Total population | |
---|---|
22.05 million (41.2%) white alone (2020 census [1] ) | |
Languages | |
California English, European languages, Arabic, Persian, Armenian, others | |
Religion | |
Christianity, Judaism, Irreligion, Islam [2] |
White Californians are White Americans living in California who currently comprise 41.2% of the state's population according to the official 2020 census. [3]
As of 2015, California has the third-largest minority population in the United States. [4] Non-Hispanic whites decreased from about 76.3–78% of the state's population in 1970 [5] to 36.5% in 2019. [6] It was estimated in 2015 that Hispanic and Latino Americans became more numerous than non-Hispanic White Americans for the first time. [4] Since 2000 U.S. census, California has been known as the second state in U.S. history (after Hawaii since its statehood in 1959) to have a non-white majority. Most people who identify as white in California say their heritage is Mexican, German, Irish, English, Italian, French, Spanish, Scottish, Polish, Salvadoran, Swedish, Portuguese, Dutch, Armenian, or British. There is also sizable Iranian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Greek, Hungarian, Austrian, Danish, Lithuanian, Finnish, Lebanese, Ukrainian, white Australian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovak, and Albanian populations in California. [7] [8] Most European immigrants in California came from Ireland, Germany, and England, with a smaller number who came from France and Italy. [9]
According to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau, 9.8% of White Californians were German, 7.8% Irish, 6.9% English and 4.3% were Italian. [10]
The first White people to come to the modern-day State of California were the Spanish people. The area that became California was a part of the Spanish Empire, and after 1821, part of Mexico. [11] While under Spanish and Mexican rule, California's population was a diverse mix of people with White, Mestizo, African and Indigenous ancestry, with Native people being the largest population. [12] By 1846, more White Americans had begun to enter California from other parts of the United States, making up 10% of the non-Native population. [13]
The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. [14] In 1848, there were 7,000 persons of Mexican and Spanish descent, 700 Americans, 200 Europeans, and 110,000 Native Americans. [15] The news of gold brought some 300,000 people throughout the Gold Rush to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. [16] Two-thirds of these new arrivals were Americans, mostly from the Atlantic Seaboard. [13] In 1850, a year after California's admission to the United States, the first state census showed California's entire non-Native population at 92,597. [15] [13]
While Northern California became predominantly white by the mid-19th century, Southern California remained mainly Mexican until the first major waves of white immigrants began to arrive in the 1880s after the Southern Pacific railroad reach Los Angeles. [17] Between 1880 and 1920, Southern California’s population grew from 64,000 to 1.3 million, which included an influx of white health-seekers, real estate investors, and Midwestern farmers. [17] As Southern California in the late nineteenth century was promoted as a “semi-tropical” paradise ideal for health and agriculture, these groups of immigrants, many of whom were middle-to-upper-class Americans, moved into the region via the newly built railroads connecting Southern California to the rest of the United States. [17] [18] A 1913 census shows that white Americans composed 95% of California’s population. [19] Other sources note that by 1910, 96% of the population of Los Angeles was white. [20] Although this is probably an overestimation due to flaws in statistical methods, it shows the significant white predominance in California by the early 20th century.
In the 1930s, about 350,000 mostly White migrants, known as Okies, came to California from the rural Great Plains states and the surrounding area. Their descendants may make up as much as one eighth of California's population, particularly in the Central Valley and rural areas. [21]
As a result of new arrivals from the American Midwest and continued immigration to the United States from other countries, California's White population grew, and by 1940, 90% of the state self-identified as White. [13] By 1990, following increased arrivals into the state of people of other races and nationalities, the White non-hispanic population had decreased, with 43% of the state population claiming Asian, African, Latin American or Native American ancestry. [13]
In 2000 the racial makeup of the nine-county Bay Area was 3,941,687 (58.1%) white and 3,392,204 (50.0%) non-Hispanic white.
In 2010 the Bay Area was 3,755,823 (52.5%) White, and 3,032,903 (42.4%) non-Hispanic white.
