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Maps of American ancestries
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 significant amounts of intermarriage between ethnic and racial groups.
While some Americans can trace their ancestry back to a single ethnic group or population in Europe, Africa, or Asia, these are usually first- and second-generation Americans. Generally, degree of mixed heritage increases the longer one's ancestors have lived in the United States (see Melting pot). Recent archaeological and genetic research posits that Native American populations are also descended from several waves of Pacific Rim migrants. 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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The majority of the 300 million people currently living in the United States are descended from European immigrants who have arrived in the past 500 years. Latin American immigrants from countries to the south, and African American people, most of whom are descended from slave labor, form the next-largest ethnic groups. The Native American peoples who were displaced by the Old World 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 Slavic countries. Other significant European immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada; few immigrants came directly from France. Scottish, Welsh, and Scotch-Irish Americans form large segments of the white population but are systematically under-reported due to the tendency to lump them in with the English, with whom their ancestors shared a government, or Germans with whom they have intermarried on a truly massive scale. Since French, French-Canadian and Acadian ancestries are overlapping, the number of counties with "French" as the main ancestry would also be superior if these three labels are lumped together. A large number of Americans (12.9%) are descended from African immigrants, the majority of whom were brought as slaves, with a smaller amount immigrating since then from African nations or the Caribbean. All of these numbers, however, are inaccurate as many citizens listed themselves as "American" on the census (7.2%) and US government statistics depend entirely on self-reported ancestry. As an example of the shortfalls of such a system, estimates of the Scotch-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 different European ethnicities who are unable or unwilling to choose one. It is important however to realize that 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 US citizens do not know their ancestry entirely as well as would be desired hence a large proportion simply call themselves 'American' ancestry (not including Native Americans), 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 US 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 US are of British background - the top 5 being Smith, Johnson, Williams, Jones and Brown. Some of these names would have been adopted by black slaves from their slave masters. Also, two common German last names, Braun and Schmidt, are commonly anglicised into Brown and Smith. To add further weight, a World War 2 ethnic background of the US put the top four backgrounds as 36 million British (English, Scottish, Welsh), 32 million German, 15 million Irish and 10 million Italian. 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 info. Which is more accurate, for the time in question, is in some debate. Many of the people from the countries which Americans descend from do not regard Americans as anything but Americans, in fact some are quite surprised when an American would call themselves Scottish or German for example as opposed to Scottish or German ancestry.
"West Indian," "Arab," and regional African ancestries are not listed, though an African American map has been added from another source.
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Demographics of the United States · Demographic history Economic · Social Race · Ethnicity · Ancestry Asian Americans · African Americans · Africans in the United States · Hispanics in the United States · Native Americans · Pacific Islander American · White Americans · European Americans · Middle Eastern Americans |
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