| Total population | |
|---|---|
 US-born residents in the United Kingdom: 231,853 – 0.3%(2021/22 Census)[note 1]  England: 198,656– 0.4% (2021)[1] Scotland: 23,863 – 0.4% (2022)[2] Wales: 4,625 – 0.1% (2021)[1]Northern Ireland: 4,990 – 0.3% (2021)[3] US citizens/passports held: 122,794 (England and Wales only, 2021)[4] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Languages | |
| American English andBritish English | |
| Religion | |
| PredominantlyChristianity andJudaism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
American diaspora andBritish Americans
|
| Part of a series on |
| British people |
|---|
| United Kingdom |
| Eastern European |
| Northern European |
| Southern European |
| Western European |
| Central Asian |
| East Asian |
| South Asian |
| Southeast Asian |
| West Asian |
| African |
| Caribbean |
| Northern American |
| South American |
| Oceanian |
Americans in the United Kingdom,American Britons orAmerican British are emigrants from theUnited States who are residents or citizens of theUnited Kingdom.
Between the late 19th century andWorld War II, many so called "dollar princesses" married British aristocrats. They were mostly the daughters of newly rich American men, who married the men with aristocratic titles to improve the social standing of their family in America. In return, theseAmerican heiress brought their wealth in the form of dowries to the homes of the British aristocracy. The trend only slowed when the women of newly rich families, who had been shunned by the American high society, began to be accepted by them.[5][6]
During the Second World War, the first influx of American troops arrived in Britain on January 26, 1942 inBelfast,Northern Ireland.[7] More than 1,600,000 American servicemen and servicewomen were in Great Britain by June 6, 1944, when theNormandy invasion was launched. Troop numbers gradually came down after that.[8]
The2001 UK Census recorded 158,434 people born in the United States.[10] According to the2011 UK Census, there were 173,470 US-born residents in England, 3,715 in Wales,[11] 15,919 inScotland,[12] and 4,251 inNorthern Ireland.[13] TheOffice for National Statistics estimates that 197,000 US-born immigrants were resident in the UK in 2013.[14] In a 2020 House of Commons research briefing on immigrants working in theNational Health Service out of 1.28 million members of staff, 1,380 declared that they were American.[15]
The largest single local cluster of Americans in the UK recorded by the 2001 UK Census was inMildenhall in North-WestSuffolk—the site ofRAF Mildenhall and nearbyRAF Lakenheath. This is because of the legacy of theCold War andNATO cooperation. 17.28% of Mildenhall's population were born in the United States. In London, the majority of Americans arebusinesspeople and their families which ties in with the strong economic relations between theCity of London andNew York City orWashington, D.C.Chelsea (where 6.53% of residents were born in the US in 2001) andKensington (5.81%) have large American communities.[16]
Prior to the end of the Cold War, the highest proportion of Americans resident in the United Kingdom per head of population was centred on theScottish seaside town ofDunoon,Argyll and Bute, the former site of theHoly LochUS Navy base. At its height in the early 1990s, around one quarter of Dunoon's population was American.[17]
In the 2000s, some Americans in the UK were older, ex-servicemen who returned to Britain after being based in the UK during World War II.[16]
The BritishNational Baseball League features many American expatriates.[18]
 | This sectionmay betoo long to read and navigate comfortably. Considercondensing it or addingsubheadings. Please discuss this issue on the article'stalk page.(March 2025) |
Nancy Astor, Britain's second femaleMember of Parliament and first to take her seat, and thus the first female sitting member of Parliament, was born inVirginia and married into the wealthy Anglo-AmericanAstor family.
Henry James, considered one of the greatest novelists in the English language, was born to aBoston Brahmin family and moved toLondon in 1869. Aside from brief periods spent on the Continent and two short trips back to the US, James spent the rest of his life in England. (SeeLamb House). He was naturalised as a British subject in the final year of his life.
