White Americans are an ethnic group of Americans who identify as and are perceived to be white people. The term is usually used to refer to those of European descent, though is at times also used to refer to Americans of North African and Middle Eastern descent (for example, in the US Census definition). White Americans (including White Hispanics) constitute the historical and current majority of the people living in the United States, with 72% of the population in the 2010 United States Census. Non-Hispanic whites totaled about 197,285,202 or 60.7% of the U.S. population. European Americans are the largest ethnic group of White Americans and constitute the historical majority population of the United States since the nation's founding.