Caucasians

Overweight and obesity have been rapidly increasing in both children and adults in the United States and worldwide over the last 40 years. This increase is of major medical and public health concern because obesity is associated with premature mortality and many types of morbidity, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, some types of cancer, and arthritis. Many explanations have been offered for the increase, which some have termed an epidemic: modern life which has removed most physical activity from people's lives, the increasing consumption of fast food high in calories and fat, greater acceptance of large body types, and even increased television viewing. It is notable that obesity has been increasing across all racial and ethnic groups, but not evenly, in the United States; Caucasian Americans generally have lower rates of overweight and obesity than do members of minority groups such as African Americans and Hispanics. Many explanations have been offered for this phenomenon as well, ranging from the socioeconomic (people with greater social capital have more opportunities to buy healthy foods and exercise, and more knowledge of the importance of both activities) to the genetic.

Definitions

Caucasian, or white Americans are defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as people whose origins may be traced to any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. According to Census 2000, on April 1, 2000, there were 216.9 million Caucasians in the United States, representing 77.1 percent of the total population. Of these, 211.5 million reported only one race, while 5.5 million reported Caucasian along with one or more other races. Not surprisingly, because white Americans are the majority racial/ethnic group, the states with the largest populations (California, New York, and Texas) also have the largest number of white Americans. However, the states with the highest percentage of white Americans are smaller, such as Vermont (98.6 percent), Maine (98.4 percent), New Hampshire (98.0 percent), and Iowa (96.6 percent).

The Census and other federal surveys also collect information on ethnicity, using two categories: “Hispanic or Latino” and “Not Hispanic or Latino.” A person who is Hispanic or Latino is defined as being a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin. Race and ethnicity are considered distinct categorizations by the federal system, so a Hispanic or Latino person may be of any race, and decisions about when to include, for instance, White Hispanics in the white total for any particular survey or study is a decision left to the researcher. According to Census 2000, 92 percent of the white population was non-Hispanic, and the white non-Hispanic population represented 70 percent of the total U.S. population.

Because white Americans constitute the majority of the U.S. population, studies are seldom done specifically examining their health or health behaviors. Instead, research studies or surveys of the population as a whole are generally assumed to apply to white Americans, and targeted studies are more likely to look at minority groups such as African Americans or Asian Americans. There has also been relatively little interest in studying different ethnic groups within the white classification (e.g., Italians versus Swedes), as there has been, for instance, with Hispanic, Asian, or American Indian subgroups based on national origin or tribal identification.

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