European Americans

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European Americans
Largest white alone or in any combination group by county in the United States. US Census 2020.jpg
Largest white alone or in any combination group by county in the 2020 United States census.
Total population
133 million European-diaspora Americans
41% of total U.S. population (2017) [1] [lower-alpha 1]
(as opposed to 235.4 million Americans identifying as White in combination with other races and 204.3 million self-identifying as white) [2]
61.6% of the total U.S. population (2020)
Regions with significant populations
Contiguous United States and Alaska
smaller populations in Hawaii and the territories
Languages
Predominantly English, but also other languages of Europe
Religion
Predominantly Christianity (Mainly Protestantism and Roman Catholicism);
Minority religions: Judaism, Mormonism, Islam, Neo-Paganism, Scientology, Irreligion, Atheism

European Americans, or Americans of European descent, are descendants of European settlers and immigrants. [3] [4] This term includes both people who descend from the first European settlers in the area of the present-day United States and people who descend from more recent European arrivals. Since the 17th century, European Americans have been the largest panethnic group in what are now the United States.

Contents

The Spaniards are thought to have been the first Europeans to establish a continuous presence in what is now the contiguous United States, with Martín de Argüelles (b. 1566) in St. Augustine, then a part of Spanish Florida, [5] [6] and the Russians were the first Europeans to settle in Alaska, establishing Russian America. The first English child born in the Americas was Virginia Dare, born August 18, 1587. She was born in Roanoke Colony, located in present-day North Carolina, which was the first attempt, made during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, to establish a permanent English settlement in North America.

In the 2020 United States census, English Americans (46.5 million), German Americans (45 million), Irish Americans (38.6 million), Italian Americans (16.8 million) and Polish Americans (8.6 million) were the five largest self-reported European ancestry groups in the United States. [7] However, the number of people with British ancestry is considered to be significantly under-counted, as many people in that demographic tend to identify themselves simply as Americans (20,151,829 or 7.2%). [8] [9] [10] [11] The same applies to Americans of Spanish ancestry, as many people in that demographic tend to identify themselves as Hispanic and Latino Americans (58,846,134 or 16.6%), even though they carry a mean of 65.1% European genetic ancestry, mainly from Spain. [12]

An increasing number of people ignored the ancestry question or chose no specific ancestral group such as "American or United States". In the 2000 census this represented over 56.1 million or 19.9% of the United States population, an increase from 26.2 million (10.5%) in 1990 and 38.2 million (16.9%) in 1980 and are specified as "unclassified" and "not reported". [13] [14]

Terminology

Proportion of Non-Hispanic White Americans in each county of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States Census Non-Hispanic White Americans by county.png
Proportion of Non-Hispanic White Americans in each county of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States Census
Number of European Americans From 1800 To 2010
YearPopulation % of the United StatesRef(s)
1800 4,306,44681.1%
1850 19,553,06884.3%
1900 66,809,19687.9%
1950 134,942,02889.5%
2000 211,460,62675.1%
2010 223,553,26572.4%

Use

In 1995, as part of a review of the Office of Management and Budget's Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 (Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting), a survey was conducted of census recipients to determine their preferred terminology for the racial/ethnic groups defined in the Directive. For the White group, European American came a distant third, preferred by only 2.35% of panel interviewees, as opposed to White, which was preferred by 61.66%. [15]

The term is sometimes used interchangeably with Caucasian American, White American, and Anglo American in many places around the United States. [16] However, the terms Caucasian and White are racial terms, not geographic, and include some populations whose origin is outside of Europe; and Anglo-American also has another definition, meaning Americans with English ancestry.

Origin

The term is used by some to emphasize this demographic's European cultural and geographical as well as ancestral origins, parallelling terms such as African Americans and Asian Americans.[ citation needed ]

In contexts such as medical research, terms such as "white" and "European" have been criticized for vagueness and blurring important distinctions between different groups that happen to fit within the label. [17] Margo Adair suggests that viewing Americans of European descent as a single group contributes to the "Wonder breading" of the United States, eradicating the cultural heritage of individual European ethnicities. [18]

Subgroups

Racial types of European Americans as published in "The American Museum journal" between 1900-1918 The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (18161635395).jpg
Racial types of European Americans as published in "The American Museum journal" between 1900-1918

