic and Latino Americans (58,846,134 or 16.6%), even though they carry a mean of 65.1% European genetic ancestry, mainly from Spain. An increasing number of people ignored the ancestry 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".

Number of European Americans From 1800 To 2010 Year Population % of the United States Ref(s) (Reference(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%

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 many places around the United States. However, the terms Caucasian and White are racial terms, not geographic, and include some populations whose origin is outside of Europe; and Anglo American also has another definition, meaning Americans with English ancestry.

The term is used by some to emphasize this demographic's European cultural and geographical as well as ancestral origins, parallelling terms such as African Americans and Asian Americans. 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.

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". The years 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 been in decline 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.

The data below give numbers of European Americans as measured by the U. S. Census in 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2020. The numbers are measured according to declarations in census responses. This leads to uncertainty over the real meaning of the figures: For instance, as can be seen, according to these figures, the European American population dropped 40 million in ten years, but in fact, is a reflection of changing census responses. In particular, it reflects the increased popularity of the "American" option following its inclusion as an example in the 1990 and 2000 census forms. 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". In particular, a large majority of European Americans have ancestry from a number of different countries and the response to a single "ancestry" gives little indication of the backgrounds of Americans today. When only prompted for a single response, the examples given on the census forms and a pride in identifying the more distinctive parts of one's heritage are important factors; these will likely adversely affect the numbers reporting ancestries from the British Isles. Multiple response ancestry data often greatly increase the numbers reporting for the main ancestry groups, although Farley goes as far to conclude that "no simple question will distinguish those who identify strongly with a specific European group from those who report symbolic or imagined ethnicity." He highlights responses in the Current Population Survey (1973) where for the main "old" ancestry groups (e. g., German, Irish, English, and French), over 40% change their reported ancestry over the six month period between survey waves (page 422). The largest self reported ancestries in 2000, reporting over 5 million members, were in order: German, Irish, English, American, Italian, French, and Polish. They have different distributions within the United States; in general, the northern half of the United States from Pennsylvania westward is dominated by German ancestry, and the southern half by English and American. Irish may be found throughout the entire country. Italian ancestry is most common in the Northeast, Polish in the Great Lakes Region and the Northeast, and French in New England and Louisiana. U. S. Census Bureau statisticians estimate that approximately 62 percent of European Americans today are either wholly or partly of English, Welsh, Irish, or Scottish ancestry. Approximately 86% of European Americans today are of Central and Northwestern European ancestry, and 14% are of Eastern European, Southern European, Southeastern European, and Euro Latino descent.

Apple pie – New England was the first region to experience large scale English colonization in the early 17th century, beginning in 1620, and it was dominated by East Anglian Calvinists, better known as the Puritans. Baking was a particular favorite of the New Englanders and was the origin of dishes seen today as quintessentially "American", such as apple pie and the oven roasted Thanksgiving turkey, a bird that although not found in Europe has become linked in tradition and symbolism to the early European immigrants. "As American as apple pie" is a well known phrase used to suggest that something is all American. Hamburger – Although the origins of the hamburger, including the country in which it was first served, are subjects of debate, the hamburger first became widely marketed in the United States and has been internationally known for decades as a symbol of American fast food. Maxwell Street Polish Hot Dog – Consists of a grilled or fried length of Polish sausage topped with grilled onions and yellow mustard and optional pickled whole, green sport peppers, served on a bun. The sandwich traces its origins to Chicago's Maxwell Street market, and has been called one of "the classic foods synonymous with Chicago". Buffalo wings – Invented in 1964 at Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York by Italian American Teressa Bellissimo. Now popular all over the country, it has become a symbol of American cuisine. Hot dog – Hot dogs were brought to New York by German immigrants. Pizza – Italian immigrants from Naples brought pizza to the United States. Fried chicken – Scottish immigrants brought fried chicken to the Southern United States. Enslaved African Americans began cooking fried chicken based on the recipes from white Scottish slaveholders.

Thanksgiving – In the United States, it has become a national secular holiday (official since 1863) with religious origins. The first Thanksgiving was celebrated by English settlers to give thanks to God and the Native Americans for helping the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony survive the brutal winter. The modern Thanksgiving holiday traces its origins from a 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, where the Plymouth settlers held a harvest feast with the Native Americans after a successful growing season. William Bradford is credited as the first to proclaim the American cultural event which is generally referred to as the "First Thanksgiving".

Baseball – The earliest recorded game of base ball involved the family of the Prince of Wales, played indoors in London in November 1748. The Prince is reported as playing "Bass Ball" again in September 1749 in Walton on Thames, Surrey, against Lord Middlesex. English lawyer William Bray recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford, Surrey; Bray's diary was verified as authentic in September 2008. This early form of the game was apparently brought to North America by English immigrants. The first appearance of the term that exists in print was in "A Little Pretty Pocket Book" in 1744, where it is called Base Ball. American football – can be traced to modified early versions of rugby football played in England and Canadian football mixed with and ultimately changed by American innovations which led over time to the finished version of the game from 1876 to now. The basic set of rules were first developed in American universities in the mid 19th century. Golf Golf originated from Scotland in the 15th century, the first course in Scotland being St Andrews. The first golf course in America was founded by a Scot John Reid in 1888, and was named after the first Scottish golf club Saint Andrew's Golf Club located in Yonkers, New York, from here golf soared as a national hobby, and by the turn of the 20th Century there was more than 1,000 golf courses in North America.