We have recently discussed what it means for a country to be 'Western', and and whether Latin American countries should be considered Western or not. To answer that second question, it is useful to compare the ethnic make-up of unequivocally Western countries, like Western European countries, Canada, the USA, Australia and New Zealand, with Latin American countries. I have made a quick summary of the broad ethnic make-up by percentage of European, West Asian, South Asia, East Asian, Amerindian and African ancestry in a few selected countries.
Considering that Latin American countries are culturally Western, being speakers of Spanish, Portuguese or French, the determinant factor in their Westernness is ethnicity. There is no doubt that countries like Chile, Argentina or Uruguay are just as Western as the USA, Canada or Australia. In contrast, Haiti, which has 0% of unmixed European ancestry cannot possible be considered Western.
In Peru and Mexico people of unmixed European descent are a small minority, but if we could mestizos with partial European ancestry we get respectively 52% and 70%. Brazil is more clearly European, but still with 43% of mixed ancestry. Personally I am not sure I would consider Mexico, Bolivia and Peru Western. Brazil is borderline but would almost certainly be considered Western by lots of people, including most Brazilians themselves.
| Countries/Ethnicities | European | Middle East & N. Africa | South Asian | East Asian | Amerindian | SS African | Other/mixed |
| Sweden | 96.5% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 1% | 0% | 1.2% | 0.5% |
| Netherlands | 91% | 6% | 0.5% | 0.8% | 0% | 1.2% | 0.5% |
| Belgium | 91% | 6.5% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0% | 1% | 0.5% |
| Germany | 92% | 4.2% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0% | 0.5% | 2% |
| France | 89% | 7% | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0% | 1.8% | 1.5% |
| Italy | 95% | 1.2% | 0.8% | 0.7% | 0% | 0.5% | 1.8% |
| Spain | 94% | 1.8% | 0.2% | 0.4% | ? | 0.5% | 3% |
| United Kingdom | 87% | 0.5% | 5% | 1.5% | 0% | 3% | 3% |
| Canada | 77% | 2% | 3.5% | 8.5% | 4.5% | 3% | 1.5% |
| United States | 72.5% | 0.3% | 1.1% | 3.3% | 1% | 12.5% | 9.3% |
| Mexico | 8% | 1% | 0% | 1% | 28% | 0% | 62% |
| Haiti | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 95% | 5% |
| Peru | 15% | 0% | 0% | 15% | 45% | 2% | 37% |
| Brazil | 45% | 3% | 0% | 1% | 0.5% | 7.5% | 43% |
| Argentina | 88.5% | 6.2% | 0% | 0.4% | 1.5% | 0.4% | 3% |
| Chile | 85% | 4.5% | 0% | 0.2% | 10% | ? | ? |
| Australia | 82% | 2.5% | 2% | 7% | 0% | 1.5% | 5% |
Considering that Latin American countries are culturally Western, being speakers of Spanish, Portuguese or French, the determinant factor in their Westernness is ethnicity. There is no doubt that countries like Chile, Argentina or Uruguay are just as Western as the USA, Canada or Australia. In contrast, Haiti, which has 0% of unmixed European ancestry cannot possible be considered Western.
In Peru and Mexico people of unmixed European descent are a small minority, but if we could mestizos with partial European ancestry we get respectively 52% and 70%. Brazil is more clearly European, but still with 43% of mixed ancestry. Personally I am not sure I would consider Mexico, Bolivia and Peru Western. Brazil is borderline but would almost certainly be considered Western by lots of people, including most Brazilians themselves.