There are a number of subgroupings of European Americans. [19] While these categories may be approximately defined, often due to the imprecise or cultural regionalization of Europe, the subgroups are nevertheless used widely in cultural or ethnic identification. [20] This is particularly the case in diasporic populations, as with European people in the United States generally. [21] In alphabetical order, some of the subgroups are:

History

Historical immigration estimates [22] [23]
CountryImmigration
before 1790		Ancestry 1790
England*230,0001,900,000
Ulster Scotch-Irish*135,000320,000
Germany [lower-alpha 2] 103,000280,000
Scotland*48,500160,000
Ireland8,000200,000
Netherlands6,000100,000
Wales*4,000120,000
France3,00080,000
Sweden and Other [lower-alpha 3] 50020,000
*Totals, British417,5002,500,000+
Flag of the United States (1777-1795).svg United States [lower-alpha 4] 950,0003,929,214

Before the arrival of Europeans, Native Americans predominantly inhabited the United States. The earliest Europeans to invade North America were the Spaniards. The first Spanish invasion was in 1565 at St. Augustine, Florida. [24] One of the most significant Spanish explorers was Hernando De Soto, a conquistador who accompanied Francisco Pizzaro during his conquest of the Inca Empire.

Leaving Havana, Cuba in 1539, De Soto's expedition landed in the state of Florida and explored the southeastern area of the United States. They reached as far as the Mississippi River in search of riches and fortune. Another Spaniard who explored the United States, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, set out from New Spain in 1540 in search of the mythical Seven Cities of Gold. Coronado's expedition traveled to Kansas and the Grand Canyon, but failed to discover gold or treasure. However, Coronado left a gift of horses to the Plains Indians. Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano and Frenchman Jacques Cartier are other Europeans who explored the United States. The Spaniards viewed the French as a threat to their trade route along the Gulf Stream. [25]

Since 1607, some 57 million immigrants have come to the United States from other lands. Approximately 10 million passed through on their way to some other place or returned to their original homelands, leaving a net gain of some 47 million people. [26]

Shifts in European migration

Before 1881, the vast majority of immigrants, almost 86% of the total, arrived from Northwestern Europe, principally Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia, known as "Old Immigration". The years between 1881 and 1893 the pattern shifted, in the sources of U.S. "New Immigration". Between 1894 and 1914, immigrants from Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe accounted for 69% of the total. [27] [28] [29] Prior to 1960, the overwhelming majority came from Europe or of European descent from Canada. Immigration from Europe as a proportion of new arrivals has been in decline since the mid-20th century, with 75.0% of the total foreign-born population born in Europe compared to 12.1% recorded in the 2010 census. [30]

Immigration since 1820

European immigration to the U.S. 1820–1970 [31] [32] [33] [34] [35]
YearsArrivalsYearsArrivalsYearsArrivals
1820–183098,8161901–19108,136,0161981–1990
1831–1840495,6881911–19204,376,5641991–2000
1841–18501,597,5021921–19302,477,853
1851–18602,452,6571931–1940348,289
1861–18702,064,4071941–1950621,704
1871–18802,261,9041951–19601,328,293
1881–18904,731,6071961–19701,129,670
1891–19003,558,7931971–1980
ArrivalsTotal35,679,763
Country of origin 1820–1978 [36] [37] [38]
CountryArrivals % of totalCountryArrivals % of total
Germany 16,978,00014.3% Norway 856,0001.8%
Italy 5,294,00010.9% France 751,0001.5%
Great Britain 4,898,00010.01% Greece 655,0001.3%
Ireland 4,723,0009.7% Portugal 446,0000.9%
Austria-Hungary 1,24,315,0008.9% Denmark 364,0000.7%
Russia 1,23,374,0006.9% Netherlands 359,0000.7%
Sweden 1,272,0002.6% Finland 33,0000.1%
Total34,318,000
European-born population

The figures below show that of the total population of specified birthplace in the United States. A total of 11.1% were born-overseas of the total population.

