European emigration

European emigration is the successive emigration waves from the European continent to other continents. The origins of the various European diasporas can be traced to the people who left the European nation states or stateless ethnic communities on the European continent. From 1500 to the mid-20th century, 60–65 million people left Europe, of which less than 9% went to tropical areas (the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa).

From 1815 to 1932, 65 million people left Europe, primarily to areas of European settlement in North and South America, with the largest numbers going to the United States and Canada, Cuba, and the southern cone region of South America, including Argentina, southern Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, in addition to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Siberia. These populations also multiplied rapidly in their new habitat; much more so than the populations of Africa and Asia. As a result, on the eve of World War I, 38% of the world's total population was of European ancestry. Most European emigrants to the Americas came from Italy, Germany, France, Ireland, United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Armenia, Lithuania, Russia, and Ukraine.

More contemporary, European emigration can also refer to emigration from one European country to another, especially in the context of the internal mobility in the European Union (intra-EU mobility) or mobility within the Eurasian Union.