This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(February 2024) |
Total population | |
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| |
Regions with significant populations | |
South Florida, Orlando, Atlanta, New York City, Houston | |
Languages | |
English, Virgin Islands Creole | |
Religion | |
Predominantly Christianity | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Caribbean Americans |
Stateside Virgin Islanders are West Indian Americans who hold US citizenship and who have migrated from the U.S. Virgin Islands to the continental United States and Hawaii, and their descendants.
Persons born in the U.S. Virgin Islands are United States citizens, and as a result do not go through the legal immigration procedures a typical West Indies immigrant would. Virgin Islanders in the U.S. are considered part of the Caribbean American community.
It is difficult to determine how many Virgin Islanders reside in the United States proper. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, there are 15,014 people of U.S. Virgin Islands ancestry residing in the continental United States and Hawaii. However, a count of American residents with "U.S. Virgin Islands ancestry" excludes most U.S. Virgin Islands-born migrants in the United States proper. Because of a high incidence of inter-Caribbean migration throughout the 1960s and 1970s, most native-born Virgin Islanders today are one or two generations removed from other Caribbean islands and would not necessarily define themselves as having "U.S. Virgin Islands ancestry." For example, Tim Duncan is a St. Croix native with Anguillian ancestry.
Virgin Island Americans includes Americans with ancestry from both the US Virgin Islands and British Virgin Islands, together numbering about 25,000. A majority of Virgin Islands Americans are of black Afro-Caribbean descent, many of whom descend from enslaved Africans brought to the islands by Europeans in the colonial era. A large portion descends from black or mixed race migrants who came from other parts of the Caribbean including Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and many smaller countries in the Lesser Antilles.
Many Virgin Islands Americans concentrate in areas with a large overall Caribbean population, including areas like New York, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
State/Territory | 2020 census [2] | % (2020) | 2010 census | % (2010) |
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![]() | 76 | N/A | ||
![]() | 13 | N/A | ||
![]() | 76 | N/A | ||
![]() | 11 | N/A | ||
![]() | 323 | N/A | 131 | 0.1% |
![]() | 107 | N/A | ||
![]() | 216 | N/A | ||
![]() | 46 | N/A | ||
![]() | 39 | N/A | ||
![]() | 3,639 | N/A | 505 | 0.5% |
![]() | 1,365 | N/A | ||
![]() | 13 | N/A | ||
![]() | 2 | N/A | ||
![]() | 94 | N/A | ||
![]() | 41 | N/A | ||
![]() | 15 | N/A | ||
![]() | 11 | N/A | ||
![]() | 40 | N/A | ||
![]() | 83 | N/A | ||
![]() | 13 | N/A | ||
![]() | 455 | N/A | ||
![]() | 297 | N/A | ||
![]() | 79 | N/A | ||
![]() | 39 | N/A | ||
![]() | 8 | N/A | ||
![]() | 23 | N/A | ||
![]() | 5 | N/A | ||
![]() | 6 | N/A | ||
![]() | 55 | N/A | ||
![]() | 47 | N/A | ||
![]() | 403 | N/A | ||
![]() | 13 | N/A | ||
![]() | 1,281 | N/A | 250 | 0.2% |
![]() | 461 | N/A | ||
![]() | 0 | 0.0% | ||
![]() | 93 | N/A | ||
![]() | 48 | N/A | ||
![]() | 25 | N/A | ||
![]() | 439 | N/A | ||
![]() | 80 | N/A | 109 | 0.1% |
![]() | 44 | N/A | ||
![]() | 86 | N/A | ||
![]() | 4 | N/A | ||
![]() | 69 | N/A | ||
![]() | 913 | N/A | 140 | 0.1% |
![]() | 7 | N/A | ||
![]() | 8 | N/A | ||
![]() | 391 | N/A | ||
![]() | 115 | N/A | ||
![]() | 6 | N/A | ||
![]() | 22 | N/A | ||
![]() | 0 | 0.0% | ||
![]() | 11,670 | N/A | 2,491 | 2.4% |
During the 1920’s, a large influx of Virgin Islanders migrated to New York City in search of jobs and economic opportunities. In 1925, the population of native islanders in the city was 8,000 alone. However, while living in Harlem, Virgin Islanders encountered deeper racial tensions than what was felt on the islands. This led to the Harlem Renaissance in which four men including Casper Holstein, Hubert Harrison. Ashley Totten and Frank Crosswaith joined other Caribbean migrants to advocate for equal rights in their community. Besides that, New York City is historically known to be the first stop city for Virgin Islanders and remains throughout today. It is also the birthplace of recent elected officials in USVI such as former Governor Kenneth Mapp and Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett who are both descendants of Crucian parents. The 2020 census estimates 1,281 Virgin Islanders reside in New York state.
According to the 2020 census, Florida has the highest population of Virgin Islanders in any state throughout the country. While New York and Georgia ranks second and third in line. Recent data have shown Orange County particularly Metro Orlando (248), Pine Hills (189), Oak Ridge (27), Apopka (33), to be the most settled region for Virgin Islanders not only in Florida but the entire United States. Other regions include Ft. Lauderdale and Jacksonville which also shares a large amount of Virgin Islanders. Historically, high school students from the Virgin Islands have attended Bethune–Cookman University in Daytona Beach and many carnival troupes take part in the Orlando Carnival activities each May.