Population / Proportion
born in Europe in 1850–2016
YearPopulation% of foreign-born
18502,031,86792.2%
18603,807,06292.1%
18704,941,04988.8%
18805,751,82386.2%
18908,030,34786.9%
19008,881,54886.0%
191011,810,11587.4%
192011,916,04885.7%
193011,784,01083.0%
19607,256,31175.0%
19705,740,89161.7%
19805,149,57239.0%
19904,350,40322.9%
20004,915,55715.8%
20104,817,43712.1%
20164,785,26710.9%
Source: [39] [30] [40] [41]
BirthplacePopulation
in 2010		Percent
in 2010		Population
in 2016		Percent
in 2016
Totals, European-born4,817,43712.0%4,785,26710.9%
Northern Europe 923,5642.3%950,8722.2%
United Kingdom 669,7941.7%696,8961.6%
Ireland 124,4570.3%125,8400.3%
Other Northern Europe129,3130.3%128,1360.3%
Western Europe 961,7912.4%939,3832.1%
Germany 604,6161.5%563,9851.3%
France 147,9590.4%175,2500.4%
Other Western Europe209,2160.5%200,1480.4%
Southern Europe 779,2942.0%760,3521.7%
Italy 364,9720.9%335,7630.8%
Portugal 189,3330.5%176,6380.4%
Other Southern Europe224,9890.6%247,9510.5%
Eastern Europe 2,143,0555.4%2,122,9514.9%
Poland 475,5031.2%424,9281.0%
Russia 383,1661.0%397,2360.9%
Other Eastern Europe1,284,2863.2%1,300,7873.0%
Other Europe (no country specified)9,7330.0%11,7090.0%
Source: 2010 and 2016 [42]

Demographics

The New York City Metropolitan Area is home to the largest European population in the United States. A view of New York City with the Empire State Building and One World Trade Center from the Rockefeller Center.jpg
The New York City Metropolitan Area is home to the largest European population in the United States.

The data below give numbers of European Americans as measured by the U.S. Census in 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2020. The numbers are measured according to declarations in census responses. This leads to uncertainty over the real meaning of the figures: For instance, as can be seen, according to these figures, the European American population dropped 40 million in ten years, but in fact, is a reflection of changing census responses. In particular, it reflects the increased popularity of the "American" option following its inclusion as an example in the 1990 and 2000 census forms.[ citation needed ]

Breakdowns of the European American population into sub-components is a difficult and rather arbitrary exercise. Farley (1991) argues that "because of ethnic intermarriage, the numerous generations that separate respondents from their forebears and the apparent unimportance to many whites of European origin, responses appear quite inconsistent". [44]

In particular, a large majority of European Americans have ancestry from a number of different countries and the response to a single "ancestry" gives little indication of the backgrounds of Americans today. When only prompted for a single response, the examples given on the census forms and a pride in identifying the more distinctive parts of one's heritage are important factors; these will likely adversely affect the numbers reporting ancestries from the British Isles. Multiple response ancestry data often greatly increase the numbers reporting for the main ancestry groups, although Farley goes as far to conclude that "no simple question will distinguish those who identify strongly with a specific European group from those who report symbolic or imagined ethnicity." He highlights responses in the Current Population Survey (1973) where for the main "old" ancestry groups (e.g., German, Irish, English, and French), over 40% change their reported ancestry over the six-month period between survey waves (page 422).[ citation needed ]

The largest self-reported ancestries in 2000, reporting over 5 million members, were in order: German, Irish, English, American, Italian, French, and Polish. They have different distributions within the United States; in general, the northern half of the United States from Pennsylvania westward is dominated by German ancestry, and the southern-half by English and American. Irish may be found throughout the entire country. Italian ancestry is most common in the Northeast, Polish in the Great Lakes Region and the Northeast, and French in New England and Louisiana. U.S. Census Bureau statisticians estimate that approximately 62 percent of European Americans today are either wholly or partly of English, Welsh, Irish, or Scottish ancestry. Approximately 86% of European Americans today are of Central and Northwestern European ancestry, and 14% are of Eastern European, Southern European, Southeastern European, and Euro-Latino descent.[ citation needed ]

