Total population | |
---|---|
c. 331.4 million [1] (2020 U.S. census) | |
Regions with significant populations | |
American diaspora: c. 2.996 million (by U.S. citizenship) [2] [3] | |
Mexico | 799,000+ [2] [3] |
Colombia | 790,000+ [4] |
Germany | 324,000+ [5] |
Philippines | 38,000–300,000 [2] [3] [6] |
Canada | 273,000+ [2] [3] |
Brazil | 22,000-260,000 [2] [7] |
United Kingdom | 171,000+ [2] [3] |
Australia | 117,000+ [2] [3] |
France | 100,000+ [8] – 191,930 [9] |
Saudi Arabia | 70,000–80,000 [10] [11] |
Israel | 77,000+ [2] [3] |
South Korea | 68,000+ [2] [3] |
Hong Kong | 60,000 [12] –85,000 [13] |
Japan | 58,000+ [2] [3] |
Spain | 57,000+ [2] [3] |
Italy | 54,000+ [2] [3] |
Bangladesh | 45,000+ [2] [3] |
Peru | 41,000+ [2] [3] |
Switzerland | 39,000+ [2] [3] |
Ireland | 35,000+ [2] [3] |
Netherlands | 35,000+ [2] [3] |
India | 33,000+ [2] [3] |
Languages | |
Majority: American English Minority: Spanish, Indigenous languages, and various others | |
Religion | |
Majority: Christianity (Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Mormonism and other denominations) [14] Minority: Irreligion, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, and various others [14] |
Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America. [15] [16] The United States is home to people of many racial and ethnic origins; consequently, U.S. federal law does not equate nationality with race or ethnicity but with citizenship. [17] [18] [19] [20] The U.S. has 37 ancestry groups with more than one million individuals. [21] White Americans with ancestry from Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa form the largest racial and ethnic group at 61.6% of the U.S. population. [22] [23] Hispanic and Latino Americans form the second-largest group and are 18.7% of the American population. Black Americans constitute the country's third-largest ancestry group and are 12.4% of the total U.S. population. [21] Asian Americans are the country's fourth-largest group, composing 6% of the American population. The country's 3.7 million Native Americans account for about 1.1%, [21] and some 574 native tribes are recognized by the federal government. [24] In addition to the U.S., people of American descent can be found internationally. As many as seven million Americans are estimated to be living abroad, and make up the American diaspora. [25] [26] [27]
The majority of Americans or their ancestors immigrated to the United States or are descended from people who were brought as slaves within the past five centuries, with the exception of the Native American population and people from Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, Texas, and formerly the Philippines, [28] who became American through expansion of the country in the 19th century; [29] additionally, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands came under American sovereignty in the 20th century, although American Samoans are only nationals and not citizens of the United States. [30] [16]
Despite its multi-ethnic composition, [31] [32] the culture of the United States held in common by most Americans can also be referred to as mainstream American culture, a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Northern and Western European colonists, settlers, and immigrants. [31] It also includes significant influences of African-American culture. [33] Westward expansion integrated the Creoles and Cajuns of Louisiana and the Hispanos of the Southwest and brought close contact with the culture of Mexico. Large-scale immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from Eastern and Southern Europe introduced a variety of new customs. Immigration from Africa, Asia, and Latin America has also had impact. A cultural melting pot, or pluralistic salad bowl, describes the way in which generations of Americans have celebrated and exchanged distinctive cultural characteristics. [31]
The United States is a diverse country, both racially and ethnically. [35] Six races are officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes: Alaska Native and American Indian, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, White, and people of two or more races. "Some other race" is also an option in the census and other surveys. [36] [37] [38]
The United States Census Bureau also classifies Americans as "Hispanic or Latino" and "Not Hispanic or Latino", which identifies Hispanic and Latino Americans as a racially diverse ethnicity that comprises the largest minority group in the nation. [36] [37] [38]
People of European descent, or White Americans (also referred to as European Americans and Caucasian Americans), constitute the majority of the 331 million people living in the United States, with 191,697,647 people or 61.6% of the population in the 2020 United States census. [a] [40] [41] They are considered people who trace their ancestry to the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. [40] Non-Hispanic Whites, which only account for 57.8% of the population, are the majority in 45 states. There are five minority-majority states: California, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, and Hawaii. [42] [43] In addition, the District of Columbia and the five inhabited U.S. territories have a non-white majority. [40] The state with the highest percentage of non-Hispanic White Americans is Maine, while the state with the lowest percentage is Hawaii. [44]
Europe is the largest continent that Americans trace their ancestry to, and many claim descent from various European ethnic groups. [45]
The Spaniards were the first Europeans to establish a continuous presence in what is now the continental United States in 1565. [46] Martín de Argüelles, born in 1566 in San Agustín, La Florida then a part of New Spain, was the first person of European descent born in what is now the continental United States. [47] Virginia Dare, born in 1587 in Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina, was the first child born in the original Thirteen Colonies to English parents. The Spaniards also established a continuous presence in what over three centuries later would become a possession of the United States with the founding of the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1521.
