[10][11][12][13][14] 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.

[15][16][17] 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.

[21] However, genetic studies have found that the vast majority of Hispanics in the US have varying amounts of European ancestry, with the largest component being Spanish or Iberian.

The 2000 US census states that racial categories "generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country.

It includes people who indicated their race(s) as "White" or reported entries such as German, Italian, Lebanese, Arab, Moroccan, or Caucasian.

Hispanic or Latino was again to be raised to racial status for the 2020 census (along with Middle Eastern and North African), but this was canceled by President Donald J.

In the early 20th century, there were a number of cases where people of Arab descent were denied entry into the United States or deported, because they were characterized as nonwhite.

However, in 2024, the Office of Management and Budget under the Biden administration reinstated the proposed changes, announcing 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, and Hispanic and Latino will also be treated similar to a racial, rather than ethnic, category.

"[40]In cases where individuals do not self-identify, the US census parameters for race give each national origin a racial value.

On some government documents, such as the 2007 SEER program's Coding and Staging Manual, people who reported Muslim (or a sect of Islam such as Shia or Sunni), Jewish, Zoroastrian, Caucasian, or a MENA or Latin American ethnicity as their race in the "Some other race" section, without noting a country of origin or Native American tribal affiliation, were automatically tallied as White.

For example, Benjamin Franklin commented that the Saxons of Germany and the English "make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth".

[52] Historically, many individuals of European descent were not readily integrated into mainstream American society and found themselves caught on the "dark" side of the white/black binary, including Irish, Italians, Greeks and Slavs.

[7][60][note 1] The largest ethnic groups (by ancestry) among White Americans were English or British, followed by Germans and Irish.

[62][63] In the 1980 census 49,598,035 Americans cited that they were of English ancestry, making them 26% of the country and the largest group at the time, and in fact larger than the population of England itself.

As of 2022, they are not the majority in Hawaii,[66] California,[67] Texas,[68] New Mexico,[69] Nevada,[70] and Maryland,[71] making up just under half of the population in the last four states.

However, when including multiracial Americans, those who identify as part or fully White make up the majority of the population in every state except for Hawaii,[73] along with Puerto Rico.

[74] Overall the highest concentration of those referred to as "non-Hispanic whites" by the Census Bureau are found in the Midwest, New England, the northern Rocky Mountain states, Kentucky, West Virginia, and East Tennessee.

Census Bureau data for 2005 reveals that the median income of White females was lower than that of males of all races.

[98][99][100] From their earliest presence in North America, White Americans have contributed literature, art, cinema, religion, agricultural skills, foods, science and technology, fashion and clothing styles, music, language, legal system, political system, and social and technological innovation to American culture.

Colonial ties to Great Britain spread the English language, legal system and other cultural attributes.

His thesis is that the culture of each group persisted (albeit in modified form), providing the basis for the modern United States.

[104] The next mass migration was of southern English Cavaliers and their working class British Isles servants to the Chesapeake Bay region between 1640 and 1675.

[106] Finally, a huge number of settlers from the borderlands between England and Scotland, sometimes by way of northern Ireland, migrated to Appalachia between 1717 and 1775.

[111] The same author, in another study, claimed that about 30% of all White Americans, approximately 66 million people, have a median of 2.3% of Black African admixture.

Frudacas, contradicted him two years later stating "Five percent of European Americans exhibit some detectable level of African ancestry.

However, this study only obtained its genetic data from people who took a paid ancestry test from 23andMe, and as such may not be fully representative of the general Hispanic population in the US.