Italian Argentines (, ) are Argentine-born citizens of Italian descent or Italian-born people who reside in Argentina. It is estimated up to 17 million Argentines have some degree of Italian descent (up to 37% of the total population), Italians began arriving in Argentina in great numbers from 1857 to 1940, totaling 44.9% of the entire immigrant population; more than from any other country (including Spain at 31.5%), and this migratory flow continued to the early 1950s, with Italy also having the most emigrants to Argentina for the decades 1980–2000. Because of this, Italian descent is at least 37% of the population, almost 17 million.