Ancestry: 2000 Issued June 2004 Census 2000 Brief C2KBR-35 Ancestry is a broad con- By Figure 1. Angela Brittingham cept that can mean dif- and ferent things to differ- Reproduction of the Question on Ancestry G. Patricia de la Cruz ent people; it can be From Census 2000 described alternately as where their ancestors 10 What is this person’s ancestry or ethnic origin? are from, where they or their parents originated, or simply how they see themselves ethnically. (For example: Italian, Jamaican, African Am., Cambodian, Some people may have Cape Verdean, Norwegian, Dominican, French Canadian, one distinct ancestry, Haitian, Korean, Lebanese, Polish, Nigerian, Mexican, while others are Taiwanese, Ukrainian, and so on.) descendants of several Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 questionnaire. ancestry groups, and still others may know only that their ancestors were from a were reported by at least 100,000 people, particular region of the world or may not and the numbers cited in this report rep- know their ethnic origins at all. The resent the number of people who report- Census Bureau defines ancestry as a per- ed each ancestry either as their first or son’s ethnic origin, heritage, descent, or second response. “roots,” which may reflect their place of The question on ancestry first appeared birth, place of birth of parents or ances- on the census questionnaire in 1980, tors, and ethnic identities that have replacing a question on where a person’s evolved within the United States. parents were born. The question on This report is part of a series that pres- parental birthplace provided foreign- ents population and housing data collect- origin data only for people with one or ed by Census 2000, where 80 percent of both parents born outside the United respondents to the long form specified at States. The current ancestry question least one ancestry. (About one-sixth of allows everyone to give one or two households received the long form.) It attributions of their “ancestry or ethnic presents data on the most frequently origin” (Figure 1), and in doing so, reported ancestries and describes popula- enables people to identify an ethnic tion distributions for the United States, background, such as German, Lebanese, including regions, states, counties, and Nigerian, or Portuguese, which was not selected cities.1 The listed ancestries otherwise identified in the race or Hispanic-origin questions. 1 The text of this report discusses data for the The ancestries in this report also include United States, including the 50 states and the the groups covered in the questions on District of Columbia. Data for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico are shown in Table 3 and Figure 3. race and Hispanic origin, such as U.S. Department of Commerce U S C E N S U S B U R E A U Economics and Statistics Administration U.S. CENSUS BUREAU Helping You Make Informed Decisions Table 1. Ancestry Reporting: 1990 and 2000 (Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf) 19901 2000 Change, 1990 to 2000 Ancestry Number Percent Number Percent Numerical Percent Total population...................... 248,709,873 100.0 281,421,906 100.0 32,712,033 13.2 Ancestry specified ......................... 222,608,257 89.5 225,310,411 80.1 2,702,154 1.2 Single ancestry ......................... 148,836,950 59.8 163,315,936 58.0 14,478,986 9.7 Multiple ancestry ........................ 73,771,307 29.7 61,994,475 22.0 –11,776,832 –16.0 Ancestry not specified . .................. 26,101,616 10.5 56,111,495 19.9 30,009,879 115.0 Unclassified ............................ 2,180,245 0.9 2,437,929 0.9 257,684 11.8 Not reported ............................ 23,921,371 9.6 53,673,566 19.1 29,752,195 124.4 11990 estimates in this table differ slightly from 1990 Summary Tape File 3 in order to make them fully consistent with data from Census 2000. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 and 1990 special tabulation. African American, Mexican, cases, the ancestry question Nearly one of six people American Indian, and Chinese. For produced higher numbers, such as reported their ancestry these groups, the results from the for Dominicans, whose estimated as German. ancestry question and the race and totals from the ancestry question In 2000, 42.8 million people Hispanic-origin questions differ, but were over 100,000 higher than (15 percent of the population) con- the latter are the official sources of from the Hispanic-origin question, sidered themselves to be of data for race and Hispanic groups. where many Dominicans may have German (or part-German) ancestry, In some cases, the totals reported reported a general term (like the most frequent response to the on the ancestry question are lower