In the 2020 United States census, English Americans 46.5 million (19.8%), German Americans 45m (19.1%), Irish Americans 38.6m (16.4%), and Italian Americans 16.8m (7.1%) were the four largest self-reported European ancestry groups in the United States constituting 62.4% of the population. [48] However, the English Americans and British Americans demography is considered a serious under-count as they tend to self-report and identify as simply "Americans" (since the introduction of a new "American" category in the 1990 census) due to the length of time they have inhabited America. This is highly over-represented in the Upland South, a region that was settled historically by the British. [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54]
Overall, as the largest group, European Americans have the lowest poverty rate [55] and the second highest educational attainment levels, median household income, [56] and median personal income [57] of any racial demographic in the nation, second only to Asian Americans in the latter three categories.
White and European Americans by ethnic origins | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Ethnic origins | % of total population | Population | Ref(s) | |
1 | English | 19.8 | 46,550,968 | [48] | |
2 | German | 19.1 | 44,978,546 | [48] | |
3 | Irish | 16.4 | 38,597,428 | [48] | |
4 | Italian | 7.1 | 16,813,235 | [48] | |
5 | Polish | 3.7 | 8,599,601 | [48] | |
6 | Scottish Scots-Irish | 3.6 0.3 | 8,422,613 794,478 | [48] | |
7 | French French Canadian | 3.4 0.4 | 7,994,088 933,740 | [48] | |
8 | Swedish | 1.6 | 3,839,796 | [48] | |
9 | Norwegian | 1.6 | 3,836,884 | [48] | |
10 | Dutch | 1.6 | 3,649,179 | [48] | |
Total | White and European American | TBA | 204,277,273 | [34] | |
According to the American Jewish Archives and the Arab American National Museum, the first Middle Easterners and North Africans (viz. Jews and Berbers) to arrive in the Americas landed in the late 15th to mid-16th centuries. [58] [59] [60] [61] Many fled ethnic or ethnoreligious persecution during the Spanish Inquisition; [62] [63] a few were taken to the Americas as slaves. [59]
In 2014, the United States Census Bureau began finalizing the ethnic classification of people of Middle Eastern and North African ("MENA") origins. [64] According to the Arab American Institute (AAI), Arab Americans have family origins in each of the 22 member states of the Arab League. [65] Following consultations with MENA organizations, the Census Bureau announced in 2014 that it would establish a new MENA ethnic category for populations from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Arab world, separate from the "white" classification that these populations had previously sought in 1909. The groups felt that the earlier "white" designation no longer accurately represents MENA identity, so they successfully lobbied for a distinct categorization. [66] This new category would also include Israeli Americans. [67] The Census Bureau does not currently ask about whether one is Sikh, because it views them as followers of a religion rather than members of an ethnic group, and it does not combine questions concerning religion with race or ethnicity. [68] As of December 2015, the sampling strata for the new MENA category includes the Census Bureau's working classification of 19 MENA groups, as well as Iranian, Turkish, Armenian, Afghan, Azerbaijani, and Georgian groups. [69] In January 2018, it was announced that the Census Bureau would not include the grouping in the 2020 census. [70]
Ancestry | 2000 | 2000 (% of US population) | 2010 | 2010 (% of US population) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Arab | 1,160,729 | 0.4125% | 1,697,570 | 0.5498% |
Armenian | 385,488 | 0.1370% | 474,559 | 0.1537% |
Iranian | 338,266 | 0.1202% | 463,552 | 0.1501% |
Jewish | 6,155,000 | 2.1810% | 6,543,820 | 2.1157% |
Total | 8,568,772 | 3.036418% | 9,981,332 | 3.227071% |
Black and African Americans are citizens and residents of the United States with origins in sub-Saharan Africa. [74] According to the Office of Management and Budget, the grouping includes individuals who self-identify as African American, as well as persons who emigrated from nations in the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa. [75] The grouping is thus based on geography, and may contradict or misrepresent an individual's self-identification since not all immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa are "Black". Among these racial outliers are persons from Cape Verde, Madagascar, various Arab states, and Hamito-Semitic populations in East Africa and the Sahel, and the Afrikaners of Southern Africa. [74] African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, and formerly as American Negroes) are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. [76] According to the 2020 United States census, there were 39,940,338 Black and African Americans in the United States, representing 12.4% of the population. [77] [b] [78] Black and African Americans make up the third largest group in the United States, after White and European Americans, and Hispanic and Latino Americans. [79] The majority of the population (55%) lives in the South; compared to the 2000 United States census, there has also been a decrease of African Americans in the Northeast and Midwest. [78]
Most African Americans are the direct descendants of captives from Central and West Africa, from ancestral populations in countries like Nigeria, Benin, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, and Angola, [80] who survived the slavery era within the boundaries of the present United States. [81] As an adjective, the term is usually spelled African-American . [82] Montinaro et al. (2014) observed that around 50% of the overall ancestry of African Americans traces back to the Niger-Congo-speaking Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria and southern Benin (before the European colonization of Africa this people created the Oyo Empire), reflecting the centrality of this West African region in the Atlantic slave trade. [83] Zakharaia et al. (2009) found a similar proportion of Yoruba associated ancestry in their African American samples, with a minority also drawn from Mandinka populations (founders of the Mali Empire), and Bantu populations (who had a varying level of social organization during the colonial era, while some Bantu peoples were still tribal, other Bantu peoples had founded kingdoms such as the Kingdom of Kongo). [84]
