White Americans

White Americans (sometimes also called Caucasian Americans although such usage has been criticized)^[3][4][5] are Americans who identify as white people. In a more official sense, the United States Census Bureau, which collects demographic data on Americans, defines "white" as "[a] person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa".^[6] Individuals within this group tend to have light skin tones and various hair colors, mainly brown or blonde and to a lesser extent black or red due to their primarily English and German origins, although Irish, Italian and White Hispanic origin are also prominent. White Americans have historically constituted the majority population in the United States, though their share has been gradually declining in recent decades. As of the latest American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2024, an estimated 59.8% of the U.S. population—approximately 203.3 million people—identify as White alone, while Non-Hispanic Whites account for 56.3% of the population, or roughly 191.4 million people.^[7] Overall, 72.1% of Americans identify as White either alone or in combination with one or more other racial groups.^[8] European Americans are by far the largest panethnic group of white Americans and have constituted the majority population of the United States since the nation's founding. Middle Eastern Americans constitute a much smaller demographic of white Americans, making up around 1.1% of the US population in 2020.^[9]

According to the 2020 census, 61.6% of Americans, or 204,277,273 people, identified as White alone.^[10] This represented a national decrease from a 72.4% white alone share of the US population in the 2010 census.^[11] The share of Americans identifying as White alone or in combination (including multiracial white people) was 71.0% in 2020, a smaller decline from 74.8% of the population in 2010. As opposed to the declines seen in the white alone population, the number of people identifying as part white (in combination with other races) saw a large increase, growing from 2.4% of the population in 2010, to 9.4% in 2020.^[12]

While the large decline in the white alone population observed between 2010 and 2020 has been partly attributed to natural trends, researchers have found that most of the sharp growth in the multiracial population, and commensurate decline in the white alone population, were due to changes in the methodology used by the Census Bureau, leading to a significant number of people who previously identified as white alone in 2010, mostly those identifying as White Hispanics, being reclassified as multiracial in 2020.^[13] In 2010, around 53% of Hispanics in the country identified as white alone, while in 2020, this number had declined to only 20.3% of Hispanics.^[12]

The US Census Bureau uses a particular definition of "white" that differs from some colloquial uses of the term.^[14][15] The Bureau defines "White" people to be those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa".^[16] Within official census definitions, people of all racial categories may be further divided into those who identify as "not Hispanic or Latino" and those who do identify as "Hispanic or Latino".^[17][14] The term "non-Hispanic white", rather than just "white", may be the census group corresponding most closely to those persons who identify as and are perceived to be white in common usage; similarly not all Hispanic/Latino people identify as "white", "black", or any other listed racial category.^[14][15] In 2015, the Census Bureau announced their intention to make Hispanic/Latino and Middle Eastern/North African racial categories similar to "white" or "black", with respondents able to choose one, two, or more racial categories; this change was canceled during the Trump administration.^[15][18] Other persons who are classified as "white" by the US census but may or may not identify as or be perceived as "white" include Arab Americans and Jewish Americans of European or MENA descent.^{[19][20][21][22][23]} In the United States, the term White people generally denotes a person of European ancestry, but has been legally extended to people of West Asian and North African (Middle Eastern, West Asian, and North African) ancestry.^[24][25][26] However, in 2024, the Office of Management and Budget announced that the race categories used by the federal government would be updated, and that Middle Eastern and North African Americans will no longer be classified as white in the upcoming 2030 Census.^[27]