Ancestry

How does the US Census Bureau define and collect data on ancestryAncestry refers to onersquos ethnic origin or descent ldquorootsrdquo or heritage or the place of birth of the person or the personrsquos parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States The intent of the ancestry question is not to measure the degree of attachment the respondent had to a particular ethnicity For example a response of ldquoIrishrdquo might reflect involvement in the community or a memory of ancestors several generations removed A personrsquos ancestry is not necessarily the same as his or her place of birth

Ancestry was asked in the 1980 1990 and 2000 decen-nial censuses Since then ancestry has been collected on the American Community Survey (ACS) When someone reports more than two groups for their ancestry only the first two are tabulated

What ancestry groups does the Census Bureau provide data onPeople report hundreds of different ancestry groups Given the space limitations of our tables we cannot show all groups in every type of product Some very small groups are not listed in any of our tables

The Ancestry 2000 brief listed all ancestries with100000 or more people The two graphics on the right are from that report The full report can be found at www2censusgovlibrarypublicationsdecennial2000briefsc2kbr-35pdfSome large groups are not shown in our ACS data prod-ucts because the official data for those groups come from the Hispanic origin or race questions The Hispanic origin question provides detailed data on the Mexican Puerto Rican and Cuban populations as well as other Hispanic groups The race question provides data for the White Black or African American Asian American Indian or Alaska Native Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander and Some Other Race populations The race question also provides detailed data on Asian groups such as Chinese or Korean American Indian tribes or Alaska Native groups such as Cherokee or Aleut and Pacific Islander groups such as Samoan or Chamorro The Census Bureau does not tabulate religious groups they are tallied under ldquoOther ancestriesrdquo

Figure 2

Fifteen Largest Ancestries 2000

Source US Census Bureau Census 2000 special tabulation

(In millions Percent of total population in parenthesesData based on sample For information on confidentiality protection sampling error nonsampling error and definitions see wwwcensusgovprodcen2000docsf3pdf)

Swedish (14)

Scotch-Irish (15)

Norwegian (16)

Dutch (16)

Scottish (17)

American Indian (28)

French (30)

Polish (32)

Italian (56)

Mexican (65)

American (72)

English (87)

African American (88)

Irish (108)

German (152)

40

428

305

249

245

202

184

156

90

83

79

49

45

45

43

Largest Ancestry 2000

Source US Census Bureau Census 2000 special tabulation American Factfinder atfactfindercensusgov provides census dataand mapping tools

(Data based on sample For information on confidentiality protection sampling error nonsampling error and definitions see wwwcensusgovprodcen2000docsf3pdf)

Figure 3

0 100 Miles0 100 Miles0 100 Miles

0 100 Miles

Ancestry with largestpopulation in county

African American

AleutEskimo

American

American Indian

Dutch

English

Finnish

French

German

HispanicSpanish

Irish

Italian

Mexican

Norwegian

Puerto Rican

Other

OTHERChinese (San Francisco County CA)Cuban (Miami-Dade County FL)Dominican (New York County NY)Filipino (Kauai and Maui counties HI)French Canadian (Androskoggin County ME)Hawaiian (Kalawao County HI)Japanese (Hawaii State Honolulu County HI)Polish (Luzerne County PA)Portugese (Bristol County MA and Bristol County RI)

Ancestry with largestpopulation in statesee categories below

Which table will give me the data I am looking forThis is a list of the ancestry tables available from the most current ACS For information about older tables please see the FAQ refer-enced at the end of this document

Table DP02mdashestimates and percentages of the total popula-tion for 27 ancestry groups

Table B04004mdashrestricted to people who reported only a single ancestry estimates for 107 ancestry groups

Table B04005mdashrestricted to people who reported multiple ancestries estimates for 107 ancestry groups

Table B04006mdashestimates for 107 ancestry groups regard-less of whether the respondent reported a single ancestry or multiple ancestries

Table C04004mdashrestricted to people who reported only a single ancestry estimates for 30 ancestry groups This table is available for smaller geographic areas

Table C04005mdashrestricted to people who reported multiple ancestries estimates for 30 ancestry groups This table is available for smaller geographic areas

Table C04006mdashestimates for 30 ancestry groups regard-less of whether the respondent reported a single ancestry or multiple ancestries This table is available for smaller geographic areas

Table S0201mdashdemographic social economic and house-hold characteristics for 75 ancestry groups

Selected Population Tablesmdashmore detailed demographic social economic and household characteristics for 99 ancestry groups This set of tables is released every 5 years

How can I access the dataThe ACS data and Census 2000 data are available from the American FactFinder tool at httpfactfindercensus govfacesnavjsfpagesindexxhtml

What if I have more questions about the ancestry dataMore information is available from our Ancestry internet page including a frequently asked questions (FAQ) document and scanned data tables from 1980 and 1990 see wwwcensusgovtopicspopulationancestryhtml

United States

Estimate Margin of Error

Total

Afghan

Albanian

Alsatian

American

Arab

Egyptian

Iraqi

Jordanian

Lebanese

Moroccan

Palestinian

Syrian

Arab

Other Arab

Armenian

AssyrianChaldeanSyriac

Australian

Austrian

Basque

Belgian

Brazilian

British

Bulgarian

Cajun

Canadian

Carpatho Rusyn

Celtic

Croatian

(Continuedhellip)

321418821

96089

197714

12279

21844951

1963478

251507

145279

89157

508054

113544

118622

170552

303300

311203

460528

108424

99929

677847

56860

350123

386639

1397632

96790

106105

673137

7958

55600

409949

+-8875

+-13541

+-1978

+-114000

+-37039

+-14613

+-13366

+-11036

+-17600

+-10615

+-12002

+-12019

+-18926

+-18097

+-15063

+-10094

+-6945

+-14279

+-5402

+-10791

+-18294

+-22060

+-7080

+-8011

+-18856

+-1688

+-5495

+-12718

Excerpt from Table B04006

For more information about education and training see wwwcensusgovdatatraining-workshopshtml

Source 2015 American Community Survey