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. World map showing the location of Europe. ... Kinship and descent is one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology. ... Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning to cultivate), generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ...

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. European American is a term for an American of European descent, who are usually referred as White or Caucasian. ... This article is about the English as an ethnic group and nation. ...

The European Union

With the European Union, a great deal of importance has been put on promoting a "Single European Identity" throughout member states. It is unclear whether this ideal has or can be achieved, due to the many different languages and cultures throughout the EU's member states. The United Kingdom has been particularly resistant in this area. Many British people do not identify themselves as European and thus a strong identification with their neighbours on the continent has been difficult to foster. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a country in western Europe, and a member of the European Union. ...

Distribution

For a list of European nations, see Europe. World map showing the location of Europe. ...

Nations with significant populations with European ancestry:

• United States of America (European American)
• Canada
• Argentina
• South Africa (Afrikaner)
• Zimbabwe
• Australia
• New Zealand (New Zealand European)
• All Latin America