Venezuelans of European descent

European Venezuelans (Spanish: Venezolanos europeos), also known as White Venezuelans (Spanish: Venezolanos blancos) are Venezuelans who self-identify in the national census as white, tracing their heritage to European ethnic groups. According to the official census report, although "white" literally involves external caucasoid features such as fair skin, hair, and eyes, among others, the term "white" has been used in different ways in different historical periods and places, and so its precise definition is somewhat confusing.

According to the 2011 National Population and Housing Census, 43.6% of the population identified themselves as white people. A genomic study shows that about 61.5% of the Venezuelan gene pool has European ancestry. Among the Latin American and Caribbean countries in the study (Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, El Salvador, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela), Brazil, Venezuela, and Argentina exhibit the highest European contribution.

The ancestry of European Venezuelans is primarily Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian.

Other ancestries of European Venezuelans are: Germans, Poles, Greeks, and other minorities.

History

Italian explorer Christopher Columbus arrived in the Venezuela region in 1498. European explorers named Venezuela ("Little Venice") after observing local indigenous houses on stilts over water. During the first quarter-century of contact, the Europeans limited themselves to slave hunting and pearlfishing on the northeastern coast; the first permanent Spanish settlement in Venezuela, Cumaná, was not made until 1523.