In this Aug. 19, 2016 file photo, Long Chi Vong, 16, center, from Albuquerque, and other immigrants stand for the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance before taking the Oath of Citizenship at a ceremony in Rio Rancho, N.M. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras)

Money Talk News just released a brief video titled “You probably think minorities make up way more of America than they do.” It was subtitled: Research reveals Americans consistently misjudge population statistics due to cognitive bias.

Simply Psychology describes cognitive bias as “the result of your brain’s attempt to simplify information processing—we receive approximately 11 million bits of information per second. Still, we can only process roughly 40 bits of information per second. Therefore, we often rely on mental shortcuts to help us make sense of the world with relative speed.”

Naturally, mental shortcuts lead to mental errors.

According to the video, Americans have a significantly distorted perception of the size of various population groups. YouGov polling data found that majorities were underestimated, while minority groups were overestimated.
  

When it came to majorities like high school graduates and Christians, poll takers put the former at 65 percent and the latter at 58 percent, but in reality, high school graduates account for 89 percent of the population and Christians for 70 percent.
  

The overestimation of minority groups is more pronounced.

Transgender Americans were estimated at 21 percent of the population but are 0.6 percent. Gay and lesbian Americans were estimated at 30 percent but comprise 3 percent of the population. Muslim Americans were estimated at 27 percent of the population but are 1 percent. Native Americans were also thought to be 27 percent of the population but are only 1 percent.

First-generation immigrants were thought to be 40 percent of the population when they are only 14 percent, and Black Americans were considerably overestimated at 41 percent when they are only 12 percent. Since first-generation immigrants were lumped with Black Americans, it’s safe to infer they were referring to individuals of Latin American, Asian, African, and Middle Eastern heritage and not non-Hispanic Whites.
  

The video went on to claim that even members of minority groups significantly overestimate their numbers. Black Americans surveyed believed they made up 52 percent of the population; however, as previously stated, they make up only 12 percent.

The video producers did not attempt to ask members of specific nationalities within the non-Hispanic White group, which is America’s dominant demographic, whether they significantly overestimate their numbers, similar to how minority groups do. That oversight is most likely due to “false collective bias.” That happens when a group in a majority-forming coalition fails to acknowledge its minority status outside of that collective.
  

Non-Hispanic Whites acknowledge that America has traditionally been a refuge for European immigrants. In his 1958 book A Nation of Immigrants, John F. Kennedy stated, “It can be said that three large forces—religious persecution, political oppression, and economic hardship—provided the chief motives for the mass migration to our shores.”  The persecuted and the oppressed were minorities in their respective homelands. Once in America, the descendants of Europe adopted the national motto “E pluribus unum,” which means “out of many, one,” and worked to create a unified nation from diverse groups.

Over several generations, a collective non-Hispanic White majority formed, and by 2025, non-Hispanic Whites account for 58 percent of the population. That means that persons with non-European origin account for 52 percent of the population.  When compared to 58 percent of non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanics (20 percent), Blacks (12 percent), and Asians (7 percent) are minorities.

Now, let’s separate the European groups that comprise the non-Hispanic White collective and place their population percentage beside the 52 percent of non-Whites to determine each European group’s minority status.
               

As of 2025, English/Anglo-Saxon (14 percent), German (13.5 percent), Irish (10.5 percent), Italian (4.9 percent), Polish (2.7 percent), Scottish (2.4 percent), and Jewish (2.3 percent) are followed by Greek, Dutch, French, Russian, Lithuanian, Swedish, Serbian, Czech, and Hungarian, accounting for less than 2 percent each.
               

The Money Talk News Headline “You probably think minorities make up way more of America than they do” is correct, but they failed to point out that outside of the non-Hispanic White collective, European groups are minorities too.