Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common ancestry, language, faith, historical continuity, etc. There are no universally accepted and precise definitions of the terms "ethnic group" and "nationality", but in the context of European ethnography in particular, the terms ethnic group, people, nationality and ethno-linguistic group are used as mostly synonymous. Preference may vary in usage with respect to the situation specific to the individual countries of Europe, and the context in which they may be classified by those terms.Pan and Pfeil (2004), "Problems with Terminology", pp. xvii–xx.
The total number of national minority populations in Europe is estimated at 105 million people, or 14% of 770 million Europeans in 2002.Christoph Pan, Beate Sibylle Pfeil (2002), Minderheitenrechte in Europa. Handbuch der europäischen Volksgruppen, Braumüller, (Google Books, snippet view). Also 2006 reprint by Springer (Amazon, no preview) . The Russians are the most populous among Europeans, with a population of roughly 120 million.
Overview
In 2021, the number of non-EU nationals living in EU members states was 23.7 million (5.3% of the EU population). The countries with the largest population of non-nationals were Germany, Spain, France, and Italy. These four member states represented 70.3% of all non-EU nationals living in the EU Member States. The population of the European Union, with some 450 million residents, accounts for two thirds of the current European population.
Both Spain and the United Kingdom are special cases, in that the designation of nationality, Spanish and British, may controversially take ethnic aspects, subsuming various regional ethnic groups (see nationalisms and regionalisms of Spain and native populations of the United Kingdom). Switzerland is a similar case, but the linguistic subgroups of the Swiss are discussed in terms of both ethnicity and language affiliations.
Linguistic classifications
Of the total population of Europe of some 740 million (as of 2010), close to 90% (or some 650 million) fall within three large branches of Indo-European languages. These branches include: Germanic, including Danish, Dutch, English, Faroese, Frisian, German, Gutnish, Hunsrik, Icelandic, Limburgish, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Norwegian, Scots, Swedish, and Yiddish.Total population of Yiddish estimated at 1.5 million as of 1991, of which c. 40% in Ukraine. , , Afrikaans, a daughter language of Dutch, is spoken by some South African and Namibian migrant populations. Romance, including Aragonese, Andalusian, Aromanian, Arpitan, Asturian, Castilian (Spanish), Cantabrian, Catalan, Corsican, French and other Langues d'oïl, Lombard, Friulian, Galician, Istro-Romanian, Italian, Ligurian, Ladin, Ladino, Megleno-Romanian, Occitan, Portuguese, Romanian, Romansh, Sardinian, Venetian and Sicilian. Slavic, including Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Kashubian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Polish, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Sorbian and Ukrainian.
Three stand-alone Indo-European languages do not fall within larger sub-groups and are not closely related to those larger language families. However, they are still languages that are used in areas considered part of the European continent These languages are: Greek (about 12 million) Albanian (about 9 million) Armenian (about 3.5 million)
In addition, there are also smaller sub-groups within the Indo-European languages of Europe. These groups include: Baltic, including Latvian, Lithuanian, Samogitian and Latgalian. Celtic, including Breton, Cornish, Irish, Manx, Welsh, and Scottish Gaelic. Iranic, mainly Ossetian and Tats in the Caucasus. Indo-Aryan is represented by the Romani language spoken by Roma people of eastern Europe, and is at root related to the Indo-Aryan languages of the Indian subcontinent.
Besides the Indo-European languages, there are other language families on the European continent which are considered unrelated to Indo-European. These include: Uralic languages, including Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Komi, Livonian, Mari, Mordvin, Sámi, Samoyedic, and Udmurt. Turkic languages, including Azerbaijani, Bashkir, Chuvash, Gagauz, Kazakh, Nogai, Tatar, Turkish, Crimean Tatar. Semitic languages, including: Maltese an arabic dialect spoken in Malta, Suret/Turoyo (dialects of Neo-Aramaic spoken in parts of eastern Turkey and the Caucasus by ethnic Assyrians), Hebrew (spoken by some Jewish populations). Kartvelian languages (also known as South Caucasian languages), including Georgian, Zan (Mingrelian and Laz), and Svan. Northwest Caucasian languages, including Abkhaz, Abaza, Circassian (Adyghe and Kabardian), and Ubykh. Northeast Caucasian languages, including Avar, Chechen, Dargin, Ingush, Lak, and Lezgian. Language isolates: Basque, spoken in the Basque regions of Spain and France, is an isolate language, the only one in Europe. It is believed to be unrelated to any other living language; however, it is related to the extinct Aquitanian language. Mongolic languages exist in the form of Kalmyk, spoken in the South region of Russia.
