TheUnited States has aracially andethnicallydiverse population.^[1] At the federal level, race and ethnicity have been categorized separately. The most recentUnited States census recognized fiveracial categories (White,African Americans,Native American/Alaska Native,Asian, andNative Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander), as well aspeople who belong to two or more of the racial categories.^[2][3][4] The United States also recognizes the broader notion of ethnicity. While previous censuses inquired about the "ancestry" of residents, the current form asks people to enter their "origins".^[5][2][3][4]

White Americans are the majority in every census-defined region (Northeast,Midwest,South, andWest) and 44 out of 50 states, exceptHawaii,^[6]California,^[7]Texas,^[8]New Mexico,^[9]Nevada,^[10] andMaryland.^[11] Those identifying as white alone or in combination (including multiracial white Americans) are the majority in every state except for Hawaii and California.^[12] The region with the highest proportion of White Americans is the Midwest, at 74.6% per theAmerican Community Survey (ACS), followed by the Northeast, at 64%.^[13][14] Non-Hispanic whites make up 73% of the Midwest's population, the highest proportion of any region, and they make up 62% of the population in the Northeast.^[15][16] At the same time, the regions with the smallest share of White Americans are the West, where they comprise 51.9%, and the South, where they comprise 57.7%.^[17][18] Non-Hispanic whites are a minority in the West, where they make up 47.1% of the population.^[19] In the South, make up 54% of the population.^[20]

Currently, 55% of the African American population lives in the South.^[4] A plurality or majority of the other official groups reside in the West. The latter region is home to 42% of Hispanic and Latino Americans, 46% of Asian Americans, 48% of Native Americans and Alaska Natives, 68% of Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders, 37% of the "two or more races" population (multiracial Americans), and 46% of those self-designated as "some other race".^[4][21]

Each of the five inhabitedUS territories is fairly homogeneous, though each comprises a different primary ethnic group.American Samoa has a high percentage of Pacific Islanders,Guam and theNorthern Mariana Islands are mostly Asian and Pacific Islander,Puerto Rico is mostly Hispanic/Latino (racially composed of whites, blacks, and mixed-race people mostly), and theUS Virgin Islands are mostly African American.^{[22][23][24][25]}

The firstUnited States census in 1790 classed residents as freewhite people (divided by age and sex), all otherfree persons (reported by sex and color), andenslaved people. The2000 census officially recognized sixracial categories including people of two or more races; a category called "some other race" was also used in the census and other surveys, but is not official.^[2][3][4] In the 2000 census and subsequentCensus Bureau surveys, Americans self-described as belonging to these racial groups:^[3]

• White American (European American andMiddle Eastern American orNorth African American): those having origins in any of the original peoples ofEurope, theMiddle East, orNorth Africa.^[a]
• Black or African American: those having origins in any of the native peoples ofsub-Saharan Africa.^[b]
• American Indian orAlaska Native: those having origins in any of the original peoples ofNorth,Central, andSouth America.
• Asian American (East Asian American,Southeast Asian American,Central Asian American andSouth Asian American): those having origins in any of the original peoples of theFar East,Southeast Asia, and theIndian subcontinent.
• Native Hawaiian orOther Pacific Islander: those having origins in any of the original peoples ofPolynesia,Melanesia, orMicronesia.
• Other: respondents wrote how they identified themselves if different from the preceding categories.^[c]
• Two or more races, widely known asmultiracial: those who check off and/or write in more than one race.^[d]

In the census, people are asked about their racial identity, including their origins, and whether or not they are of Hispanic ethnicity.^[32] These categories are sociopolitical constructs and should not be interpreted as being scientific or anthropological in nature.^[2] They have been changed from one census to another, and the racial categories include both "racial" and national origin groups.^[33][34]

In 2007, theEqual Employment Opportunity Commission of theUS Department of Labor finalized the update of its EEO-1 report^[35] format and guidelines concerning the definitions of racial or ethnic categories.

