(Redirected from American ancestry)
The 'ancestry of the people of the
United States' is widely varied and includes descendants of populations from around the world, some presumably extinct elsewhere. In addition to its variation, the ancestry of people of the United States is also marked by significant amounts of
intermarriage between
ethnic and
racial groups.
While some Americans can trace their ancestry back to a single ethnic group or population in
Europe,
Africa, or
Asia, these are usually first- and second-generation Americans. Generally, degree of mixed heritage increases the longer one's ancestors have lived in the United States (see
Melting pot). Recent archaeological and genetic research posits that
Native American populations are also descended from several waves of
Pacific Rim migrants.
There are several means available to discover the ancestry of the people residing in the United States, including
genealogy,
genetics,
oral and written history, and analysis of Federal Population Census schedules.
Analysis by 2000 Federal Population Census
A simpler version of the map above.
The majority of the 300 million people currently living in the United States are descended from
European immigrants who have arrived in the past 500 years.
Latin American immigrants from countries to the south and the takeover of Texas and much of the Southwestern United States from Mexico, and
African American people, most of whom are descended from slave labor, form the next-largest ethnic groups.
American Indians who were pushed into reservations by the Europeans immigrants now form a small minority in the population.
Major components of the European segment of the United States population are descended from immigrants from
Germany (19.2%),
Ireland (10.8%),
England (7.7%),
Italy (5.6%),
Scandinavia (3.7%) and
Poland (3.2%) with many immigrants also coming from other
Slavic countries. Other significant European immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada; few immigrants came directly from
France. Since
French,
French-Canadian and
Acadian ancestries are overlapping, the number of counties with "French" as the main ancestry would also be larger if these three labels are lumped together.
A large number of Americans (12.9%) are descended from
African immigrants, the majority of whom were brought as
slaves, with smaller numbers having immigrated since then from
Africa or the
Caribbean.
In addition, many citizens listed themselves as "American" on the census (7.2%). U.S. Census Bureau statistics depend entirely on self-reported ancestry. As an example of the shortfalls of such a system, estimates of the
Scots-Irish population by ancestry place it at 15-18% of the total population, making it the second largest ethnic group in the country. People of "American" ancestry are generally assumed to be of predominantly English, Scottish, or Welsh stock, though some are likely to be people of several different European ethnicities who are unable or unwilling to choose one.
The census is based upon questionnaires and have been compiled from answers given by a sample group. Therefore the answers given will reflect what the individual knows about their ancestry. Unfortunately, many U.S. citizens do not know their ancestry entirely as well as would be desired hence a large proportion simply call themselves "American" ancestry (not including
American Indians), or know that a part of their ancestry is Irish or at least has an Irish name and will therefore say 'Irish' as their ancestry.
The only way to get a true picture of what the U.S. ancestry is would be to do several hundred thousand genetic background analyses, which at the moment would be particularly expensive. Based upon last names however, the top 17 last names in the U.S. are of British background — the top 5 being
Smith,
Johnson,
Williams,
Jones and
Brown. Some of these names would have been adopted by black slaves from their slave masters.
Also, some common German last names, for example Braun, Schmidt and Müller, are commonly anglicized into Brown, Smith and Miller. The common Swedish last name Johansson, as well as the Norwegian/Danish names Johansen and Jensen, have often been
anglicized into Johnson. To add further weight, a
World War II ethnic background of the U.S. put the top four backgrounds as 36 million British (English, Scottish, Welsh), 32 million German, 15 million Irish and 10 million Italian. Of these four ethnic backgrounds, none committed any significant (and certainly not significant enough) immigration to the US to make up the difference, as a percentage, between the
2000 census and wartime statistics. These are obviously somewhat different from the latest census data. Which is more accurate, for the time in question, is in some debate. Many of the people from the countries which Americans descend from do not regard Americans as anything but Americans, in fact some are quite surprised when an American would call themselves Scottish or German for example as opposed to Scottish or German ancestry.
Ancestry maps
Racial ancestries
These images display frequencies of self-reported ancestries as of the
2000 U.S. Census. Regional African ancestries are not listed, though an African American map has been added from another source.
Euro-American ancestries
These images display frequencies of self-reported ancestries as of the
2000 U.S. Census.
References
★
American Factfinder -
U.S. Census Bureau
See also
★
United States
★
Demographics of the United States
★
Racial demographics of the United States
★
Ethnicity (United States Census)
★
Race (United States Census)
★
Language (United States Census)
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