White Californians are white Americans living in California who currently make up 71.9% of the state's population. As of 2015, California has the third-largest minority population in the United States. Non-Hispanic whites decreased from about 76.3–78% of the state's population in 1970 to 36.5% in 2019. It was estimated in 2015 that Hispanic and Latino Americans became more numerous than non-Hispanic White Americans for the first time. Since 2000 (the US Census), California has been known as the second state in US history (after Hawaii since its statehood in 1959) to have a non-white majority. The most common European ancestries in California are German, Irish, English, Italian, French, Scottish, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, and Portuguese. Arabs, Afghans, Armenians and Persi