In March 2024, theOffice of Management and Budget published revisions toStatistical Policy Directive No. 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity that address: (1) combined question for race and ethnicity; (2) adding a "Middle Eastern or North African (MENA)" category; and (3) collecting additional detail to enable data disaggregation.^[36][37]

In April 2024, the US Census Bureau released the following revised definitions for combined race and ethnicity reporting:^[38]

Here is the converted content in Wikitable format:

The question on Hispanic or Latino origin is separate from the question on race.^[3][41]Hispanic and Latino Americans have ethnic origins in aSpanish-speaking country orBrazil. Latin American countries are, like the United States, racially diverse.^[42] Consequently, no separate racial category exists for Hispanic and Latino Americans, as they do not constitute a race, nor a national group. When responding to the race question on the census form, each person is asked to choose from among the same racial categories as all Americans, and is included in the numbers reported for those races.^[43]

Each racial category may containHispanic or Latino andNon-Hispanic or Latino Americans. For example: the White or European American race category contains Non-Hispanic Whites and Hispanic Whites (seeWhite Hispanic and Latino Americans); the Black or African American category contains Non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanic Blacks (seeBlack Hispanic and Latino Americans); the Asian American category contains Non-Hispanic Asians and Hispanic Asians (seeAsian Hispanic and Latino Americans), and likewise for all the other categories.

Self-identifying as both Hispanic or Latinoand not Hispanic or Latino is neither explicitly allowed nor explicitly prohibited.^[2]

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Since the concept of race became widespread in the early United States, people ofNative American heritage, African heritage, and European heritage were considered to belong to different races. For nearly three centuries, the criteria for membership in these groups were similar; a person's appearance, their social circle (how they lived), and ancestry were all considered by society when determining someone's race.^[44]

The motivations behind historical definitions of racial identity, especially Native American and black identities, have been the topic of much discussion in modern years. According to manyanthropologists, these racial designations were a means to concentrate power, wealth, privilege and land in the hands of white people in a society ofwhite hegemony and privilege. Racial distinctions generally had little to do with biology and more to do with the history of slavery, the systemic racism it produced, and specific forms ofwhite supremacy that benefited from specific definitions of racial identity. For example, it has been suggested that theblood quantum laws defining Native American identity enabled whites to acquire indigenous lands during the allotment process, and theone-drop rule of black identity, enforced legally in the early 20th century, enabled them to preserve their agricultural labor force in the South.^[45][46][47]

The descendants of Native and Black Americans not only had to contend with laws defining their racial identity for the benefit of the majority, but also with a variety of social consequences depending on how they were perceived in society. Compared to other mixed Americans, the blood quantum laws made it easier for a person of mixed European and Native American ancestry to be accepted as white; after a few generations of intermarriage, the offspring of Native and White Americans would no longer legally be considered Native American. They could have treaty rights to land, but because an individual with only one native great-grandparent no longer was classified as Native American, they lost legal claim to their land under historical allotment rules, making it easier for White Americans to acquire the land for their own development. On the other hand, the same individual who could be denied legal standing in a tribe because he was "too White" to claim property rights might still have enough visually identifiable native ancestry to be considered socially as a "half-breed" and stigmatized by both communities.^[48][49][50]

The 20th-century one-drop rule made it relatively difficult for anyone of known black ancestry to be accepted as white. The child of a blacksharecropper and a white person was considered black by the local communities, and would likely become a sharecropper as well, thus adding to the landholder or employer's labor force. Because the agricultural economy of the time benefited from using Black Americans as a labor force, it was advantageous for as many people as possible to be defined as black. Many experts on theJim Crow period agree that the 20th century notion of invisible blackness shifted the color line in the direction of paleness, and "expanded" the labor force in response to Southern blacks'Great Migration to the North, although others (such as the historiansC. Vann Woodward,George M. Fredrickson, andStetson Kennedy) considered the one-drop rule a consequence of the need to justify the oppression of Black Americans and define whiteness as pure.^[51][52]

Over the centuries, as whites wielded social and political power over people of color in the United States, they created a social order ofhypodescent, in which they assigned mixed-race children to the lower-status groups. However, they were often ignorant of the systems of social classification within Native American tribes. TheOmaha people, for instance, who had apatrilinealkinship system, classified all children with white fathers as "White", and excluded them as members of the tribe unless they were formally adopted by a male member. Tribal members might care for mixed-race children of White fathers, but they were considered outside the hereditary clan and kinship fundamental to tribal society.^[53]

