Overview
Further information: Demographics of EuropeThere are eight peoples of Europe (defined by their language) with more than 30 million members residing in Europe:
- the Russians (ca. 95 million residing in Europe),
- the Germans (ca. 82 million),
- the French (ca. 65 million)
- the Italians (ca. 56 - 61 million)
- the British (55 - 61 million)
- the Spanish (ca. 47 million),
- the Ukrainians (ca. 41 million),
- the Poles (ca. 38 million).
These eight groups between themselves account for some 465 million or about 65% 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.
Both Spain and the UK 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 not usually discussed in terms of ethnicity, and Switzerland is considered a "multi-lingual state" rather than a "multi-ethnic state".
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Read more about this topic: Historical Ethnic Groups Of Europe