The percentage of non-Hispanic white people in the overall Bay Area is projected to decrease, while the percentage of non-Hispanic white people in the city of San Francisco is projected to increase. [22]
54.6% White, 32.2% white alone. Malibu, Hidden Hills, Manhattan Beach, Agua Dulce, Calabasas and Agoura Hills have the highest percentage of whites in Los Angeles County. [23] Whites in the Los Angeles area are also concentrated in Hollywood Hills, Bel Air and North San Gabriel Valley. [24]
Nevada County has the highest white percentage of any county in California. [25]
Non-Hispanic whites comprise 60% of registered voters in California. [26]
The non-Hispanic white population as a percentage of the whole is projected to decrease in California. [27]
Ancestry by origin [8] | Number | % (do not add to 100) |
---|---|---|
Albanians | 2,204 | |
Armenians | 199,987 | 5.7% |
Austrians | 10,977 | |
Basque | 7,996 | |
Belgians | 7,452 | |
British | 123,112 | 40% |
Bulgarians | 10,158 | |
Cypriots | 193 | |
Czechs | 17,866 | |
Danes | 30,879 | |
Dutch | 69,112 | |
English | 455,396 | 13% |
Estonians | 1,421 | |
French | 91,701 | |
Finns | 12,888 | |
Germans | 587,486 | 16.7% |
Greeks | 50,673 | |
Hungarians | 30,971 | |
Icelanders | 1,959 | |
Irish | 489,015 | 13.9% |
Italians | 425,772 | 12.1% |
Latvians | 3,382 | |
Lithuanians | 12,324 | |
Luxembourgers | 297 | |
Macedonians | 1,208 | |
Maltese | 2,201 | |
Norwegians | 105,797 | 3% |
Polish | 472,869 | 13.5% |
Portuguese | 118,856 | 3.4% |
Romanians | 30,685 | |
Russians | 137,259 | 3.9% |
Serbians | 8,993 | |
Slovaks | 7,376 | |
Slovenes | 3,538 | |
Swedish | 19,581 | |
Turkish | 18,701 | |
Ukrainians | 64,985 | |
Total | 3,512,158 | 100% |
California is a state in the Western United States. With over 38.9 million residents across a total area of approximately 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2), it is the most populous U.S. state, the third-largest U.S. state by area, and the most populated subnational entity in North America. California borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and the Mexican state of Baja California to the south; it has a coastline along the Pacific Ocean to the west.
Santa Ana is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, California, United States. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the second most populous city in Orange County, the 13th-most populous city in California, and the 64th densest large city in the United States. Santa Ana is a major regional economic and cultural hub for the Orange Coast.
Bell Gardens is a city in the U.S. state of California in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Located in Los Angeles County, the city's population was 42,072 at the 2010 census, down from 44,054 at the 2000 census. Bell Gardens is part of the Gateway Cities Region, a largely urbanized region located in southeastern Los Angeles County.
Northern California is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers include the San Francisco Bay Area, the Greater Sacramento area, the Redding, California, area south of the Cascade Range, and the Metropolitan Fresno area. Northern California also contains redwood forests, along with most of the Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite Valley and part of Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta, and most of the Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions.
Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican heritage. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United States; they make up 53% of the total population of foreign-born Hispanic Americans and 25% of the total foreign-born population. Chicano is a term used by some to describe the unique identity held by Mexican-Americans. The United States is home to the second-largest Mexican community in the world, behind only Mexico. Most Mexican Americans reside in the Southwest, with over 60% of Mexican Americans living in the states of California and Texas.
The United States has a racially and ethnically diverse population. At the federal level, race and ethnicity have been categorized separately. The most recent United States census recognized six racial categories, as well as people who belong to two or more of the racial categories. The United States also recognizes the broader notion of ethnicity. The 2000 census and 2010 American Community Survey inquired about the "ancestry" of residents, whilst the 2020 census allowed people to enter their "origins". The Census Bureau also classified respondents as either Hispanic or Latino, identifying as an ethnicity, which comprises the minority group in the nation.
