Ethnic groups in Europe

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There are various ethnic groups in Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe.

Pan and Pfeil (2002) count 87 distinct "peoples of Europe", of which 33 form the majority population in at least one sovereign state, while the remaining 54 constitute ethnic minorities. The total number of national minority populations in Europe is estimated at 105 million people, or 14% of 770 million Europeans.^[1]

Further information: Demographics of Europe

There are eight peoples of Europe with more than 30 million members:

1. the Russians (ca. 90 million settling in the European parts of Russia),^[2]
2. the Germans (ca. 76 million),,^[3]
3. the French (ca. 63 million^[4])
4. the Italians (ca. 53 million)^[5]
5. the English (45 million^[6])
6. the Spanish (ca. 42 million),^[7]
7. the Ukrainians (ca. 41 million),
8. the Poles (ca. 38 million).

These eight groups between themselves account for some 460 million or about 63% of European population.

About 20-25 million residents (3%) 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.

Distribution of major languages of Europe.

Further information: Languages of Europe

Of the total population of Europe of some 730 million (as of 2005), over 80% or some 600 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 12 million each).

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

• Ashkenazi Jews (about 1.4 million, mostly German and Polish)
• Sephardi Jews (about 0.3 million, mostly French)
• Mizrahi Jews (about 0.3 million, mostly French)
• Italian Jews (some 50,000, mostly Italian)
• Romaniotes (some 6,000, mostly Greek)

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

• Azeris: approx. 7 million
• Armenians: approx. 4.5 million
• Georgians: approx. 4 million^[16]
• Chechens: over 2 million
• Abkhazians: est. 1 million
• Ossetians: approx. 600,000.

Pan and Pfeil (2002) distinguish 33 peoples which form the majority population in at least one^[17] sovereign state geographically situated in Europe.^[18] These majorities range from nearly homogenous populations as in Poland or Albania to comparatively slight majorities as in Latvia or Belgium. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro are multiethnic states in which no group forms a majority.

Further information: Prehistoric Europe, Eurasian nomads, and Indo-European expansion

The Basques are assumed to descend from the populations of the Atlantic Bronze Age directly.^{[citation needed]} The Indo-European groups of Europe (the Centum groups plus Balto-Slavic and Albanian) are assumed to have developed in situ by admixture of early Indo-European groups arriving in Europe by the Bronze Age (Corded ware, Beaker people). The Finnic peoples are indigenous to northeastern Europe.^{[citation needed]}

Reconstructed languages of Iron Age Europe include Proto-Celtic, Proto-Italic and Proto-Germanic, all of these Indo-European languages of the centum group, and Proto-Slavic and Proto-Baltic, of the satem group. A group of Tyrrhenian languages appears to have included Etruscan, Rhaetian and perhaps also Eteocretan and Eteocypriot. A pre-Roman stage of Proto-Basque can only be reconstructed with great uncertainty.

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.

Further information: History of Europe

Provinces of the Roman Empire in AD 117.

Iron Age (pre-Great Migrations) populations of Europe known from Greco-Roman historiography, notably Herodotus, Pliny, Ptolemy and Tacitus:

• Aegean: Greek tribes, Pelasgians/Tyrrhenians and Anatolians.
• Balkans: Illyrians (list of Illyrian tribes), Dacians and Thracians.
• Italian peninsula: Italic peoples, Etruscans, Adriatic Veneti, Ligurians and Phoenician colonies.
• Western/Central Europe: Celts (list of peoples of Gaul), Rhaetians and Swabians.
• Iberian peninsula: Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula (Iberians, Lusitani, Aquitani, Celtiberians) and Basques.
• British Isles: Celtic tribes in Britain and Ireland and Picts/Priteni.
• Northern Europe: Germanic peoples (list of Germanic peoples).
• Southern Europe: Sicani.
• Eastern Europe: Scythians, Sarmatians, Vistula Veneti, Lugii and Balts.

Further information: Scythians, Huns, Turkic expansion, and Islamic conquests

The Great Migrations of Late Antiquity.

Map showing the three main political divisions around 800: The Carolingian Empire (purple), the Byzantine Empire (orange) and the Caliphate of Córdoba (light green). (Borders are approximate.)

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

• Phoenician colonies in the Mediterranean, from about 1200 BC to the fall of Carthage after the Third Punic War in 146 BC.
• Iranian influence: Achaemenid control of Thrace (512-343 BC) and the Bosporan Kingdom, Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Ossetes.
• the Jewish diaspora reached Europe in the Roman Empire period, the Jewish community in Italy dating to before AD 70 and records of Jews settling Central Europe (Gaul) from the 5th century (see History of the Jews in Europe).^[23]
• The Hunnic Empire (5th century), converged with the Barbarian invasions, contributing to the formation of the First Bulgarian Empire
• Avar Khaganate (c.560s-800), converged with the Slavic migrations, fused into the South Slavic states from the 9th century.
• the Bulgars (or proto-Bulgarians), a semi-nomadic people, originally from Central Asia, eventually absorbed by the Slavs.
• the Magyars (Hungarians), an Ugric people, and the Turkic Pechenegs and Khazars, arrived in Europe in about the 8th century.
• the Arabs conquered Cyprus, Crete, Sicily, southern Italy, Malta, Sardinia, and Hispania. Emirate of Sicily (831-1072) and Al-Andalus (711-1492)
• the Berber dynasties of the Almoravides and the Almohads ruled much of Spain and Portugal.^[24] Berber settlers made up as much as 20% of the population of Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain).^[25]
• exodus of Maghreb Christians^[26]
• the western Kipchaks known as Cumans entered the lands of present-day Ukraine in the 11th century.
• the Mongol/Tatar invasions (1223-1480), and Ottoman control of the Balkans (1389-1878). These medieval incursions account for the presence of European Turks and Tatars.
• the Romani people (Gypsies) arrived during the Late Middle Ages
• the Mongol Kalmyks arrived in Kalmykia in the 17th century.