The first West African slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. The English settlers treated these captives as indentured servants and released them after a number of years. This practice was gradually replaced by the system of race-based slavery used in the Caribbean. [85] All the American colonies had slavery, but it was usually the form of personal servants in the North (where 2% of the people were slaves), and field hands in plantations in the South (where 25% were slaves); [86] by the beginning of the American Revolutionary War 1/5th of the total population was enslaved. [87] During the revolution, some would serve in the Continental Army or Continental Navy, [88] [89] while others would serve the British Empire in the Ethiopian Regiment, and other units. [90] By 1804, the northern states (north of the Mason–Dixon line) had abolished slavery. [91] However, slavery would persist in the southern states until the end of the American Civil War and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. [92] Following the end of the Reconstruction era, which saw the first African American representation in Congress, [93] African Americans became disenfranchised and subject to Jim Crow laws, [94] legislation that would persist until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act due to the civil rights movement. [95]
According to United States Census Bureau data, very few African immigrants self-identify as African American. On average, less than 5% of African residents self-reported as "African American" or "Afro-American" on the 2000 U.S. census. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants (~95%) identified instead with their own respective ethnicities. Self-designation as "African American" or "Afro-American" was highest among individuals from West Africa (4%–9%), and lowest among individuals from Cape Verde, East Africa and Southern Africa (0%–4%). [96] African immigrants may also experience conflict with African Americans. [97]
Black and African American population by ancestry group [98] [75] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Ancestry group | Percentage of total est. population | Pop. estimates | |
1 | Jamaican | 0.31% | 986,897 | |
2 | Haitian | 0.28% | 873,003 | |
3 | Nigerian | 0.08% | 259,934 | |
4 | Trinidadian and Tobagonian | 0.06% | 193,233 | |
5 | Ghanaian | 0.03% | 94,405 | |
6 | Barbadian | 0.01% | 59,236 | |
Sub-Saharan African (total) | 0.92% | 2,864,067 | ||
West Indian (total) (except Hispanic groups) | 0.85% | 2,633,149 | ||
Black and African American (total) | 12.1% | 39,940,338 | ||
2020 United States census |
According to the 2020 United States census, there are 2,251,699 people who are Native Americans or Alaska Natives alone; they make up 0.7% of the total population. [c] [99] According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), an "American Indian or Alaska Native" is a person whose ancestry have origins in any of the original peoples of North, Central, or South America. [99] 2.3 million individuals who are American Indian or Alaskan Native are multiracial; [99] additionally the plurality of American Indians reside in the Western United States (40.7%). [99] Collectively and historically this race has been known by several names; [100] as of 1995, 50% of those who fall within the OMB definition prefer the term "American Indian", 37% prefer "Native American" and the remainder have no preference or prefer a different term altogether. [101]
Among Americans today, levels of Native American ancestry (distinct from Native American identity) differ. Based on a sample of users of the 23andMe commercial genetic test, genomes of self-reported African Americans averaged to 0.8% Native American ancestry, those of European Americans averaged to 0.18%, and those of Latinos averaged to 18.0%. [102] [103]
Native Americans, whose ancestry is indigenous to the Americas, originally migrated to the two continents between 10,000 and 45,000 years ago. [104] These Paleoamericans spread throughout the two continents and evolved into hundreds of distinct cultures during the pre-Columbian era. [105] Following the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, [106] the European colonization of the Americas began, with St. Augustine, Florida becoming the first permanent European settlement in the continental United States. [107] From the 16th through the 19th centuries, the population of Native Americans declined in the following ways: epidemic diseases brought from Europe; [108] genocide and warfare at the hands of European explorers, settlers and colonists, [109] [110] as well as between tribes; [111] [112] displacement from their lands; [113] internal warfare, [114] enslavement; [115] and intermarriage. [116] [117]
Native American and Alaska Native population by selected tribal groups [99] [118] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | National origin | Percentage of total population | Pop. | |
1 | Cherokee | 0.26% | 819,105 | |
2 | Navajo | 0.1% | 332,129 | |
3 | Choctaw | 0.06% | 195,764 | |
5 | Chippewa | 0.05% | 170,742 | |
6 | Sioux | 0.05% | 170,110 | |
All other | 1.08% | 3,357,235 | ||
American Indian (total) | 0.7% | 2,251,699 | ||
2020 United States census |