The social construction of hypodescent also related to the racial caste system associated with slavery. It was made explicit byVirginia and other colonies' laws as early as 1662. Virginia incorporated the Roman principle ofpartus sequitur ventrem into slave law, saying that children of enslaved mothers were born into slavery as well. Under English common law, children's social status was determined by the father, not the mother, but the colonists considered enslaved Africans outside the category of English subjects. Although White men were in positions of power to take sexual advantage of enslaved black women, this meant that their offspring would be considered Black and were enslaved regardless of their parentage. However, most free Black American families listed in the censuses of 1790–1810 were descended from unions between White women and African men in colonial Virginia, from the years when working classes lived and worked closely together, and before slavery had hardened as a racial caste.^[54]

In the United States, social and legal conventions developed over time by Whites classified individuals of mixed ancestry into simplified racial categories, but these were always flawed. The decennial censuses conducted since 1790, after slavery was well established in the United States, included a classification of persons by race, with the categories of "White", "Black", "Mulatto", and "Indian". The inclusion of mulatto was a rare explicit acknowledgement of mixed-race people, but that status was usually simplified into one race or another in actual society. Before the Civil War, states such as Virginia had a legal definition of whiteness that classified people as white if they were no more than 1/8th black. For example, if not born into slavery,Thomas Jefferson's children by his slaveSally Hemings would have been classified as legally white, as they were 7/8ths White by ancestry. Three of the four surviving children entered white society as adults, and their descendants have identified as white. In the late 18th and 19th centuries, people of mixed race often migrated to frontiers where societies were more open, and they might be accepted as white if they satisfied obligations of citizenship.^[54]

The more familiar "one-drop rule" was not adopted by Virginia and other states until the 20th century, but it classified persons with any known African ancestry as black. Passage of these laws was often encouraged by white supremacists and people promoting "racial purity", who disregarded the long history of multi-racial unions in the South.^[55] In other countries in theAmericas, where mixing among groups was overtly more extensive, social categories have tended to be more numerous and fluid. In some cases, people may move into or out of categories on the basis of a combination of socioeconomic status, social class, ancestry, and appearance.

The termHispanic as anethnonym emerged in the 20th century, with the rise of migration of laborers fromSpanish-speaking countries of the western hemisphere to the United States. It includes people who may have been considered racially distinct (black, white, native, or other mixed groups) in their home countries. Today, the word "Latino" is often used as a synonym for "Hispanic". Even if such categories were earlier understood as racial categories, today they have begun to represent ethnolinguistic categories, regardless of perceived race. Similarly, the prefix "Anglo" is now used among some Hispanics to refer to non-HispanicWhite Americans orEuropean Americans, most of whom speak the English language but are not of primarilyEnglish descent. A similar phenomenon of ethnolinguistic identity can historically (and in some cases contemporarily) be seen in the case of theLouisiana Creole people, who may be of any race but share certain cultural characteristics. Over time the mix of cultures blending, migration, and changes in ideas related to identity led to a diverse society. Group boundaries are becoming less fixed, but more openly debated in schools, daily lives, and government discussions.^[56][57][58]

The growth of the Hispanic population throughimmigration and highbirth rates is noted as a partial factor for US population gains in the last quarter-century. The2000 census revealed that Native Americans had reached their highest documented population, 4.5 million, since the US was founded in 1776.^[3] In some cases, immigrants and migrants have formedethnic enclaves; in others, this mixture of races has created ethnically diverse communities. Earlierimmigrants to the Americas came from widely separated regions ofAfro-Eurasia, and American immigrant populations frequentlymixed among themselves and with theindigenous inhabitants of the continents, creating a complex multiracial population.

Throughout American history, efforts to classify the increasingly mixed population of the United States into discrete categories have generated many difficulties. Early efforts to track mixing between groups led to a proliferation of historical categories (such as "mulatto" and "octaroon" among persons with partial African descent) and "blood quantum" distinctions, which became increasingly detached from self-reported ancestry. By the standards used in early censuses, many mixed-race children born in the US were classified as of a different race than one of their biological parents, and even when these standards were no longer commonly accepted, the combination of social perceptions of race and self-identification with a racial identity frequently complicated legal standards of racial identity. Even people who did not identify as mixed faced the issue of unclear legal terminology; until the 2000 census,Hispanic Americans were required to identify as one race on censuses, and without the option to select Latino or Hispanic, confusion flourished.^[59][60][61]

