 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
 United States | 271,528,353 (2019) [1] |
 Canada | 22,162,865 (2016) [2] |
| Languages | |
| English | |
Anglo-Americans are a demographic group in Anglo-America. It typically refers to the predominantly European-descent nations and ethnic groups in the Americas that speak English as a native language, making up the majority of people in the world who speak English as a first language.
The term is ambiguous and used in several different ways. While it is primarily used to refer to people of English ancestry, it (along with terms like Anglo , Anglic, Anglophone , and Anglophonic) is also used to denote all people of British or Northwestern European ancestry, such as Northwestern European Americans. [3] It can include all people of Northwestern European ethnic origin who speak English as a mother tongue and their descendants in the New World. [4] [5]
The term implies a relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom (specifically England), or the two countries' shared language, English, and/or cultural heritage. In this context the term may refer to an English American, a person from the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England, a person from the United States who speaks English as their first language (see American English), a collective term referring to those countries that have similar legal systems based on common law, relations between the United Kingdom and United States, or Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, a national cataloging code. [4] [5]
The term is also used, less frequently, to denote a connection between English people (or the English language) and the Western Hemisphere as a whole. In this context, the term can mean a person from the Americas whose ancestry originates from any English speaking country (see British diaspora) or a person from the Americas who has an English name and speaks English as their first language (see English-speaking world and Languages of the Americas), or a person from Anglo-America.
The term Anglo-American defined as including English-speaking countries around the world with similar values and demographics, including the United States, Canada (except Quebec and Inuit and Nunangat), Jamaica, Belize, Bahamas, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Sains Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenandines, and Trinidad and Tobago. [6]
The adjective Anglo-American is used in the following ways:
The meaning of the word American in the English language varies according to the historical, geographical, and political context in which it is used. American is derived from America, a term originally denoting all of the Americas, ultimately derived from the name of the Florentine explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci (1451–1512). In some expressions, it retains this Pan-American sense, but its usage has evolved over time and, for various historical reasons, the word came to denote people or things specifically from the United States of America.
The masculine term Latino, along with its feminine form Latina, is a noun and adjective, often used in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, that most commonly refers to United States inhabitants who have cultural ties to Latin America.
The term Hispanic refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad broadly. In some contexts, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an ethnic or meta-ethnic term.
Creole peoples may refer to different ethnic groups around the world. The term has been used with various meanings, often conflicting or varying from region to region.
Mestizo is a person of mixed European and Indigenous non-European ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturally European even though their ancestors are Indigenous. The term was used as an ethno-racial exonym for mixed-race castas that evolved during the Spanish Empire. It was a formal label for individuals in official documents, such as censuses, parish registers, Inquisition trials, and others. Priests and royal officials might have classified persons as mestizos, but individuals also used the term in self-identification.
Gringo (masculine) or gringa (feminine) is a term in Spanish and Portuguese for a foreigner, usually an English-speaking Anglo-American. There are differences in meaning depending on region and country. In Latin America, it is generally used to refer to non-Latin Americans. The term is often considered a pejorative, but is not always used to insult, and in the United States its usage and offensiveness is disputed.
The terms multiracial people or mixed-race people refer to people who are of more than one race and the terms multi-ethnic people or ethnically mixed people refer to people who are of more than one ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed-race people in a variety of contexts, including multiethnic, polyethnic, occasionally bi-ethnic, Métis, Muwallad, Coloured, Dougla, half-caste, ʻafakasi, mestizo, mutt, Melungeon, quadroon, octoroon, sambo/zambo, Eurasian, hapa, hāfu, Garifuna, pardo, and Gurans. A number of these terms are now considered offensive, in addition to those that were initially coined for pejorative use. "Melezi" are called the offspring of Muslim Romani men and woman of host populations.
Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term Anglosphere. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British descent in Anglo-America, the Anglophone Caribbean, South Africa, Namibia, Australia, and New Zealand. It is used in Canada to differentiate between French speaking Canadians (Francophones), located mainly in Quebec but found across Canada, and English speaking Canadians (Anglophones), also located across Canada, including in Quebec. It is also used in the United States to distinguish the Latino population from the non-Latino white majority.