Another significant population is the Asian American population, comprising 19,618,719 people in 2020, or 5.9% of the United States population. [d] [119] [120] California is home to 5.6 million Asian Americans, the greatest number in any state. [121] In Hawaii, Asian Americans make up the highest proportion of the population (57 percent). [121] Asian Americans live across the country, yet are heavily urbanized, with significant populations in the Greater Los Angeles Area, New York metropolitan area, and the San Francisco Bay Area. [122]
The United States census defines Asian Americans as those with origins to the countries of East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Although Americans with roots in West Asia were once classified as "Asian", they are now excluded from the term in modern census classifications. [123] The largest sub-groups are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Cambodia, mainland China, India, Japan, Korea, Laos, Pakistan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Asians overall have higher income levels than all other racial groups in the United States, including whites, and the trend appears to be increasing in relation to those groups. [124] Additionally, Asians have a higher education attainment level than all other racial groups in the United States. [125] [126] For better or for worse, the group has been called a model minority. [127] [128] [129]
While Asian Americans have been in what is now the United States since before the Revolutionary War, [130] [131] [132] relatively large waves of Chinese, Filipino, and Japanese immigration did not begin until the mid-to-late 19th century. [132] Immigration and significant population growth continue to this day. [133] Due to a number of factors, Asian Americans have been stereotyped as "perpetual foreigners". [134] [135]
Asian American ancestries [119] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Ancestry | Percentage of total population | Pop. | |
1 | Chinese | 1.2% | 3,797,379 | |
2 | Filipino | 1.1% | 3,417,285 | |
3 | Indian | 1.0% | 3,183,063 | |
4 | Vietnamese | 0.5% | 1,737,665 | |
5 | Korean | 0.5% | 1,707,027 | |
6 | Japanese | 0.4% | 1,304,599 | |
Other Asian | 0.9% | 2,799,448 | ||
Asian American (total) | 5.9% | 19,618,719 | ||
2020 United States census |
As defined by the United States Census Bureau and the Office of Management and Budget, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders are "persons having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands". [136] Previously called Asian Pacific American, along with Asian Americans beginning in 1976, this was changed in 1997. [137] As of the 2020 United States census, there are 622,018 who reside in the United States, and make up 0.2% of the nation's total population. [e] [138] 14% of the population have at least a bachelor's degree, [138] and 15.1% live in poverty, below the poverty threshold. [138] As compared to the 2000 United States census, this population grew by 40%; [136] and 71% live in the West; of those over half (52%) live in either Hawaii or California, with no other states having populations greater than 100,000. The United States territories in the Pacific also have large Pacific Islander populations such as Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands (Chammoro), and American Samoa (Samoan). [136] The largest concentration of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, is Honolulu County in Hawaii, [138] and Los Angeles County in the continental United States. [136]
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander by ancestries [136] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Ancestry | Percentage | Pop. | |
1 | Native Hawaiian | 0.17% | 527,077 | |
2 | Samoan | 0.05% | 184,440 | |
3 | Chamorro | 0.04% | 147,798 | |
4 | Tongan | 0.01% | 57,183 | |
Other Pacific Islanders | 0.09% | 308,697 | ||
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (total) | 0.2% | 622,018 | ||
2020 United States census |
The United States has a growing multiracial identity movement. [139] Multiracial Americans numbered 7.0 million in 2008, or 2.3% of the population; [120] by the 2020 census the multiracial increased to 13,548,983, or 4.1% of the total population. [140] They can be any combination of races (White, Black or African American, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, "some other race") and ethnicities. [141] The largest population of Multiracial Americans were those of White and African American descent, with a total of 1,834,212 self-identifying individuals. [140] Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States who is biracial- his mother is white (of English and Irish descent) and his father is of Kenyan birth- [142] [143] only self-identifies as being African American. [144] [145]
Population by selected Two or More Races Population [146] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Specific Combinations | Percentage of total population | Pop. | |
1 | White; Black | 0.59% | 1,834,212 | |
2 | White; Some Other Race | 0.56% | 1,740,924 | |
3 | White; Asian | 0.52% | 1,623,234 | |
4 | White; Native American | 0.46% | 1,432,309 | |
5 | African American; Some Other Race | 0.1% | 314,571 | |
6 | African American; Native American | 0.08% | 269,421 | |
All other specific combinations | 0.58% | 1,794,402 | ||
Multiracial American (total) | 4.1% | 13,548,983 | ||
2020 United States census |
According to the 2020 United States census, 8.4% or 27,915,715 Americans chose to self-identify with the "some other race" category, the third most popular option. Also, 42.2% or 26,225,882 Hispanic/Latino Americans chose to identify as some other race as these Hispanic/Latinos may feel the United States census does not describe their European and American Indian ancestry as they understand it to be. [147] A significant portion of the Hispanic and Latino population self-identifies as Mestizo, particularly the Mexican and Central American community. [148] Mestizo is not a racial category in the United States census, but signifies someone who has both European and American Indian ancestry.
