Ethnic Groups in Europe By Country - Ethnic Minorities of Non-European Origin

Ethnic Minorities of Non-European Origin

Europe is also where a multiplicity of cultures, nationalities, and ethnic groups not indigenous to Europe reside. The majority of them are recently arrived immigrants in the 20th century, usually from former colonies of the British, French, and Spanish empires.

Populations of non-European origin in Europe (approx. 22 - 29+ million, or approx. 3% to 4%+, out of a total population of approx. 728 million):

• Western Asians
  • Ashkenazi Jews: approx. 1.4 million, mostly in Germany and France. Only a few communities remain in Europe, as the vast majority have been wiped out by the Nazi genocide during WWII. In recent years, most have either immigrated to America or made aliyah to the re-established state of Israel. They are of ancestral South West Asian origin.
  • Sephardi Jews: approx. 0.3 million, mostly in France and Italy.
  • Mizrahi Jews: approx. 0.3 million, mostly in France.
  • Italqim: approx. 50,000, mostly in Italy.
  • Romaniotes: approx. 6,000, mostly in Greece.
  • Karaites: less than 4,000, mostly in Poland and Lithuania.
  • Kurds: approx. 2.5 million, mostly in the UK, Germany, Sweden and Turkey.
  • Iraqi diaspora: mostly in the UK, Germany and Sweden.
  • Lebanese diaspora: especially in France, Netherlands, Germany, Cyprus and the UK.
  • Syrian diaspora: includes Assyrian, Syriac and Chaldean Christian minorities. Largest number of Syrians live in Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.
• Africans
  • North Africans (Arabs and Berbers): approx. 5 million, mostly in France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. The bulk of North African migrants are Moroccans, although France also has a large number of Algerians.
  • Horn Africans: approx. 200,000 Somalis, mostly in the UK, Netherlands and Scandinavia.
  • Sub-Saharan Africans (many ethnicities including Afro-Caribbeans and others by descent): approx. 5 million but rapidly growing, mostly in the UK and France, with smaller numbers in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Portugal and elsewhere.
• Latin Americans: approx. 2.2 million, mainly in Spain and to a lesser extent Italy and the UK. See also Latin American Britons (80,000 Latin American born in 2001).
  • Brazilians: around 70,000 in Portugal and Italy each, and 50,000 in Germany.
  • Chilean refugees escaping the Augusto Pinochet regime of the 1970s formed communities in France, Sweden, the UK, former East Germany and the Netherlands.
  • Venezuelans: around 520,000 mostly in Spain (200,000), Italy (150,000), Portugal (100,000), France (30,000), Germany (20,000), UK (15,000), Ireland (5,000) and the Netherlands (1,000).
• South Asians (many ethnicities, not including Romani): approx. 3 - 4 million, mostly in the UK but reside in smaller numbers in Germany and France.
  • Romani (Gypsies) (who have been in Europe for several centuries, and thus whose non-European origins are distant): approx. 4 or 10 million (although estimates vary widely), dispersed throughout Europe but with large numbers concentrated in the Balkans area, they are of ancestral South Asian origin.
  • Indians: approx. 2 million, mostly in the UK, also in Germany and smaller numbers in Ireland.
  • Pakistanis: approx. 1,000,000, mostly in the UK, but also in Norway and Sweden.
  • Tamils: approx. 250,000, predominantly in the UK.
  • Bangladeshi residing in Europe estimated at over 500,000, the bulk live in the UK.
  • Afghans, about 100,000 to 200,000, most happen to live in the UK, but Germany and Sweden are destinations for Afghan immigrants since the 1960s.
• East Asians
  • Chinese: approx. 1.7 million, mostly in France, Russia, the UK, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands.
  • Filipinos: above 1 million, mostly in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy.
  • Japanese: mostly in the UK and a sizable community in Düsseldorf, Germany.
  • Koreans: 100,000 estimated (excludes a possible 100,000 more in Russia), mainly in the UK, France and Germany. See also Koryo-saram.
  • Southeast Asians of multiple nationalities, ca. total 1 million, such as Indonesians in the Netherlands, Thais in the UK and Sweden, Vietnamese in France and former East Germany, and Cambodians in France. See also Vietnamese people in the Czech Republic.
  • Mongolians are a sizable community in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.
• Others
  • U.S. and Canadian Expatriates: American British and Canadian British, Canadiens and Acadians in France, as well U.S./Canadian-born Europeans residing elsewhere in Europe.
  • African Americans (i.e. African American British) who are Americans of Black/African ancestry reside in other countries. In the 1920s, African-American entertainers established a colony in Paris and descendants of WWII/Cold war era black American GI's stationed in France, Germany and Italy are well known.
  • Amerindians and Inuit, a scant few in the European continent of American Indian ancestry (often Latin Americans in Spain, France and the UK; Inuit in Denmark), but most may be children or grandchildren of U.S. soldiers from American Indian tribes by intermarriage with local European women. In Germany, the Native American Association of Germany founded in 1994 as a socio-cultural organization estimates 50,000 North American Indians (descendants) live in the country.
  • Pacific Islanders: A small population of Tahitians of Polynesian origin in mainland France, Fijians in the United Kingdom from Fiji and Māori in the United Kingdom of the Māori people of New Zealand.