Hispanic) or checked “other” with- census question (Figure 2).4 Other than the numbers from the race or out writing in a detailed response.3 ancestries with over 15 million Hispanic-origin question. For people in 2000 included Irish instance, nearly 12 million fewer More than four out of five (30.5 million, or 11 percent), people specified at least people specified “African American” African American (24.9 million, or one ancestry. as their ancestry than gave that 9 percent), English (24.5 million, or response to the race question. One In 2000, 58 percent of the popula- 9 percent), American (20.2 million, reason for this large difference is tion specified only one ancestry, or 7 percent), Mexican (18.4 mil- that some people who reported 22 percent provided two ances- lion, or 7 percent), and Italian Black or African American on the tries, and 1 percent reported an (15.6 million, or 6 percent). race question reported their ances- unclassifiable ancestry such as Other ancestries with 4 million or try more specifically, such as “mixture” or “adopted.” Another more people included Polish, Jamaican, Haitian, or Nigerian, and 19 percent did not report any French, American Indian, Scottish, thus were not counted in the ancestry at all, a substantial Dutch, Norwegian, Scotch-Irish, African American ancestry category. increase from 1990, when 10 per- and Swedish. Similarly, more than 2 million fewer cent of the population left the people reported Mexican ancestry ancestry question blank (Table 1). In total, 7 ancestries were reported than gave that answer to the by more than 15 million people in Hispanic-origin question.2 In other 2000, 37 ancestries were reported by more than 1 million people, and 2 The estimates in this report are based on responses from a sample of the popula- 3 For more information about race and tion. As with all surveys, estimates may vary Hispanic groups, see Census 2000 Briefs on from the actual values because of sampling Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native, variation or other factors. All statements Asian, Black, Native Hawaiian and Pacific 4 The estimates in Figure 2 and Table 2 in made in this report have undergone statisti- Islander, White, and Two or More Races pop- some cases differ slightly from the estimates cal testing and are significant at the ulations, available on the Census Bureau Web in other data products due to the collapsing 90-percent confidence level unless site at www.census.gov/prod/cen2000 schemes used. For example, here German otherwise noted. /index.html. does not include Bavarian. 2 U.S. Census Bureau ancestries also decreased over the Figure 2. decade, including Polish, French, Fifteen Largest Ancestries: 2000 Scottish, Dutch, and Swedish. (In millions. Percent of total population in parentheses. Data based on sample. For information on confidentiality protection, The number of people who report- sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see ed African American ancestry www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf) increased by nearly 1.2 million, or 4.9 percent, between 1990 and German (15.2%) 42.8 2000, making this group the third Irish (10.8%) 30.5 largest ancestry. However, the pro- portion of African Americans African American (8.8%) 24.9 decreased slightly over the decade, English (8.7%) 24.5 from 9.5 percent to 8.8 percent. American (7.2%) 20.2 The population of many ancestries, Mexican (6.5%) 18.4 such as Mexican, Chinese, Filipino, Italian (5.6%) 15.6 and Asian Indian, increased during the decade, reflecting sizable Polish (3.2%) 9.0 immigration, especially from Latin 8.3 French (3.0%) America and Asia. Several small American Indian (2.8%) 7.9 ancestry populations, including Scottish (1.7%) 4.9 Brazilian, Pakistani, Albanian, Honduran, and Trinidadian and Dutch (1.6%) 4.5 Tobagonian, at least doubled. Norwegian (1.6%) 4.5 Scotch-Irish (1.5%) 4.3 Seven percent of the U.S. population reported their Swedish (1.4%) 4.0 ancestry as American. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 special tabulation. The number who reported American and no other ancestry increased from 12.4 million in 1990 to 20.2 million in 2000, the 92 ancestries were reported by to 2.0 million). Other general- largest numerical growth of any more than 100,000 people (Table 2). heritage groups that at least dou- group during the 1990s.5 This fig- bled in size included Western ure represents an increase of The largest European European, Northern European, 63 percent, as the proportion rose ancestries have decreased in Asian, Hispanic, and White. population, while African from 5.0 percent to 7.2 percent of American, Hispanic, and Asian The three largest ancestries in 1990 the population. ancestries have increased.