Maps of American ancestries
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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 varying amounts of intermarriage between ethnic and racial groups.
It is important to note the relative meaning of the word "ancestry", and to how many generations back we trace it. It is well known that the original inhabitants of today's US came from Asia through the Bering strait. Ancestry touches the very origins of life on Earth and therefore should be treated as a relative term.
While some Americans can trace their ancestry back to a single ethnic group or population in Europe, Africa, or Asia, these are often first- and second-generation Americans. Generally, the degree of mixed heritage increases the longer one's ancestors have lived in the United States (see Melting pot). 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.
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[edit] Analysis by 2000 Federal Population Census
The majority of the 300 million people currently living in the United States are descended from European immigrants who have arrived in the past 400 years. Most Latin American immigrants are from the region defined as Latin America, and African American people, most of whom are descended from Africa and the slavery era, form the next-largest ethnic groups. American Indians who were pushed into reservations by the European 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 Africans, the majority of whom were brought as slaves, with smaller numbers having immigrated since then from Africa or the Caribbean. The historical national origin of the majority of African Americans is untraceable, most African nations were named centuries after slaves were imported the Americas, the continent of Africa serves as an indicator of geographic origin and a descriptive term.
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 other different European ethnicities who are unable or unwilling to choose one. Many people who trace their ancestry to colonial origins also may consider themselves to be of "American" ancestry.
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 African Americans due in part to slavery and intermarriage into families of colonial origins.
Also, some common German last names, for example Braun, Schmidt and Müller, have beenanglicized into Brown, Smith and Miller. The common Swedish last name Johansson, as well as the Norwegian/Danish names Johansen and Jensen, have also 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, 12 million Italian and 10 million Polish. 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. Some of the people currently from the countries which Americans descend from may not regard some Americans as anything but "Americans".
It should also be noted that persons of Jewish ancestry are not counted as such in the U. S. census. This may be due to a lack of consistency in how criteria of ethnicity are applied. A person who identifies of Arab ancestry, may also have the choice of identifying as of Lebanese ancestry. A person of Jewish ancestry whose family came from the Tsarist pale of Jewish settlement may not have his Jewish ancestry recorded in the U. S. census. One reason may be that Jewish, may be taken to suggest religious beliefs, not in the census. But here again is inconsistency. Ancestry "Pennsylvania Dutch" is census recordable, as is "Assyrian" even though both indicate religious identity of ancestry no less than does Jewish.
[edit] Ancestry maps
[edit] Major 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.
 Density of Asian Americans |
 Percent of Asian Americans |
 Density of African Americans |
 Percent of African Americans |
 Density of Native Hawaiian Americans |
 Percent of Native Hawaiian Americans |
 Density of Native Americans |
 Percent of Native Americans |
 Density of White Americans |
 Percent of White Americans |
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 Density of Hispanic ancestry |
 Percent of Hispanic ancestry |
[edit] European American ancestries
These images display frequencies of self-reported European American ancestries as of the 2000 U.S. Census.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
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| Race, ethnicity and ancestry |
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census · Maps of American ancestries · 2000 Census · Race/ethnicity by EEOC · Racism |
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