California is the most populated U.S. state, with an estimated population of 38.9 million as of 2023. It has people from a wide variety of ethnic, racial, national, and religious backgrounds.
In the United States, a Hispanic or Latino is an individual who is of full or partial Hispanic or Latino descent. Although not differentiated in the U.S. Census definition, White Latino Americans may also be defined to include those who identify as white and either originate from or have descent from not only Spanish speaking countries in Latin America but also other Romance languages other than Spanish, such as Brazil, Haiti, and French Guiana.
The history of Hispanics and Latinos in the United States is wide-ranging, spanning more than four hundred years of American colonial and post-colonial history. Hispanics became the first American citizens in the newly acquired Southwest territory after the Mexican–American War, and remained a majority in several states until the 20th century.
As of the 2020 United States census, Arizona had a population of 7,151,502.
The demographics of Hispanic and Latino Americans depict a population that is the second-largest ethnic group in the United States, 62 million people or 18.7% of the national population.
Hispanic and Latino Californians are residents of the state of California who are of Hispanic or Latino ancestry. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Hispanics and Latinos of any race were 39.4% of the state's population, making it the largest ethnicity in California.
African American Californians, or Black Californians are residents of the state of California who are of African ancestry. According to 2019 United States Census Bureau estimates, those identified solely as African American or black constituted 5.8% or 2,282,144 residents in California. Including an additional 1.2% who identified as having partial African ancestry, the figure was 7.0%. As of 2021, California has the largest multiracial African American population by number in the United States. African Americans are the fourth largest ethnic group in California after Hispanics, white people and Asians. Asians outnumbered African Americans in the 1980s.
Hispanic and Latino Texans are residents of the state of Texas who are of Hispanic or Latino ancestry. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Hispanics and Latinos of any race were 39.3% of the state's population. Moreover, the U.S Census shows that the 2010 estimated Hispanic population in Texas was 9.7 million and increased to 11.4 million in 2020 with a 2,064,657 population jump from the 2010 Latino population estimate.
Hispanic and Latino Arizonans are residents of the state of Arizona who are of Hispanic or Latino ancestry. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Hispanics and Latinos of any race were 30% of the state's population.
Hispanic and Latino Nevadans are residents of the state of Nevada who are of Hispanic or Latino ancestry. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Hispanics and Latinos of any race were 28.3% of the state's population.
The 1990 United States census and 2000 United States census found that non-Hispanic whites were becoming a minority in Los Angeles. Estimates for the 2010 United States census results find Latinos to be approximately half (47-49%) of the city's population, growing from 40% in 2000 and 30-35% in 1990 census.
Spanish Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from Spain. They are the longest-established European American group in the modern United States, with a very small group descending from those explorations leaving from Spain and the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and starting in the early 1500s, of 42 of the future U.S. states from California to Florida; and beginning a continuous presence in Florida since 1565 and New Mexico since 1598. In the 2020 United States census, 978,978 self-identified with "Spaniard" origins representing (0.4%) of the white alone or in combination population who responded to the question. Other results include 866,356 (0.4%) identifying as "Spanish" and 50,966 who identified with "Spanish American".
White Marylanders are White Americans living in Maryland. As of 2019, they comprise 57.3% of the state's population. 49.8% of the population is non-Hispanic white, making Maryland a majority minority state. The regions of Western Maryland, Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore all have majority white populations. Many white Marylanders also live in Central Maryland, including Baltimore, as well as in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Garrett County (97.5%) and Carroll County (91.9%) are the counties with the highest percentage of white Americans. Garrett and Carroll counties also have the highest percentage of non-Hispanic whites at 96.3% and 88.7%, respectively. Prince George's County (27%), Baltimore (30.4%), and Charles County (42.8%) have the lowest percentages of white people. Prince George's County has the lowest percentage of non-Hispanic whites, at 12.5% of the population. White Marylanders are a minority in Baltimore, Cambridge, Charles County, Jessup, Owings Mills, Prince George's County, Randallstown, and White Oak. Non-Hispanic whites are the plurality in Montgomery County, Columbia, Elkridge, Reisterstown, Salisbury, and Severn.