T. S. Eliot left his family home inSt. Louis,Missouri, to go toHarvard, in New England. From there he moved to Europe and stayed in Germany and France. WhenWorld War I began, he moved toOxford, United Kingdom. He gainedBritish citizenship and joined theChurch of England.[19]
Wallis Simpson was the American-born wife of Anglo-American businessmanErnest Simpson before her marriage to theDuke of Windsor, formerlyKing Edward VIII. The latter famously abdicated in 1936, the same year he ascended the British throne; in order to marry her. Despite living primarily inFrance, she was buried next to her husband in theRoyal Burial Ground atFrogmore, the first American to be interred there.
Zoë Wanamaker is a US-born British actress of Jewish-Ukrainian ancestry,[20]Louis Theroux is the son of American writerPaul Theroux,[21] whilstMika has a Lebanese mother and an American father born in Jerusalem.[22]
Boris Johnson, formerPrime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2019–22, was born inNew York City. Until 2016, he held dual citizenship of both the United States and the United Kingdom. He relinquished his US citizenship to prove his allegiance to the United Kingdom.[23][24]
Andrew Tate is an American-British formerprofessional kickboxer and businessman, was born in Walter Reed Army Medical Center inWashington, D.C., then moved toUnited Kingdom.[25]
YouTuberEvan Edinger, whovlogs about the comparisons between the UK and the United States since moving to the UK in 2012, gained British citizenship in June 2021.[26]
African-American immigration to the UK began as early as the late-eighteenth century[27] after American slaves failed in their attempt to defend theBritish Crown in theAmerican Revolution. The Revolution began in the thirteen American colonies and United States in the late-1770s. TheBritish promised freedom to any slave or rebel who fought the Americans on their behalf.[28] African Americans made up over 20% of the American population at the time, which was the second-largest ethnic group in British North America only after the English[29] and as many as 30,000 slaves escaped to British lines.[30] The largest regiment was theBlack Pioneers who followed troops under Sir GeneralHenry Clinton.[31] Working as soldiers, labourers, pilots, cooks, and musicians, they were a major part of the unsuccessful British war effort. African Americans who foughtagainst the British were known asBlack Patriots (modern day African Americans in the US), but rather if they were fighting for the Crown or American Independence both were mostly doing it in return for promises of freedom from enslavement or indentured servitude.[32]
The British-American Commission identified the Black people who had joined the British before the surrender, and issued "certificates of freedom" signed by General Birch or General Musgrave. Those who chose to emigrate were evacuated by ship.[27] The fallout of the Revolution resulted in an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 Black Americans scattering across the Atlantic world, profoundly affecting the development ofNova Scotia, theBahamas,Jamaica, and the African nation ofSierra Leone as prominent leaders in the emerging freed black communities.[32][33][34] To make sure no one attempted to leave who did not have a certificate of freedom, the name of any Black person on board a vessel, whether slave, indentured servant, or free, was recorded, along with the details of enslavement, escape, and military service, in a document called theBook of Negroes.[27] Between 400 and 1,000 African Americans emigrated to London and were later given the title ofBlack Loyalist for their service in the British Armed forces and formed the core of the earlyBlack British community.[32][34]
African-American guitarist and singerJimi Hendrix started to get his big break in London as part of his bandThe Jimi Hendrix Experience. He first entered the UK on 24 September 1966 at London Airport (nowHeathrow Airport).
The African-American singerEdwin Starr, moved to the UK in the 1970s, and lived there until his death in 2003.[35]
American actressLisanne Falk, who starred in the 1980s cult filmHeathers, has resided in the UK since 2006 and became a naturalized British citizen in 2019.[36]
Trans drag performer and actressCara Melle, who was a contestant on thefifth season ofRuPaul's Drag Race UK is originally fromAtlanta but has resided in the UK since 2015.
The British politician and former Labour MPOona King, is the daughter of the African-American civil rights academicPreston King.
Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex since her marriage toPrince Harry, kept her American citizenship and has a mixed-raced heritage with parents both American, of German and English ancestry for her father and of African-American background for her mother. Their son,Archie, who was born in London on 6 May 2019, has had dual British and American citizenship since birth.
Sheila Ferguson, a former member ofThe Three Degrees, was born in and grew up inPhiladelphia and has permanently settled in England since the 1980s where she is still famous with her own solo career.[37][38][39]
Covert Affairs starSendhil Ramamurthy resides in London, and is ofIndian descent.
