More than half of the white population are German, Irish, English, Italian, French and Polish Americans.

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, Belgians, 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.

There has also been periodic massive immigration from European and West Asian countries, especially Germany, Ireland, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, France, as well as Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, the countries that were a part of the former Ottoman Empire (Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria), Portugal, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Ukraine, Armenia, and Iran.

Significant migration of Jews of European, North African, and Middle Eastern descent into the United States is also notable.

[8][9][10] The first Europeans who came to present United States or Canada were Norse explorers around the year 1000;[11] however, they were ultimately absorbed or killed off, leaving no permanent settlements behind.

[16] The white population was largely of English, Irish, Scots-Irish, Scottish, German, Dutch and French Huguenot descent at the time.

Some Americans worried about the growing Catholic population and wanted to maintain the United States as an Anglo Saxon Protestant nation.

[22][23] Over the course of the 19th century, European mass emigration to the United States and high birthrates grew the white population.

[32] In 1980, non-Hispanic whites made up about 80 percent of the U.S. population, but that number has declined sharply in recent years.

[33] White Americans have developed their own music, art, cuisine, fashion, and political economy largely based on a combination of traditional European ones.

[34][35] Today, the majority of White Americans are Protestants, although there are also large groups of Catholics and Jews throughout the population.

[39] The reason for falling percentage of non-Latino/Hispanic white Americans in the last century is due to multiple factors: 1.

The United States has the largest number of immigrants in the world, with the vast majority coming from countries where the population is of non-White and/or Latin American origin.

[45] The United States does receive a small number of non-Latino White immigrants, mainly from countries such as Canada, Poland, Russia, and the UK.

Other combinations consists of pairings between different minority groups, multi-racial people, and Native Indigenous Americans.

There was strong opposition to this from some civil rights activists who feared that this would reduce the size of various racial minorities.

According to an analysis released in 2023 by William H. Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, only 47 percent of American children are non-Hispanic white.