Historical trends influencing the ethnicdemographics of the United States include:

• Patterns of original settlement
  • Settlement of the Americas byNative AmericanFirst Nations andAlaska Native peoples in several waves over thousands of years, beginning at least 15,000 years ago
  • Settlement of Pacific islands by Polynesian people, includingNative Hawaiians,Samoans inAmerican Samoa,^[62] and theChamorros inGuam and theNorthern Mariana Islands
  • Settlement ofthe Antilles, including theUS Virgin Islands andPuerto Rico, by the "Ortoiroid" people, and later by theArawak-speakingancestors of theTaíno,Ciboney, andKalinago people
• Colonization
  • Spanish colonization of the Americas, includingFlorida,the Southwest, and Puerto Rico, which are all today considered part of the United States
  • French colonization of the Americas, including theOld Northwest and the lower Mississippi River; historical events, including theExpulsion of the Acadians, influenced the ethnic mix, especially inLouisiana, northernNew England, andNew York
  • Dutch colonization of the Americas, mainly of theHudson River
  • British colonization of the Americas, beginning with Caribbean and theThirteen Colonies
  • Danish colonization of the Americas, including what is now known as theUnited States Virgin Islands
• Penal transportation to the Americas offelons under British rule
• The popularity ofindentured servitude, usually from Ireland, until the late 18th century
• TheAtlantic slave trade, which brought millions of Africans to the South, Caribbean, and Latin America
• Severe reduction of Native American populations in the contiguous United States, largely due to new infectious diseases carried by European colonists combined with genocidal warfare
• Forced migration
  • Deportation and flight ofUnited Empire Loyalists to Canada, the Caribbean, and Britain after theAmerican Revolution
  • Forced removal of more than one million African Americans in the domestic slave trade from the Upper South to the Deep South during the early 19th century as Americans developed new lands forplantations
  • Territorial conflict with Native Americans and theIndian removal policy of the 19th century displaced many remaining native populations from east of the Mississippi River to territories to the west, especially to what is nowOklahoma
• Immigration
  • Historical immigration to the United States from all countries of the world for religious, political and economic reasons, influenced bylaws concerning immigration and naturalization in the United States andillegal immigration to the United States, which denied various entry due to discrimination, economic protectionism, and political conflict with their nation of origin
  • Transatlantic migrations from Europe, especially in the 19th century, which created ethnic enclaves in many eastern cities and settling many rural areas east of the Mississippi
  • Immigration from Asia, which has had the most influence onHawaii and theWest Coast
  • Immigration from Mexico and Latin America, which has strongly influenced the Southwest
• Westward expansion of the United States
  • TheRoyal Proclamation of 1763, which restricted the western boundary of European settlement to the watershed east of the Appalachian Mountains
  • TheHomestead Act, which promoted settlement west of the Mississippi after theLouisiana Purchase
  • Settlement of Utah by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
  • California gold rush
  • Oregon Trail
  • TheKlondike gold rush, which promoted settlement of Alaska
• Internal migration
  • African Americans escaping from slavery prior to the Civil War, sometimes via theUnderground Railroad, and reaching the free North
  • TheAmerican Industrial Revolution, which promoted urbanization of what was previously a largely agrarian society
  • Improved transportation systems increasing the ease of American migration through the country
  • TheGreat Migration andSecond Great Migration, in which Black Americans moved to Northern, Midwestern, and Western cities in order to seek economic opportunity and escape racial violence
  • Railroads, promoting migration westwards andstreetcar suburbs, which created significant ethnic shifts in urban areas
  • Natural disasters such as theDust Bowl
  • The suburbanization period after World War II, which produced "white flight" to new housing and away from social unrest, followed by "black flight"
  • The development ofair conditioning, which encouraged migration from northern areas to theSun Belt

For demographics by specific ethnic groups rather than general race, see "Ancestry" below.

White and European Americans are the majority of people living in the United States.White people are defined by theUnited States Census Bureau as those "having origins in any of the original peoples ofEurope, theMiddle East, orNorth Africa".^[63] Like all official US racial categories, "White" has a "not Hispanic or Latino" and a "Hispanic or Latino" component,^[64] the latter consisting mostly ofSpanish Americans,WhiteMexican Americans, andWhiteCuban Americans.

