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Danish American
Notable Danish Americans: 'Jessica Alba' 'Scarlett Johansson' 'Viggo Mortensen' 'Lloyd Bentsen' 'Steny Hoyer' 'Janet Reno' 'Eliza Dushku'
Total population
Danish 1,430,897 Americans [1] 0.5% of the US population
Regions with significant populations
Utah, Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin
Language(s)
English language, Danish
Religion(s)
Lutheranism, Mormonism
Related ethnic groups
Scandinavian Americans

Danish Americans are people born in the United States with Danish ancestry. There are approximately 1,500,000 Americans of Danish origin or descent.

According to the United States Census of 2000, the states with the largest populations of Danish Americans are as follows:

• California - 207,030
• Utah - 144,713
• Minnesota - 88,924
• Wisconsin - 72,160
• Washington - 72,098

The states with the smallest populations of Danish Americans are as follows:

• West Virginia - 1,317
• Delaware - 1,585
• Rhode Island - 1,811
• Vermont - 2,522
• Mississippi - 2,617

If it were a state, Washington, D.C. would have the smallest Danish American population, with 1,047 counted in 2000.^[2]

Contents 1 Culture 1.1 Education 1.2 Religious life 2 Danish American communities 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

The Library of Congress has noted that Danish Americans, more so than other Scandinavian Americans, "spread nationwide and comparatively quickly disappeared into the melting pot....the Danes were the least cohesive group and the first to lose consciousness of their origins."^[3] Historians have pointed to the higher rate of English use among Danes, their willingless to marry non-Danes, and their eagerness to become naturalized citizens as factors that contributed to their rapid assimilation, as well as their interactions with the already more assimilated German American community.^[4]

As the Danes came to America, they brought some of their traditional foods with them. Popular Danish foods among Danish Americans are kringle, æbleskiver, frikadeller (Danish meatballs), and risengrød.

In 1872, Danish Americans in Omaha, Nebraska founded the Danish Pioneer, an English-Danish newspaper. Now published in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, it is the oldest Danish American newspaper in publication.^[5]

Like many other immigrant groups, Danish Americans also schools to educate their youth. Traditional Danish "folk schools," which focused more on learning outcomes than grades or diplomas, were operated primarily between the 1870s and 1930s in heavily Danish communities such as Elk Horn, Iowa; Ashland, Michigan; West Denmark, Wisconsin; Nysted, Nebraska; Tyler, Minnesota; Kenmare, North Dakota; and Solvang, California.^[6]

The two major still-operating historically Danish American colleges are Dana College in Blair, Nebraska and Grand View College in Des Moines, Iowa, both of which are home to large collections of Danish American archives.

Some Danish Americans classify themselves as religious.^{[citation needed]} Like other groups of Americans of Scandinavian descent, many of them are Lutherans. The oldest Danish-Lutheran congregation is Emmaus Lutheran Church in Racine, Wisconsin, founded August 22, 1851. Nearby Kenosha is home to the second oldest Danish-Lutheran congregation, St. Mary's Lutheran Church, which is the largest congregation in the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Of the Danish Americans that are not Lutheran, a large number converted to Mormonism. This is in contrast with Norwegian and Swedish Americans, also of Scandinavian ancestry, who have not made the conversion in such large numbers.^{[citation needed]}

Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin have the largest concentrations of non-Mormon Danish Americans. The states with the largest Mormon Danish American populations are Utah and Idaho, particularly the southeastern part of the state.

Smaller but significant numbers of Danish Americans have also become Methodists, Baptists, and Seventh-day Adventists.^[7]

Racine, Wisconsin claims to be the home to the largest group of Danish Americans in the United States. A number of other communities were founded by Danish Americans or have a large Danish American community:

• Ames, Iowa
• Askov, Minnesota
• Blair, Nebraska
• Dagmar, Montana
• Danevang, Texas
• Dannebrog, Nebraska
• Denmark, Wisconsin
• Elk Horn, Iowa
• Kenmare, North Dakota
• Kenosha, Wisconsin
• Madison, Wisconsin
• Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Racine, Wisconsin
• Solvang, California
• Tyler, Minnesota
• Viborg, South Dakota
• Washington Island, Wisconsin

Additionally, Danish Americans helped settle Montcalm County, Michigan.

• List of Danish Americans

• Danish Immigrant Museum
• The Danish Pioneer
• Danish American Center
• Danish Sisterhood of America
• Danish American Trivia
• Danish American Population Figures
• Danish American Heritage Society
• National Danish-American Genealogical Society
• Multicultural America: Danish Americans

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