Lists of Americans |
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By US state |
By ethnicity or nationality |
The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.
The United States Virgin Islands (USVI) is the only place under United States jurisdiction where the rule of the road is to drive on the left. However, virtually all passenger vehicles are left hand drive due to imports of U.S. vehicles.
Saint Croix is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States.
Saint Thomas is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea, and a constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States. Along with surrounding minor islands, it is one of three county-equivalents in the USVI. Together with Saint John, it forms one of the districts of the USVI. The territorial capital and port of Charlotte Amalie is located on the island.
The music of the Virgin Islands reflects long-standing West Indian cultural ties to the island nations to the south, the islands' African heritage and European colonial history, as well as recent North American influences. Though the United States Virgin Islands and British Virgin Islands are politically separate, they maintain close cultural ties. From its neighbors, the Virgin Islands has imported various pan-Caribbean genres of music, including calypso music and soca music from Trinidad and reggae from Jamaica.
The U.S. Virgin Islands national soccer team, nicknamed The Dashing Eagles, is the national soccer team of the U.S. Virgin Islands and is controlled by the U.S. Virgin Islands Soccer Federation.
Christiansted is the largest town on Saint Croix, one of the main islands composing the United States Virgin Islands, a territory of the United States of America. The town is named after King Christian VI of Denmark.
Frederiksted is both a town and one of the two administrative districts of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. It is a grid-planned city, designed by surveyor Jens Beckfor, originally to 14x14 blocks but built 7x7 to enhance the island commerce in the 1700s. Fewer than 1,000 people live in Frederiksted proper, but nearly 10,000 live on the greater western side of the island. Christiansted is about 30 years older, but commerce was limited by its natural, shallow protective reef. Frederiksted was built in the leeward side of the island for calm seas and a naturally deep port. It is home to Fort Frederik, constructed to protect the town from pirate raids and attacks from rival imperialist nations and named after Frederick V of Denmark, who purchased the Danish West Indies in 1754.
The Diocese of Saint Thomas in the Virgin Islands is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church for the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is the only suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Washington.
Frank Rudolph Crosswaith (1892–1965) was a longtime socialist politician and activist and trade union organizer in New York City who founded and chaired the Negro Labor Committee, established on July 20, 1935, by the Negro Labor Conference.
Elmo Alexander Plaskett was a professional baseball player from the United States Virgin Islands. He played as a catcher, outfielder and third baseman in Major League Baseball. Although his pro career would encompass 13 seasons in the minor leagues and multiple years in winter baseball in Puerto Rico, he appeared in only 17 games in the Major Leagues for the 1962 and 1963 Pittsburgh Pirates.
Gerard Luz Amwur James II is an American Virgin Islander politician, funeral director, and businessman. James served as the Lieutenant Governor of the United States Virgin Islands from 1999 until 2003 and was the president of Fifth Constitutional Convention of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Derek M. Hodge was an American Virgin Islander politician and lawyer who served as the Lieutenant Governor of the United States Virgin Islands for two terms from 1987 to 1995 under Governor Alexander Farrelly. The Virgin Islands Daily News called him a "towering figure in local politics," referring to his political career, which spanned several decades.
Religion in the United States Virgin Islands is varied, though most U.S. Virgin Islanders are Christian. The U.S. Virgin Islands has a history of Judaism and Christianity, with Jews first settling on the islands in 1655. It is estimated that only 5-6% of the population is non-Christian.
Arnold Ray Highfield was an American professor, historian, writer, and poet, best known for his historical works on the Danish West Indies and the United States Virgin Islands.
The Frederiksted Pier is the 1,526-foot, deep water, cruise ship pier located in Frederiksted, U.S. Virgin Islands. It is located at the west end of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands and accommodate two Eagle-class vessels, of a maximum of 142,000 gross tons each with drafts up to 29 feet and two mini-cruise vessels with drafts of 18 feet. Anchorage is also available in the outer harbor for larger ships. The platform of the pier is equipped with a fendering system that is designed for submarines.
Ruby M. Rouss was an American citizen born on Saint Croix in the US Virgin Islands. Her career was marked by a series of firsts. She was the first Virgin Islander in the Women's Army Corps (WAC), first African-American woman to serve on General Eisenhower’s staff, and first black woman assigned as a permanent staff of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. After a 20-year military career, she retired from service and became the first woman parole officer in St. Croix. In 1973, she was elected as one of the first women to serve in the Virgin Island's legislature. In 1981, Rouss served as the first female President of the Virgin Islands Legislature, becoming the first black woman to lead a legislature in the United States. She was elected to serve a second presidency of the Senate in 1987 and died the following year. Posthumously, she was inducted into the Virgin Island's Women's Hall of Fame and a housing project in St. Croix was renamed in her honor.
Delta Dorsch was an educator, story-teller and preserver of the cultural history of the United States Virgin Islands. Teaching for 38 years, working with the Department of Education and the Commission on the Preservation of Virgin Islands Culture, Dorsch was a tireless advocate for conserving traditions of the Virgin Islands and teaching as a means of giving them life. She contributed two books on the history and traditions of the country and received many awards and honors in recognition of her work.