Germans (German: Deutsche) are a Germanic ethnic groupnative to Central Europe,[4] who share a

common German ancestry, culture and history, and speak the German languageas their native

language.

The English term Germans has historically referred to theGerman-speaking population of the Holy

Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages.[5] Before the collapse of communism and

the reunification of Germany in 1990, Germans constituted the largest divided nation in Europe by

far.[6][7][note 1] Ever since the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire,

German society has been characterized by a Catholic-Protestant divide.[8]

Of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world,[9] roughly 70 million consider

themselves Germans.[citation needed] There are an additional 80 million people of German ancestry mainly

in the United States, Brazil(almost all in the South Region of the country), Argentina,Canada, South

Africa, the post-Soviet states (mainly in Russiaand Kazakhstan), and France, each accounting for at

least 1 million.[note 2] Thus, the total number of Germans lies somewhere between 100 and more than

150 million, depending on the criteria applied[1] (native speakers, single-ancestry ethnic Germans,

partial German ancestry, etc.).

Today, people from countries with a German-speaking majority such

as Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and other historically-tied countries like Luxembourg, have

developed their own national identity (not ethnic identity),[10] and since the end of World War II, have

not referred to themselves as "Germans" in a modern context.[11][12][13]