As of 2022, White Americans are the majority in every census-defined region (Northeast,Midwest,South, andWest) and 44 out of 50 states. White Americans of one race are not a majority in the states ofHawaii,^[6]California,^[7]Texas,^[8]New Mexico,^[9]Nevada,^[10] andMaryland, along with theDistrict of Columbia,American Samoa,Guam, theNorthern Mariana Islands,Puerto Rico,^[65] and theUS Virgin Islands.^[66][67] However, those identifying as White alone or in combination (including multiracial White Americans) are the majority in every state except for Hawaii, along with being a majority in the territory of Puerto Rico.^[12] As of the 2020 US census,non-Hispanic Whites are a majority in 44 states, excludingCalifornia,Hawaii,Maryland,Nevada,New Mexico,Texas, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.^{[68][69][66][70][67][71]}

The non-Hispanic White percentage of the 50 states and District of Columbia (60.1% in 2019)^[72] has been decreasing since the mid-20th century as a result of changes made in immigration policy, most notably theHart–Celler Act of 1965. If current trends continue, non-Hispanic Whites will drop below 50% of the overall US population by 2050. White Americans overall (non-Hispanic Whites together with White Hispanics, along with many of those identified as "some other race" who are reclassified as White for Census Bureau projections, as this category is not recognized by theOffice of Management and Budget^[73][74]) are projected to continue as the majority, at 72.6% (or 264 million out of 364 million) in 2060, from currently 75.5%.^[75]

Although a high proportion of the population is known to have multiple ancestries, in the2020 United States census, most people still identified with one racial category.^{[citation needed]} In the 2020 census, self-identifiedEnglish Americans made up 46.6 million of the US population, followed byGerman Americans at 45 million, as reported in the 2020 census. This makes English and German the largest and second-largest self-reported ancestry groups in the United States. ManyEnglish Americans and otherBritish Americans self-identified under the category entry "American", thus considering themselves indigenous because their families had resided in the US for so long.^[76] 17.8 million Americans listed their ancestry as "American" on the 2020 census (seeAmerican ancestry).

MostFrench Americans are believed to be descended from colonists of CatholicNew France; exiledHuguenots, much fewer in number and settling in the eastern English colonies in the late 1600s and early 1700s, needed to assimilate into the majority culture and have intermarried over generations. SomeLouisiana Creoles, including theIsleños of Louisiana, and the Hispanos of theSouthwest have had, in part, direct Spanish ancestry; most self-reported White Hispanics are ofMexican,Puerto Rican,Cuban, andSalvadoran origins,^[77] each of which are multi-ethnic nations. Hispanic immigration has increased from nations of Central and South America.^[78]

There are a substantial number of White Americans who are of Eastern and Southern European descent, such asRussian,Polish,Italian,Armenians andGreek Americans. Eastern Europeans immigrated to the United States more recently than Western Europeans.Arabs,Iranians,Israelis,Turks and other West Asians, are reported as White in the United States census, as a result ofa federal court case from 1909, even though most do not identify as White.^[79]

Hispanic or Latino Population by race (2020):

Hispanic or Latino Americans number 59.8 million people, or 18.3% of the total US population as of 2018.^[81] The category includes people who are of full or partial Hispanic or Latino origin. They typically have origins in the Spanish-speaking nations of Latin America, although a few also come from other places (0.2% of Hispanic and Latino Americans were born in Asia, for example).^[82] The group is heterogeneous in race and national ancestry.

The Census Bureau defines "Hispanic or Latino origin" thus:

For Census 2000, American Community Survey: People who identify with the terms "Hispanic" or "Latino" are those who classify themselves in one of the specific Hispanic or Latino categories listed on the Census 2000 or ACS questionnaire ("Mexican," "Puerto Rican," or "Cuban") as well as those who indicate that they are "other Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino". Origin can be viewed as the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person, or the person's parents or ancestors, before their arrival in the United States. People who identify their origin as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino may be of any race.^[83]

Per the 2019American Community Survey, the leading ancestries for Hispanic Americans areMexican (37.2 million) followed byPuerto Rican (5.83 million),Cuban (2.38 million), andSalvadoran (2.31 million).^[84] In addition, there are 3.19 million people living in Puerto Rico who are excluded from the count (seePuerto Ricans).