Hispanic or Latino Americans constitute the largest ethnic minority in the United States. They form the second largest group in the United States, comprising 62,080,044 people or 18.7% of the population according to the 2020 United States census. [f] [79] [149]
Hispanic and Latino Americans are not considered a race in the United States census, instead forming an ethnic category. [150] [151] [152] [153]
People of Spanish or Hispanic and Latino descent have lived in what is now United States territory since the founding of San Juan, Puerto Rico (the oldest continuously inhabited settlement on American soil) in 1521 by Juan Ponce de León, and the founding of St. Augustine, Florida (the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the continental United States) in 1565 by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. In the State of Texas, Spaniards first settled the region in the late 1600s and formed a unique cultural group known as Tejanos.
Hispanic and Latino American population by national origin [154] [155] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | National origin | % of total population | Pop. | Ref(s) | |
1 | Mexican | 10.29% | 31,798,258 | [155] | |
2 | Puerto Rican [g] | 1.49% | 4,623,716 | [155] | |
3 | Cuban | 0.57% | 1,785,547 | [155] | |
4 | Salvadoran | 0.53% | 1,648,968 | [155] | |
5 | Dominican | 0.45% | 1,414,703 | [155] | |
6 | Guatemalan | 0.33% | 1,044,209 | [155] | |
7 | Colombian | 0.3% | 908,734 | [155] | |
8 | Spanish | 0.2% | 635,253 | [155] | |
9 | Honduran | 0.2% | 633,401 | [155] | |
10 | Ecuadorian | 0.1% | 564,631 | [155] | |
11 | Peruvian | 0.1% | 531,358 | [155] | |
All other | 2.62% | 7,630,835 | |||
Hispanic and Latino American (total) | 18.7% | 62,080,044 | |||
2020 United States census |
Uncle Sam is a national personification of the United States and sometimes more specifically of the American government, with the first usage of the term dating from the War of 1812. He is depicted as a stern elderly white man with white hair and a goatee beard, and dressed in clothing that recalls the design elements of the flag of the United States – for example, typically a top hat with red and white stripes and white stars on a blue band, and red and white striped trousers.
Columbia is a poetic name for the Americas and the feminine personification of the United States of America, made famous by African American poet Phillis Wheatley during the American Revolutionary War in 1776. It has inspired the names of many persons, places, objects, institutions, and companies in the Western Hemisphere and beyond, including the District of Columbia, the seat of government of the United States.
Language | Percent of population | Number of speakers |
---|---|---|
English | 78% | 245,478,064 |
Combined total of all languages other than English | 22% | 68,845,865 |
Spanish (excluding Puerto Rico and Spanish Creole) | 13.4% | 41,254,941 |
Chinese (including Cantonese and Mandarin) | 1% | 3,404,634 |
Tagalog | <1% | 1,715,436 |
Vietnamese | <1% | 1,523,114 |
Arabic | <1% | 1,390,937 |
French | <1% | 1,175,318 |
Korean | <1% | 1,073,463 |
Russian | <1% | 1,044,892 |
English is the unofficial national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2020, about 245 million, or 78% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 13.4% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language. [158] [159] Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in at least 30 out of the 50 states. [160] Both English and Hawaiian are official languages in Hawaii by state law. [161] Alaska has declared its 20 Native American languages to be official, along with English. [162] [163] In South Dakota, both dialects of the Sioux language have been declared official, along with English. [164] [165]
While neither has an official language, New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as Louisiana does for English and French. [166] Other states, such as California, mandate the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents. The latter include court forms. [167] Several insular territories grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English: Samoan and Chamorro are recognized by American Samoa and Guam, respectively; Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern Mariana Islands; Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico.
