New Zealanders of European descent are mostly of British and Irish ancestry, with significantly smaller percentages of other European ancestries such as Germans, Poles, French, Dutch, Croats and other South Slavs, Greeks, and Scandinavians. European New Zealanders are also known by the Māori-language loanword Pākehā.

Pākehā is a Māori-language term for New Zealanders who have no Polynesian ethnic ancestry, primarily European New Zealanders. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. Most inclusively the term can apply to any non-Māori New Zealander. Papa'a has a similar meaning in Cook Islands Māori.