Colored is a racial descriptor historically used in the United States during the Jim Crow Era to refer to an African American. In many places, it may be considered a slur, though it has taken on a special meaning in Southern Africa referring to a person of mixed or Cape Coloured heritage.
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.
Anglo-Celtic people are descended primarily from English and Irish, Scottish or Welsh people. The concept is mainly relevant outside of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales particularly in Australia, but is also used in Canada, the United States, New Zealand and South Africa, where a significant diaspora is located.
Hispanophone refers to anything related to the Spanish language.
Spic is an ethnic slur used in the United States to describe Hispanic and Latino Americans, or Spanish-speaking people from Latin America.
The Native American name controversy is an ongoing discussion about the changing terminology used by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas to describe themselves, as well as how they prefer to be referred to by others. Preferred terms vary primarily by region and age. As Indigenous peoples and communities are diverse, there is no consensus on naming.
People from the United States of America are known as and refer to themselves as Americans. Different languages use different terms for citizens of the United States. All forms of English refer to US citizens as Americans, a term deriving from the United States of America, the country's official name. In the English context, it came to refer to inhabitants of British America, and then the United States. There is some linguistic ambiguity over this use due to the other senses of the word American, which can also refer to people from the Americas in general. Other languages, including French, Japanese, and Russian, use cognates of American to refer to people from the United States, while others, particularly Spanish and Portuguese, primarily use terms derived from United States or North America. There are various other local and colloquial names for Americans. The name America came from the Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.
Black Dutch is a term with several different meanings in United States dialect and slang. It generally refers to racial, ethnic or cultural roots. Its meaning varies and such differences are contingent upon time and place. Several varied groups of multiracial people have sometimes been referred to as or identified as Black Dutch, most often as a reference to their ancestors.
Hispanic and Latino are ethnonyms used to refer collectively to the inhabitants of the United States who are of Spanish or Latin American ancestry. While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, for example, by the United States Census Bureau, Hispanic includes people with ancestry from Spain and Latin American Spanish-speaking countries, while Latino includes people from Latin American countries that were formerly colonized by Spain and Portugal.
Non-Hispanic Whites, Non-Latino Whites, or more simply White Americans, are Americans classified by the United States census as "white" and not Hispanic. According to the United States Census Bureau yearly estimates, as of July 1, 2022, Non-Hispanic whites make up about 59.3% of the U.S. population, or 197,639,521 people. The United States Census Bureau defines white to include European Americans, Middle Eastern Americans, and North African Americans. Americans of European ancestry are divided into various ethnic groups. More than half of the white population are German, Irish, English, French and Polish Americans. Many Americans are also the product of other European groups that migrated to parts of the US in the 19th and 20th centuries, as the bulk of immigrants from various countries in Northern, Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as the Caucasus region, migrated to the United States.
Note: The number refers to those who speak English alone consisting of 264,200,071 native born and 7,328,282 foreign born Americans
Usage Note: In contemporary American usage, Anglo is used primarily in direct contrast to Hispanic or Latino. In this context it is not limited to persons of English or even British descent, but can be generally applied to any non-Hispanic white person, making mother tongue (in this case English) the primary factor. Thus in parts of the United States such as the Southwest United States with large Hispanic populations, an American of Polish, Irish, or German heritage might be termed an Anglo just as readily as a person of English descent. However, in parts of the country where the Hispanic community is smaller or nonexistent, or in areas where ethnic distinctions among European groups remain strong, Anglo has little currency as a catch-all term for non-Hispanic whites. Anglo is also used in non-Hispanic contexts. In Canada, where its usage dates at least to 1800, the distinction is between persons of English and French descent. And in American historical contexts Anglo is apt to be used more strictly to refer to persons of English heritage, as in this passage describing the politics of nation-building in pre-Revolutionary America: "The 'unity' of the American people derived ... from the ability and willingness of an Anglo elite to stamp its image on other peoples coming to this country" (Benjamin Schwarz).