Ancestral origins

Ethnic origin 1980 / % [45] 1990 / % [46] [47] 2000 / % [48] 2020 / % [49] [50] change
2000–2020
United States pop.226,545,805100.0248,709,873100.0281,421,906100.0331,449,281100.0Increase2.svg7.4%
At least one ancestry
reported		188,302,43883.1224,788,50290.4225,310,41180.1TBATBA
Acadian/Cajun ——668,2710.385,4140.0132,6240.1
Albanian 38,6580.0247,7100.0113,6610.0236,6350.1
Alsatian 42,3900.0216,4650.015,6010.012,0560.00
American [lower-alpha 5] 13,298,7615.912,395,9995.020,625,0937.3--
Austrian 948,5580.42864,7830.3735,1280.3697,4250.3
Basque 43,1400.047,9560.057,7930.052,5590.0
Bavarian ——4,3480.0-----
Belarusian 7,3810.004,2770.0--67,5990.0
Belgian 360,2770.16380,498 [lower-alpha 6] 0.2360,6420.1384,2240.2
British ——1,119,1540.41,085,7200.4860,3150.4
British Islander ——————43,6540.0
Bulgarian 42,5040.0229,5950.055,4890.0102,9680.0
Carpatho Rusyn ——7,6020.09,7470.00
Celtic ——29,6520.065,6380.030,6300.0
Cornish ——3,9910.0--6,2570.0
Croatian 252,9700.11544,2700.2374,2410.1448,4790.2
Cypriot 6,0530.004,8970.07,6630.010,3840.00
Czech 1,892,4560.841,296,411 [lower-alpha 7] 0.51,262,5270.41,397,7800.6
Czechoslovakian ——315,2850.1441,4030.2--
Danish 1,518,2730.671,634,6690.71,430,8970.51,314,2090.6
Dutch 6,304,4992.786,227,0892.54,542,4941.63,649,1791.6
Eastern European [lower-alpha 8] 62,4040.03132,3320.1----
English 49,598,03521.8932,651,78813.124,515,1388.746,550,96819.8
Estonian 25,9940.0126,7620.025,0340.030,0540.0
European [lower-alpha 8] 175,4610.08466,7180.21,968,6960.7--
Finnish 615,8720.27658,8700.3623,5730.2684,3730.3
Flemish ——14,1570.0384,2240.2
French 12,892,2465.6910,320,9354.18,309,9083.07,994,0883.4
French Canadian 780,4880.342,167,1270.92,349,6840.8933,7400.4
German 49,224,14621.7357,947,171 [lower-alpha 9] 23.342,885,16215.244,978,54619.1
German Russian ——10,1530.010,5350.0
Greek 959,8560.421,110,3730.41,153,3070.4568,5640.2
Hungarian 1,776,9020.781,582,3020.61,398,7240.5684,3730.3
Icelandic 32,5860.0140,5290.042,7160.055,6020.0
Irish 40,165,70217.7338,735,539 [lower-alpha 10] 15.630,528,49210.838,597,42816.4
Italian 12,183,6925.3814,664,550 [lower-alpha 11] 5.915,723,5555.616,813,2357.1
Latvian 92,1410.04100,3310.087,5640.092,9440.0
Lithuanian 742,7760.33811,8650.3659,9920.2711,0890.3
Luxemburger 49,9940.0249,0610.045,1390.057,3590.0
Macedonian ——20,3650.038,0510.051,4010.0
Maltese 31,6450.0139,6000.040,1590.044,8740.0
Manx 9,2200.006,3170.06,9550.08,7040.0
Moravian ——3,7810.0----
Northern Irelander 16,4180.014,0090.03,6930.05,1810.0
Norwegian 3,453,8391.523,869,3951.64,477,7251.63,836,8841.6
Pennsylvania German ——305,8410.1255,8070.1169,8210.1
Polish 8,228,0373.639,366,1063.88,977,4443.28,599,6013.7
Portuguese 1,024,3510.451,153,3510.51,177,1120.41,454,2620.6
Prussian ——25,4690.0----
Romanian 315,2580.14365,5440.1367,3100.1416,5450.2
Russian 2,781,4321.232,952,9871.22,652,2140.92,412,1311.0
Saxon ——4,5190.0————
Scandinavian 475,0070.21678,8800.3425,0990.21,217,3330.5
Scots-Irish ——5,617,7732.34,319,2321.5794,4780.3
Scottish 10,048,8164.445,393,5812.24,890,5811.78,422,6133.6
Serbian 100,9410.04116,7950.0140,3370.0204,3800.1
Sicilian ——50,3890.0----
Slavic172,6960.0876,9310.0127,1370.0180,3160.1
Slovak 776,8060.341,882,8970.8797,7640.3691,4550.3
Slovenian 126,4630.06124,4370.1176,6910.1196,5130.1
Soviet ——7,7290.0----
Spaniard 94,5280.04360,9350.1299,9480.1978,9780.4
Spanish 2,686,680-2,024,0040.82,187,1440.8866,3560.4
Swedish 4,345,3921.924,680,8631.93,998,3101.43,839,7961.6
Swiss 981,5430.431,045,4950.4911,5020.3946,1790.4
Ukrainian 730,0560.32740,7230.3892,9220.3953,5090.4
Welsh 1,664,5980.732,033,8930.81,753,7940.61,977,3830.8
West German ——3,8850.0----
Yugoslav 360,1740.16257,9940.1328,5470.1--

Culture

American cultural icons, apple pie, baseball, and the American flag. All have European influence primarily from the British. Motherhood and apple pie.jpg
American cultural icons, apple pie, baseball, and the American flag. All have European influence primarily from the British.