Europa Polyglotta, Linguarum Genealogiam exhibens, una cum Literis, Scribendique modis, Omnium Gentium ("multilingual Europe, exhibiting a genealogy of tongues together with the letters and modes of writing of all peoples")

Ethnographic map of Europe, The Times Atlas (1896)

The earliest accounts of European ethnography date to Classical Antiquity. Herodotus described the Scythians and Thraco-Illyrians. Dicaearchus gave a description of Greece itself besides accounts of western and northern Europe. His work survives only fragmentarily, but was received by Polybius and others. Roman Empire period authors include Diodorus Siculus, Strabo and Tacitus. Julius Caesar gives an account of the Celtic tribes of Gaul, while Tacitus describes the Germanic tribes of Magna Germania. The 4th century Tabula Peutingeriana records the names of numerous peoples and tribes. Ethnographers of Late Antiquity such as Agathias of Myrina Ammianus Marcellinus, Jordanes or Theophylact Simocatta give early accounts of the Slavs, the Franks, the Alamanni and the Goths.

Book IX of Isidore's Etymologiae (7th century) treats de linguis, gentibus, regnis, militia, civibus (of languages, peoples, realms, armies and cities". Ahmad ibn Fadlan in the 10th century gives an account of the peoples of Eastern Europe, in particular the Bolghar and the Rus'. William Rubruck, while most notable for his account of the Mongols, in his account of his journey to Asia also gives accounts of the Tatars and the Alans. Saxo Grammaticus and Adam of Bremen give an account of pre-Christian Scandinavia. The Chronicon Slavorum (12th century) gives an account of the northwestern Slavic tribes.

Gottfried Hensel in his 1741 Synopsis universae philologiae published what is probably the earliest ethno-linguistic map of Europe, showing the beginning of the pater noster in the various European languages and scripts.^[27][28] In the 19th century, ethnicity was discussed in terms of scientific racism, and the ethnic groups of Europe were grouped into a number of "races", Mediterranean, Alpine and Nordic, all part of a larger "Caucasian" group. The beginnings of ethnic geography as an academic subdiscipline lie in the period following World War I, in the context of nationalism, and in the 1930s exploitation for the purposes of fascist and Nazi propaganda so that it was only in the 1960s that ethnic geography began to thrive as a bona fide academic subdiscipline.^[29] The origins of modern ethnography are often traced to the work of Bronisław Malinowski who emphasized the importance of fieldwork.^[30] The emergence of population genetics further undermined the categorisation of Europeans into clearly defined racial groups. A 2007 study on the genetic history of Europe found that the most important genetic differentiation in Europe occurs on a line from the north to the south-east (northern Europe to the Balkans), with another east-west axis of differentiation across Europe, separating the "indigenous" Basques and Sami from other European populations. Despite these stratifications it noted the 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."^[31][32][33]

Further information: Definitions and identity of indigenous peoples

A Sami family in northern Scandinavia around 1900

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:^[34]

• the northern indigenous peoples of Russia, marginalized by Russian expansion, mostly Finno-Ugric peoples such as the Komi and Mordvins of the western Urals, and Samoyedic peoples of the northern Russian Federation such as the Nenets.
• the Sami and the Kvens of northern Scandinavia (marginalized by Finnish and North Germanic expansion), formerly known as "Lapps" or "Lappish".
• the Basque people of northern Spain and southern France (marginalized by Latin/Western Romance expansion).

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Personifications of Sclavinia, Germania, Gallia, and Roma, bringing offerings to Otto III; from a gospel book dated 990.

Main articles: European culture, Western world, Christendom, and Pan-European identity

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 has had a very broad influence on the rest of the world, basically due to the widespread practice and legacy of colonialism. The exchange has not all been one way, some European features have been drastically changed by imports from elsewhere. Popular European foods such as chips (frites or French fries) and rice are derived from products that are not European, but indigenous to South America and Southern Asia respectively. Nearly all of the Americas and all of Africa were European colonies at one time or another - though in earlier times, European nations often colonized each other. Or were even colonized by Non-Europeans - Arabs and North African Moors colonized the Iberian peninsula leaving, for example, 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 descended from European emigrants (in some cases fleeing harsh economic times or religious intolerance). 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. 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.

Predominant religions in Europe      Roman Catholicism      Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy      Protestantism      Sunni Islam      Shia Islam