Affiliation | % of U.S. population | |
---|---|---|
Christian | 70.6 | |
Protestant | 46.5 | |
Evangelical Protestant | 25.4 | |
Mainline Protestant | 14.7 | |
Black church | 6.5 | |
Catholic | 20.8 | |
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | 1.6 | |
Jehovah's Witnesses | 0.8 | |
Eastern Orthodox | 0.5 | |
Other Christian | 0.4 | |
Non-Christian faiths | 5.9 | |
Jewish | 1.9 | |
Muslim | 0.9 | |
Buddhist | 0.7 | |
Hindu | 0.7 | |
Other Non-Christian faiths | 1.8 | |
Unaffiliated | 22.8 | |
Nothing in particular | 15.8 | |
Agnostic | 4.0 | |
Atheist | 3.1 | |
Don't know/refused answer | 0.6 | |
Total | 100 |
Religion in the United States has a high adherence level compared to other developed countries and a diversity in beliefs. The First Amendment to the country's Constitution prevents the Federal government from making any "law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". The U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted this as preventing the government from having any authority in religion. A majority of Americans report that religion plays a "very important" role in their lives, a proportion unusual among developed countries. However, similar to the other nations of the Americas. [169] Many faiths have flourished in the United States, including both later imports spanning the country's multicultural immigrant heritage, as well as those founded within the country; these have led the United States to become the most religiously diverse country in the world. [170]
The United States has the world's largest Christian population. [171] The majority of Americans (76%) are Christians, mostly within Protestant and Catholic denominations; these adherents constitute 48% and 23% of the population, respectively. [172] Other religions include Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, which collectively make up about 4% to 5% of the adult population. [173] [174] [175] Another 15% of the adult population identifies as having no religious belief or no religious affiliation. [173] According to the American Religious Identification Survey, religious belief varies considerably across the country: 59% of Americans living in Western states (the "Unchurched Belt") report a belief in God, yet in the South (the "Bible Belt") the figure is as high as 86%. [173] [176]
Several of the original Thirteen Colonies were established by settlers who wished to practice their religion without discrimination: the Massachusetts Bay Colony was established by English Puritans, Pennsylvania by Irish and English Quakers, Maryland by English and Irish Catholics, and Virginia by English Anglicans. Although some individual states retained established religious confessions well into the 19th century, the United States was the first nation to have no official state-endorsed religion. [177] Modeling the provisions concerning religion within the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the framers of the Constitution rejected any religious test for office. The First Amendment specifically denied the federal government any power to enact any law respecting either an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise, thus protecting any religious organization, institution, or denomination from government interference. European Rationalist and Protestant ideals mainly influenced the decision. Still, it was also a consequence of the pragmatic concerns of minority religious groups and small states that did not want to be under the power or influence of a national religion that did not represent them. [178]
The American culture is primarily a Western culture, but is influenced by Native American, West African, Latin American, East Asian, and Polynesian cultures.
The United States of America has its own unique social and cultural characteristics, such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, and folklore. [32]
Its chief early European influences came from English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish settlers of colonial America during British rule. British culture, due to colonial ties with Britain that spread the English language, legal system and other cultural inheritances, had a formative influence. [179] Other important influences came from other parts of Europe, especially Germany, [180] France, [181] and Italy. [182]
Original elements also play a strong role, such as Jeffersonian democracy. [183] Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia was perhaps the first influential domestic cultural critique by an American and a reaction to the prevailing European consensus that America's domestic originality was degenerate. [183] Prevalent ideas and ideals that evolved domestically, such as national holidays, uniquely American sports, military tradition, [184] and innovations in the arts and entertainment give a strong sense of national pride among the population as a whole. [185]
American culture includes both conservative and liberal elements, scientific and religious competitiveness, political structures, risk taking and free expression, materialist and moral elements. Despite certain consistent ideological principles (e.g. individualism, egalitarianism, faith in freedom and democracy), the American culture has a variety of expressions due to its geographical scale and demographic diversity.
