Although the historic mestizaje of Europeans and Amerindians is evident across all social strata in the Chilean population, there is a strong correlation between the ratio of a Chilean's European and indigenous genetic components and their socioeconomic situation. There is a marked continuumQuote: "Al analizar la composición étnica por estratos sociales nos hemos encontrado con un gradiente sociogenético importante que condiciona la estructura de la morbimortalidad según estrato socioeconómico y la evolución sociocultural de Chile"</ref> existing between the lower classes of a high component of indigenous ancestry and the upper classes of a predominant component of European ancestry. Indigenous inheritance, whether cultural or genetic, is most pronounced in rural areas and in aspects of culture such as Chilean cuisine and Chilean Spanish. Although post-independence immigrants never made up more than 2% of the population, there are now hundreds of thousands of Chileans with German,Quote in German: Es wird geschätzt, dass zwischen 500 bis 600 Tausend Chilenen deutscher Herkunft sind.</ref> British, French, Croatian, Italian or Palestinian ancestry, though these have also been mostly miscegenated with other groups within the country.