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A European is primarily a person who was born into one of the countries within the continent of Europe. Additionally, a person can also become a naturalized European by taking citizenship within a European country. A number of people, who were not born in Europe or hold citizenship there, identify themselves as European due to a strong sense of identification with their European ancestry, language and/or culture.

Identity and Culture

A number of nations outside of Europe were originally established as colonies of European countries. Many of those nations retain a dominant "European culture" - that is a population whose ancestry, language and culture is largely derived from their European predecessors.

European is particularly common as an ethnic descriptor for those populations. A good example of this is the European American, to identify a person from the United States with European ancestry. While generally established by particular European countries, the immigration policy of these colonies has often been very open and inclusive towards other European nations, and thus a "European" identity has been preferred by government and social institutions over narrower categories such as English, British or German. In the United States, it is rare to call people of European ancestry "European." Such people are sometimes called "caucasian" or "white," but more generally are labelled by the nation their ancestors are from (e.g., Irish Americans).

The European Union

The European Union or EU is an association of nation states working to achieve benefits for the citizens of those nations by encouraging the free passage of people, goods and services across the national borders. The EU countries also co-operate to harmonsise matters related to these such as the safety of chemicals, electrical goods, and novel foodstuffs, and also services such as cross-border health care. This has required some pooling of sovreignty such that decisions affecting individual Europeans in some states may be accepted by majority voting across the EU.

Within the EU a "Single European Identity" is slowly emerging. For example, many Europeans share the same currency, the Euro and most Europeans now recognize the EU flag, but they will in general they still feel much greater affinity towards their national flags and other identity symbols.

In some countries, most notably the United Kingdom, there is a great deal of scepticism about the EU and lack of affinity towards a single European identity. The situation is however likely to change for demographic reasons. Some 44% of 15-24 year olds in the UK feel "EU membership is a good thing" wheareas only 27% of those over 55 years old thought EU membership was a good thing.

Distribution

For a list of European nations, see Europe.

Nations and regions outside of Europe with significant populations of European ancestry:

• United States of America (European American)
• Asiatic Russia
• Canada
• Argentina
• Uruguay
• South Africa (Afrikaner)
• Zimbabwe
• Australia
• New Zealand (New Zealand European)
• Latin America
• Israel

• Europe
• European people
• European diaspora