History
Prehistoric populations
The Basques have been found to descend from the population of the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age directly. By contrast, Indo-European groups of Europe (the Centum, Balto-Slavic, and Albanian groups) migrated throughout most of Europe from the Pontic steppe. They are assumed to have developed in situ through admixture of earlier Mesolithic and Neolithic populations with Bronze Age, proto-Indo-Europeans. The Finnic peoples are assumed to also be descended from Proto-Uralic populations further to the east, nearer to the Ural Mountains, that had migrated to their historical homelands in Europe by about 3,000 years ago.
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, Lemnian, and perhaps Camunic. A pre-Roman stage of Proto-Basque can only be reconstructed with great uncertainty.
Regarding the European Bronze Age, the only relatively likely 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.
According to geneticist David Reich, based on ancient human genomes that his laboratory sequenced in 2016, Europeans descend from a mixture of four distinct ancestral components.
Historical populations
Iron Age (pre-Great Migrations) populations of Europe known from Greco-Roman historiography, notably Herodotus, Pliny, Ptolemy and Tacitus: Aegean: the Greek tribes, Pelasgians, and Anatolians. Balkans: the Illyrians (List of ancient tribes in Illyria), Dacians, and Thracians. Italian Peninsula: the Tyrrhenians, Lepontii, Adriatic Veneti, Gauls, Ligurians, Italic peoples, Iapygians and Greeks. Western/Central Europe: the Celts (list of peoples of Gaul, List of Celtic tribes), Rhaetians and Swabians, Vistula Veneti, Lugii, and Balts. Iberian Peninsula and Pyrenees : the Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula (Iberians, Celts, Celtiberians, Lusitani, Basques, Turdetani), of the Pyrenean piedmont (Aquitani) between the Pyrenees and the Atlantic Ocean, and Greek and Phoenician coastal Mediterranean colonies. Sardinia and Corsica: the ancient Sardinians and Corsicans (also known as Nuragic and Torrean peoples), comprising the Corsi, Balares, Ilienses tribes and Phoenician colonies. British Isles: the Insular Celts. Northern Europe: the Baltic Finns, Germanic peoples (list of Germanic peoples) and Normans. Sicily: the Italic Sicels and Morgetes, the Sicani, Elymians, and Greek and Phoenician colonies. Eastern Europe: the Veneti (Early Slavs), Scythians, and Sarmatians. Armenian Highlands/Anatolia: the Armenians.
Historical immigration
Ethno-linguistic groups that arrived from outside Europe during historical times are: Phoenician colonies in the Mediterranean (including regions in Spain, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus and the Aegean), from about 1200 BC to the fall of Carthage after the Third Punic War in 146 BC. Assyrian conquest of Cyprus, Southern Caucasus (including parts of modern Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan) and Cilicia during the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC). Iranian influence: Achaemenid control of Thrace (512–343 BC) and the Bosporan Kingdom, Cimmerians (possible Iranians), Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Ossetes, Tats, Talyshs. The Jewish diaspora reached Europe during classical antiquity, the Jewish community in Greece dating as early as the beginning of the 3rd century BCE and records of Jews settling Central Europe (Gaul) from the 5th century (see History of the Jews in Europe). The Hunnic Empire (5th century AD), converged with the Barbarian invasions, contributing to the formation of the First Bulgarian Empire. The Slavic migrations (6th century AD), and the subsequent split into Eastern Slavs, Western Slavs and Southern Slavs. Avar Khaganate (c. 560s–800). The Bulgars (or Proto-Bulgarians), a semi-nomadic Turkic people, originally from Central Asia, eventually absorbed by the Slavs. The Magyars (Hungarians), a Uralic-speaking people, and the Turkic Pechenegs and Khazars, arrived in Europe in about the 8th century (see Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin). The Arabs conquered Cyprus, Crete, Sicily (establishing the Emirate of Sicily in 831, from which they would be expelled in 1224), several towns on the Italian coasts, Malta, Southern France and most of Iberia (founding a polity known as Al-Andalus in 711, ruled also by Berber dynasties of the Almoravides and the Almohads, from whose domain they would be expelled in 1492). Exodus of Maghreb Christians, namely Berbers and African Romance speakers, from the 7th to the 12th centuries. 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 (1389–1912). These medieval incursions account for the presence of European Turks and Tatars. The Romani people arrived during the Late Middle Ages. The Mongol Kalmyks arrived in Kalmykia in the 17th century.
History of European ethnography
The earliest accounts of European ethnography date from 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. A number of authors like Diodorus Siculus, Pausanias and Sallust depict the ancient Sardinian and Corsican peoples.
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, and Theophylact Simocatta give early accounts of the Slavs, the Franks, the Alamanni and the Goths.