As officially stated by the French government and 2001 French Census reports on the ethnological origins of the French people. Note the French government does not officially classify people by race or ethnicity, in order to encourage integration, assimilation and patriotic unity of all French people regardless of ethnic and national origins as policy since the French Revolution.

An estimate of 10 million French citizens or about one-fifth of the population is of ethnic or national non-French origins. Of European ethnicity, the most prolific are the Italians who make up approximately 10 percent of the population in France. [14] This was due to the most part of Italian immigration stemming from the 16th to the early 20th century. As a result some 10% of French people have some distant or recent Italian origins. Other large European groups are Germans, Spaniards, Portuguese, Polish, and Greek. Also, due to more recent immigration, a total of 3 - 4 million Arab-Berber people inhabit France.

The 2008 estimates are: 84% French, 7% North African, 7% Other Europeans.

Talking about Europe as a single group here is rather nonsensical. There are very different traditions. Simply put, Germany remembers its past with race relations largely in the context of national sin, whereas France takes pride in principles that it sees as foundational. Both responses can cause a trend towards greater equality.