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]

History

The first White people to come to the modern-day State of California were the Spanish people. The area that became California was a part of the Spanish Empire, and after 1821, part of Mexico.^[11] While under Spanish and Mexican rule, California's population was a diverse mix of people with White, Mestizo, African and Indigenous ancestry, with Native people being the largest population.^[12] By 1846, more White Americans had begun to enter California from other parts of the United States, making up 10% of the non-Native population.^[13]

The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California.^[14] In 1848, there were 7,000 persons of Mexican and Spanish descent, 700 Americans, 200 Europeans, and 110,000 Native Americans.^[15] The news of gold brought some 300,000 people throughout the Gold Rush to California from the rest of the United States and abroad.^[16] Two-thirds of these new arrivals were Americans, mostly from the Atlantic Seaboard. ^[13] In 1850, a year after California's admission to the United States, the first state census showed California's entire non-Native population at 92,597.^[15][13]

While Northern California became predominantly white by the mid-19th century, Southern California remained mainly Mexican until the first major waves of white immigrants began to arrive in the 1880s after the Southern Pacific railroad reach Los Angeles.^[17] Between 1880 and 1920, Southern California’s population grew from 64,000 to 1.3 million, which included an influx of white health-seekers, real estate investors, and Midwestern farmers.^[17] As Southern California in the late nineteenth century was promoted as a “semi-tropical” paradise ideal for health and agriculture, these groups of immigrants, many of whom were middle-to-upper-class Americans, moved into the region via the newly built railroads connecting Southern California to the rest of the United States.^[17][18] A 1913 census shows that white Americans composed 95% of California’s population.^[19] Other sources note that by 1910, 96% of the population of Los Angeles was white.^[20] Although this is probably an overestimation due to flaws in statistical methods, it shows the significant white predominance in California by the early 20th century.

In the 1930s, about 350,000 mostly White migrants, known as Okies, came to California from the rural Great Plains states and the surrounding area. Their descendants may make up as much as one eighth of California's population, particularly in the Central Valley and rural areas.^[21]

As a result of new arrivals from the American Midwest and continued immigration to the United States from other countries, California's White population grew, and by 1940, 90% of the state self-identified as White.^[13] By 1990, following increased arrivals into the state of people of other races and nationalities, the White non-hispanic population had decreased, with 43% of the state population claiming Asian, African, Latin American or Native American ancestry.^[13]

By region

Blue areas are predominately non-Hispanic white

Politics

Non-Hispanic whites comprise 60% of registered voters in California.^[26]

Future

The non-Hispanic white population as a percentage of the whole is projected to decrease in California.^[27]

Ancestries

Ancestry by origin[8]	Number	% (do not add to 100)
Albanians	2,204
Armenians	199,987	5.7%
Austrians	10,977
Basque	7,996
Belgians	7,452
British	123,112	40%
Bulgarians	10,158
Cypriots	193
Czechs	17,866
Danes	30,879
Dutch	69,112
English	455,396	13%
Estonians	1,421
French	91,701
Finns	12,888
Germans	587,486	16.7%
Greeks	50,673
Hungarians	30,971
Icelanders	1,959
Irish	489,015	13.9%
Italians	425,772	12.1%
Latvians	3,382
Lithuanians	12,324
Luxembourgers	297
Macedonians	1,208
Maltese	2,201
Norwegians	105,797	3%
Polish	472,869	13.5%
Portuguese	118,856	3.4%
Romanians	30,685
Russians	137,259	3.9%
Serbians	8,993
Slovaks	7,376
Slovenes	3,538
Swedish	19,581
Turkish	18,701
Ukrainians	64,985
Total	3,512,158	100%

See also

• Demographics of California
• Hispanics and Latinos in California
• Ukrainian Americans in Los Angeles
• Basque Americans in California
• Iranians in Los Angeles
• Armenians in Los Angeles
• Palestinians in Los Angeles
• Israelis in Los Angeles
• Jews in Los Angeles
• White Americans in Los Angeles
• White Americans in San Francisco

References

Bibliography

• Maharidge, Dale, The Coming White Minority: California's Eruptions and America's Future, 1996, Times Books, ISBN 9780812922899
• Sherburne Friend Cook, The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization, 1943, University of California Press, ISBN 9780520031425