As the largest component of the American population, the overall American culture deeply reflects the European-influenced culture that predates the United States of America as an independent state. Much of American culture shows influences from the diverse nations of the United Kingdom and Ireland, such as the English, Irish, Cornish, Manx, Scotch-Irish, Scottish and Welsh. Colonial ties to the United Kingdom spread the English language, legal system and other cultural attributes. [4]

Scholar David Hackett Fischer asserts in Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America that the folkways of four groups of people who moved from distinct regions of the United Kingdom to the United States persisted and provide a substantial cultural basis for much of the modern United States. [51] Fischer explains "the origins and stability of a social system which for two centuries has remained stubbornly democratic in its politics, capitalist in its economy, libertarian in its laws and individualist in its society and pluralistic in its culture." [52]

Much of the European-American cultural lineage can be traced back to Western and Northern Europe, which is institutionalized in the government, traditions, and civic education in the United States. [53] Since most later European Americans have assimilated into American culture, many Americans of European ancestry now generally express their personal ethnic ties sporadically and symbolically and do not consider their specific ethnic origins to be essential to their identity; however, European American ethnic expression has been revived since the 1960s. [54] Some European Americans such as Italians, Greeks, Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, Irish, and others have maintained high levels of ethnic identity. In the 1960s, the melting pot ideal to some extent gave way to increased interest in cultural pluralism, strengthening affirmations of ethnic identity among various American ethnic groups, European as well as others. [54]

Law

The American legal system also has its roots in French philosophy with the separation of powers and the federal system [55] along with English law in common law. [56] For example, elements of the Magna Carta in it contain provisions on criminal law that were incorporated into the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. It as well as other documents had elements influencing and incorporated into the United States Constitution.[ citation needed ]

Cuisine

Hamburgers were invented by German immigrants. Hamburger (black bg).jpg
Hamburgers were invented by German immigrants.

Thanksgiving

Sports

Music

Another area of cultural influence are American Patriotic songs:

Before 1931, other songs served as the hymns of American officialdom.

Admixture in non-Latino whites

Some European Americans have varying amounts of Native American and Native African ancestry. In a recent study, Gonçalves et al. 2007 reported Native African and Native American mtDna lineages at a frequency of 3.1% (respectively 0.9% and 2.2%) in European Americans, although that frequency may be scattered by region. [74]

DNA analysis on native European Americans by geneticist Mark D. Shriver showed an average of 0.7% Native African admixture and 3.2% Native American admixture. [75] The same author, in another study, claimed that about 30% of all European Americans, approximately 66 million people, have a median of 2.3% of native African admixture. [76] Later, Shriver retracted his statement, saying that actually around 5% of European Americans exhibit some detectable level of native African ancestry. [77]

From the 23andMe database, about 5 to at least 13 percent of self-identified European American Southerners have greater than 1 percent native African ancestry. [78] Southern states with the highest African American populations tended to have the highest percentages of hidden African ancestry. [79] European Americans on average are: "98.6 percent Native European, 0.19 percent Native African and 0.18 percent Native American." Inferred British/Irish ancestry is found in European Americans from all states at mean proportions of above 20%, and represents a majority of ancestry, above 50% mean proportion, in states such as Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Scandinavian ancestry in European Americans is highly localized; most states show only trace mean proportions of Scandinavian ancestry, while it comprises a significant proportion, upwards of 10%, of ancestry in European Americans from Minnesota and the Dakotas. [78] [79]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The figure does not include respondents ignoring the ancestry question.
  2. ↑ Germany in this time period consisted of a large number of separate countries, the largest of which was Prussia.
  3. ↑ The Other category probably contains mostly English ancestry settlers; but the loss of several states' census records in makes closer estimates difficult. The summaries of the 1790 and 1800 census from all states surveyed.
  4. ↑ Total represents total immigration over the approximately 130-year span of colonial existence of the U.S. colonies as found in the 1790 census. At the time of the American Revolution the foreign born population was estimated to be from 300,000 to 400,000.
  5. ↑ The category "American" or "United States" was under "ancestry not specified" in the 1980 and 1990 census results. However they are shown separately in the 2000 census comparison brief showing 12,395,999 as American and 643,561 as United States in 1990.
  6. ↑ Excludes Flemish. [47]
  7. ↑ Excludes Moravian. [47]
  8. 1 2 This category represents a general type response, which may encompass several ancestry groups. [47]
  9. ↑ Excludes Bavarian, Prussian, Saxon, and West German. [47]
  10. ↑ Excludes Northern Irish and Celtic. [47]
  11. ↑ Excludes Sicilian. [47]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of New York (state)</span>

