White Americans in California

White Californians are White Americans living in California who currently comprise 41.2% of the state's population according to the official 2020 census.^[3]

As of 2015, California has the third-largest minority population in the United States.^[4] Non-Hispanic whites decreased from about 76.3–78% of the state's population in 1970^[5] to 36.5% in 2019.^[6] It was estimated in 2015 that Hispanic and Latino Americans became more numerous than non-Hispanic White Americans for the first time.^[4] Since 2000 U.S. census, California has been known as the second state in U.S. history (after Hawaii since its statehood in 1959) to have a non-white majority. Most people who identify as white in California say their heritage is Mexican, German, Irish, English, Italian, French, Spanish, Scottish, Polish, Salvadoran, Swedish, Portuguese, Dutch, Armenian, or British. There is also sizable Iranian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Greek, Hungarian, Austrian, Danish, Lithuanian, Finnish, Lebanese, Ukrainian, white Australian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovak, and Albanian populations in California.^[7][8] Most European immigrants in California came from Ireland, Germany, and England, with a smaller number who came from France and Italy.^[9]

According to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau, 9.8% of White Californians were German, 7.8% Irish, 6.9% English and 4.3% were Italian.^[10]