Americans have migrated to many places around the world, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. Unlike migration from other countries, United States migration is not concentrated in specific countries, possibly as a result of the roots of immigration from so many different countries to the United States. [186] As of 2016 [update] , there were approximately 9 million United States citizens living outside of the United States. [187] As the result of U.S. tax and financial reporting requirements that apply to non-resident citizens, record numbers of American citizens renounced their U.S. citizenship in the decade from 2010 to 2020. [188] In 2024 a new organization was created to lobby the U.S. Congress for relief from citizenship-based taxation that is often cited as the reason for the record renunciations. [189]
The United States is the third most populous country in the world, and the most populous in the Americas and the Western Hemisphere, with an estimated population of 340,110,988 on July 1, 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This was an increase of 2.6% over the 2020 federal census of 331,449,281 residents. These figures include the 50 states and the federal capital, Washington, D.C., but exclude the 3.6 million residents of five unincorporated U.S. territories as well as several minor uninhabited island possessions. The Census Bureau showed a population increase of 0.4% for the twelve-month period ending in July 2022, below the world estimated annual rate of 1.03%, in 2021. The total fertility rate (TFR) is around 1.84 children per woman as of 2024, which is below the replacement fertility rate of approximately 2.1. By several metrics, including racial and ethnic background, religious affiliation, and percentage of rural and urban divide, the state of Illinois is the most representative of the larger demography of the United States.
Burke County is a county located along the eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia in the Piedmont. As of the 2020 census, the population was 24,596. The county seat is Waynesboro. Burke County is part of the Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC metropolitan statistical area.
Barrow County is a county located in the East Central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, its population was 83,505. Its county seat is Winder. Barrow County is included in the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Roswell metropolitan statistical area.
In the United States census, the US Census Bureau and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) define a set of self-identified categories of race and ethnicity chosen by residents, with which they most closely identify. Residents can indicate their origins alongside their race, and are asked specifically whether they are of Hispanic or Latino origin in a separate question.
In the United States of America, majority-minority area or minority-majority area is a term describing a U.S. state or jurisdiction whose population is composed of less than 50% non-Hispanic whites. It is defined as a population with a collective majority of nationwide minorities, meaning a grouping of racial and ethnic groups that composes over 50% of the territorial population, regardless if one of those minority groups already attains a majority on its own. No single minority is yet the majority in any state, with the closest to that end being Hispanics in New Mexico. As such, all majority-minority states do not have a single ethnic or racial group as the outright majority.
White Americans are Americans who identify as white people. In a more official sense, the United States Census Bureau, which collects demographic data on Americans, defines "white" as "[a] person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa". This group constitutes the majority of the people in the United States. According to the 2020 census, 71%, or 235,411,507 people, were White alone or in combination, and 61.6%, or 204,277,273 people, were White alone. This represented a national white demographic decline from a 72.4% white alone share of the US population in 2010.
The United States has a racially and ethnically diverse population. At the federal level, race and ethnicity have been categorized separately. The most recent United States census recognized five racial categories, as well as people who belong to two or more of the racial categories. The United States also recognizes the broader notion of ethnicity. The 2000 census and 2010 American Community Survey inquired about the "ancestry" of residents, while the 2020 census allowed people to enter their "origins". The Census Bureau also classified respondents as either Hispanic or Latino, identifying as an ethnicity, which comprises the minority group in the nation.
California is the most populous US state, with an estimated population of 38.9 million as of 2023. It has people from a wide variety of ethnic, racial, national, and religious backgrounds.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2023, Texas was the second largest state in population after California, with a population of 30,503,301, an increase of more than 1.3 million people, or 4.7%, since the 29,145,505 of the 2020 census. Its apportioned population in 2020 was 29,183,290. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the state of Texas has experienced strong population growth. Texas has many major cities and metropolitan areas, along with many towns and rural areas. Much of the population is concentrated in the major cities of Dallas–Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, McAllen, and El Paso and their corresponding metropolitan areas. The first four aforementioned main urban centers are also referred to as the Texas Triangle megaregion.
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 or Portuguese natively and immigrated to the United States.
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. Race is defined as a social and political category within society based on hierarchy.
Florida is the third-most populous state in the United States. Its residents include people from a wide variety of ethnic, racial, national and religious backgrounds. The state has attracted immigrants, particularly from Latin America. Florida's majority ethnic group are European Americans, with approximately 65% of the population identifying as White. National ethnic communities in the state include Cubans, who migrated en masse following the revolution in the mid 20th century. They have been joined by other immigrants from Latin America, and Spanish is spoken by more than 20% of the state's population, with high usage especially in the Miami-Dade County area.
Arkansas is the 32nd largest U.S. state, with a population of 3,011,524 as of the 2020 United States census.
The demographics of Hispanic and Latino Americans depict a population that is the second-largest ethnic group in the United States, 62 million people or 18.7% of the national population.