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2023, New York was the fourth largest state in population after California, Texas, and Florida, with a population of 19,571,216, a decrease of over 600,000 people, or −3.1%, since the 2020 census. The population change between 2000–2006 includes a natural increase of 601,779 people and a decrease due to net migration of 422,481 people out of the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 820,388 people, and migration within the country produced a net loss of about 800,213.

White Hispanic and Latino Americans, also called Euro-Hispanics, Euro-Latinos, White Hispanics, or White Latinos, are Americans of white ancestry and ancestry from Latin America. It also refers to people of European ancestry from Latin America that speak Spanish natively and immigrated to the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Indian Americans</span> Americans of West Indian (Caribbean) birth or descent

Caribbean Americans or West Indian Americans are Americans who trace their ancestry to the Caribbean. Caribbean Americans are a multi-ethnic and multi-racial group that trace their ancestry further in time mostly to Africa, as well as Asia, the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, and to Europe. As of 2016, about 13 million — about 4% of the total U.S. population — have Caribbean ancestry.

The legal and social strictures that define White Americans, and distinguish them from persons who are not considered White by the government and society, have varied throughout the history of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European emigration</span> European-descended people living outside Europe

European emigration is the successive emigration waves from the European continent to other continents. The origins of the various European diasporas can be traced to the people who left the European nation states or stateless ethnic communities on the European continent.

Asian people are the people of Asia. The term may also refer to their descendants. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, an Asian is “a person of Asian descent”.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Americans</span> Citizens and nationals of the United States

Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States. The United States is home to people of many racial and ethnic origins; consequently, American law does not equate nationality with race or ethnicity, but with citizenship and an oath of permanent allegiance.

Multiracial Americans or mixed-race Americans are Americans who have mixed ancestry of two or more races. The term may also include Americans of mixed-race ancestry who self-identify with just one group culturally and socially. In the 2020 United States census, 33.8 million individuals or 10.2% of the population, self-identified as multiracial. There is evidence that an accounting by genetic ancestry would produce a higher number.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of Georgia (U.S. state)</span>

Georgia is a South Atlantic U.S. state with a population of 10,711,908 according to the 2020 United States census, or just over 3% of the U.S. population. The majority of the state's population is concentrated within Metro Atlanta, although other highly populated regions include: West Central and East Central Georgia; West, Central, and East Georgia; and Coastal Georgia; and their Athens, Columbus, Macon and Warner Robins, Augusta, Savannah, Hinesville, and Brunswick metropolitan statistical areas.

American ancestry refers to people in the United States who self-identify their ancestral origin or descent as "American", rather than the more common officially recognized racial and ethnic groups that make up the bulk of the American people. The majority of these respondents are visibly White Americans, who are far removed from and no longer self-identify with their original ethnic ancestral origins. The latter response is attributed to a multitude of generational distance from ancestral lineages, and these tend be Anglo-Americans of English, Scotch-Irish, Welsh, Scottish or other British ancestries, as demographers have observed that those ancestries tend to be recently undercounted in U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey ancestry self-reporting estimates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Non-Hispanic whites</span> White Americans who are not Hispanic

Non-Hispanic Whites, Non-Latino Whites, or more simply White Americans, are Americans classified by the United States census as "white" and not Hispanic. According to the United States Census Bureau yearly estimates, as of July 1, 2022, Non-Hispanic whites make up about 59.3% of the U.S. population, or 197,639,521 people. The United States Census Bureau defines white to include European Americans, Middle Eastern Americans, and North African Americans. Americans of European ancestry are divided into various ethnic groups. More than half of the white population are German, Irish, English, French and Polish Americans. Many Americans are also the product of other European groups that migrated to parts of the US in the 19th and 20th centuries, as the bulk of immigrants from various countries in Northern, Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as the Caucasus region, migrated to the United States.

References

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