English musicianDhani Harrison is the son ofGeorge Harrison ofThe Beatles and Mexican-AmericanOlivia Trinidad Arias (who also now lives in the UK).[40]
In2001, 306 Puerto Rican-born people alone were residing in the United Kingdom (the nineteenth-most common birthplace amongst Latin American states).[10] The most notable Puerto Rican-Briton isWilnelia Merced, the widow of the late entertainer, SirBruce Forsyth.
Martin Frobisher returned from a voyage to discover theNorthwest Passage in 1576, bringing with him a nativeInuit that he had seized. The man died days after reaching London and was buried in the churchyard at St. Olave's.[41]
SirRichard Grenville captured theRoanoke IslandNative AmericanRaleigh (named for SirWalter Raleigh) and brought him toBideford following a skirmish in 1586. He had his baptism at Saint Mary the Virgin's Church in March 1588. He died from influenza in Grenville's house on 2 April 1589. His interment was at that same church five days later. Raleigh was the first Native American to have a Christian conversion and an English resting place.[42]
Chief Powhatan's daughter,Pocahontas spent some of her life in London two years after she married English colonistJohn Rolfe.[43] At age twenty-one, Pocahontas died due to an unknown disease. She was buried atSt George's Church inGravesend afterwards. Her sonThomas Rolfe lived in England until the age of 20 before returning to Virginia.
Lakota tribes arrived in England when they were part ofBuffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Surrounded By the Enemy, a twenty-two-year-oldOglala gun-slinging and horse-riding stuntman and a year old boy named Red Penny died during the tour in 1887. Their interments were atWest Brompton'scemetery.Brulé tribesman Paul Eagle Star died after breaking his ankle when he fell off a horse inSheffield on 24 August 1891 at age twenty-seven. His interment was in West Brompton near the same plot as Surrounded. Fifty-nine-year-old Oglala Sioux, Long Wolf, died during the tour due to pneumonia on 13 June 1892. His interment was in West Brompton. Two months later, a two-year-old girl named White Star Ghost Dog died when she fell from her mother's arms during horseback. Her remains shared the same grave as Long Wolf's remains. Long Wolf and White Star Ghost Dog's coffins were repatriated to thePine Ridge Reservation in 1997.[44] Two years later, Paul Eagle Star's coffin was repatriated to theRosebud Indian Reservation. Tribal descendants include John Black Feather (Long Wolf's great-grandson), Moses Eagle Star and Lucy Eagle Star (Paul Eagle Star's two grandchildren).
Blackfoot Sioux chief Charging Thunder came toSalford at age twenty-six as part ofBuffalo Bill's Wild West Show in 1903. Like many Lakota tribesmen, Charging Thunder was an exceptional horseman and performed thrilling stunts in Buffalo Bill's show in front of huge crowds, on the site of what is now Lowry in Salford Quays. But when the show rolled out of town, he remained in the North West. He married Josephine, an American horse trainer who had just given birth to their first child, Bessie and together they settled inDarwen, before moving toGorton. His name became George Edward Williams, after registering with the British immigration authorities to enable him to find work. Williams ended up as an elephant keeper at theBelle Vue Zoo. He died on 28 July 1929 from pneumonia at age fifty-two. His interment was in Gorton's cemetery.
American actressGillian Anderson was born inChicago and grew up in London from the age of one. She grew up in the areas ofCrouch End andHaringey. She moved toGrand Rapids, Michigan at the age of 11 years old where she attendedCity High-Middle School. She moved back and has resided permanently in London since 2002.
More recently, notable British people of Native American descent include actressHayley Atwell, who has dual UK-US citizenship due to her part-Native American father.[45]
American schools in the United Kingdom:
International School of Aberdeen was formerly the American School in Aberdeen.[46]
Tate, Emory Andrew, III (son of Tate Jr.)
| Africa | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asia |
| ||||||||
| Europe | |||||||||
| North America | |||||||||
| Oceania | |||||||||
| South America | |||||||||
| See also | |||||||||