Asian Hispanic and Latino Americans, also called Asian Hispanics or Asian Latinos, are Americans of Asian ancestry and ancestry from Latin America. It also refers to Asians from Latin America that speak the Spanish or Portuguese natively and immigrated to the United States. This includes Hispanic and Latino Americans who identify themselves as Asian Americans.
Asian people are the people of the continent of Asia. The term may also refer to their descendants.
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.
Non-Hispanic Whites or Non-Latino Whites are White 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, 2023, Non-Hispanic whites make up about 58.4% of the U.S. population. 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, Italian, 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.
The racial and ethnic demographics of the United States have changed dramatically throughout its history.
The 2020 United States Census reported that San Francisco had a population of 873,965—an increase from the 2010 Census count of 805,235. The 2022 Census Bureau American Community Survey put the population at 808,437: a decrease of 65,528 from 2020. With a population density of 18,633 per square mile (7,194/km2), San Francisco is the second-most densely populated major American city, behind only New York.
The INA defines 'national of the United States' as '(A) a citizen of the United States, or (B) a person who, though not a citizen of the United States, owes permanent allegiance to the United States.'
The [INA] defines naturalization as 'conferring of nationality of a state upon a person after birth, by any means whatsoever.'
Who Is An American? Native-born and naturalized citizens
But it also expresses a myth of American nationality that remains vital in our political and cultural life: the idealized self-image of a multiethnic, multiracial democracy, hospitable to differences but united by a common sense of national belonging.
In inter-state relations, the American nation state presents its members as a monistic political body-despite ethnic and national groups in the interior.
To be or to become an American, a person did not have to be of any particular national, linguistic, religious, or ethnic background. All he had to do was to commit himself to the political ideology centered on the abstract ideals of liberty, equality, and republicanism. Thus the universalist ideological character of American nationality meant that it was open to anyone who willed to become an American.
The first, and central, way involves the view that Americans are all those persons born within the boundaries of the United States or admitted to citizenship by the government.
...from Thomas Paine's plea in 1783...to Henry Clay's remark in 1815... "It is hard for us to believe ... how conscious these early Americans were of the job of developing American character out of the regional and generational polaritities and contradictions of a nation of immigrants and migrants." ... To be or to become an American, a person did not have to be of any particular national, linguistic, religious, or ethnic background. All he had to do was to commit himself to the political ideology centered on the abstract ideals of liberty, equality, and republicanism. Thus the universalist ideological character of American nationality meant that it was open to anyone who willed to become an American.
Estimates made by organizations such as the Association of Americans Resident Overseas put the number of nongovernment-employed Americans living abroad anywhere between 4 million and 7 million, a range whose low end is based loosely on the government's trial count in 1999.
The total is the highest released to date: close to 6.32 million.
he most frequently cited estimate of nonmilitary U. S. citizens living overseas is between three and six million, based on a very rough State Department calculation in 1999—and never updated.
the status of Filipinos in the Philippines as American nationals existed from 1900 to 1946
Recalling earlier debates surrounding Filipinos' naturalization status in the United States, he pointed out that U.S. courts had definitively recognized that Filipinos were American "nationals" and not "aliens".
The Census Bureau is undertaking related mid-decade research for coding and classifying detailed national origins and ethnic groups, and our consultations with external experts on the Asian community have also suggested Sikh receive a unique code classified under Asian. The Census Bureau does not currently tabulate on religious responses to the race or ethnic questions (e.g., Sikh, Jewish, Catholic, Muslim, Lutheran, etc.).
The researchers found that European-Americans had genomes that were on average 98.6 percent European, .19 percent African, and .18 Native American.
genocide warfare europeans american indians.
From whatever cause wars may be brought on, either between different Indian tribes or between indians and whites, they are very destructive, not only of the lives of the warriors engaged in it, but of the women and children also, often becoming a war of extermination.
In 2011, for example, nearly a third of Asians in the U.S. lived in the metropolitan regions around Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.
This derives from a 1915 court ruling in Dow v. United States, in which a Syrian American, George Dow, appealed his being classified by the government as Asian. At the time, such a designation resulted in the denial of citizenship under the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
In addition, because of their perceived racial difference, rapid and continuous immigration from Asia, and on going detente with communist regimes in Asia, Asian Americans are construed as "perpetual foreigners" who cannot or will not adapt to the language, customs, religions, and politics of the American mainstream.
asian americans perpetual foreigners.
"Hispanic or Latino" refers to a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race.
The dominance of English and Anglo values in U.S. culture is evident in the country's major institutions, demonstrating the melting pot model.
However, France was second only to Britain in its influence upon the formation of American politics and culture.
As the communities grew and prospered, Italian food, entertainment, and music influenced American life and culture.