The Hispanic and Latino population in the United States has reached 58 million as of 2016, and has been the principal driver of United States demographic growth since 2000. Mexicans make up most of the Hispanic and Latino population at 35,758,000. The United States also has largeDominican,Guatemalan,Colombian,Honduran,Spanish,Ecuadorian,Peruvian,Salvadoran,Nicaraguan,Venezuelan andPanamanian populations.^[85] The population of Hispanic Americans that has received a college education is also growing; in 2015, 40% of Hispanic Americans age 25 and older have had a college experience, but in 2000, the percentage was at a low 30%. Among US states, California houses the largest population of Latinos. In 2019, 15.56 million lived in California.^[69][86] As of 2019, the US territory with the largest percentage of Hispanics/Latinos isPuerto Rico (98.9% Hispanic or Latino).^[68][24]

The Hispanic or Latino population is young and fast-growing, due to immigration and higher birth rates.^[82] For decades it has contributed significantly to US population increases, and this is expected to continue. The Census Bureau projects that by 2050, one-quarter of the population will be Hispanic or Latino.^[87][88]

African Americans, or Black Americans, are citizens of the United States withAfrican ancestry.^[89] According to theOffice of Management and Budget, the grouping includes individuals who self-identify as African American and are descended from Africans that were forcibly relocated to the United States and enslaved, as well as those who recently and voluntarily emigrated from nations in theCaribbean andsub-Saharan Africa.^[90] Both groups of people may also identify as Black or some other written-in race. However, some immigrants from the continent of Africa do not identify as Black and are not socially perceived as such, such as theAfrikaners ofSouth Africa.^[89] According to the 2009 American Community Survey, there were 38,093,725 Black and African Americans in the United States, representing 12.4% of the population. There were 37,144,530 non-Hispanic Blacks, which comprised 12.1% of the population.^[91] According to the2010 US census, this number increased to 42 million when including multiracial African Americans,^[90] making up 13% of the total US population.^[e][93] African Americans make up the second largest group in the United States, but the third largest group after White Americans and Hispanic or Latino Americans of any race.^[94] The majority of the population (55%) lives in theSouth, and there has been a decrease of African Americans in theNortheast andMidwest.^[93] TheUS state/territory with the highest percentage of African Americans is the US Virgin Islands (76% African American as of 2010).^[25]

Most African Americans are the direct descendants of captives fromWest Africa, who survived theslavery era within the boundaries of the present United States.^[95] The first West Africans were brought toJamestown, Virginia in 1619. The English settlers treated these captives asindentured servants and released them after a number of years. This practice was gradually replaced by the system of race-based slavery used in the Caribbean.^[96] All theAmerican colonies had slavery, but it was usually in the form of personal servants in the North (where 2% of the population were enslaved), and field hands in plantations in the South (where 25% were enslaved);^[97] by the beginning of theAmerican Revolutionary War, a fifth of the total population was enslaved.^[98] During the revolution, some served in theContinental Army orContinental Navy,^[99][100] whileothers fought for theBritish Empire in units such as theEthiopian Regiment.^[101] By 1804, the states north of theMason–Dixon line hadabolished slavery.^[102] However, slavery would persist in theSouthern states until the end of theAmerican Civil War and the passage of theThirteenth Amendment.^[103] Following the end of theReconstruction era, which saw the firstAfrican American representation inCongress,^[104] African Americans becamedisenfranchised and subject toJim Crow laws,^[105] legislation that would persist until the passage of theCivil Rights Act of 1964 andVoting Rights Act of 1965 due to thecivil rights movement.^[106]

According to US Census Bureau data, very fewAfrican immigrants self-identify as "African-American" (as "African-American" is usually referring to Blacks with deeply rooted ancestry dating back to the US slave period as discussed in the previous paragraph.) On average, less than 5% of African residents self-reported as "African-American" or "Afro-American" in the 2000 US census. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants (~95%) identified instead with their own respective ethnicities. Self-designation as "African-American" or "Afro-American" was highest among individuals from West Africa (4–9%), and lowest among individuals from Cape Verde, East Africa, and Southern Africa (0–4%).^[107] Nonetheless, African immigrants often develop very successful professional and business working-relationships with African Americans. Immigrants from some Caribbean, Central American, and South American nations and their descendants may or may not also self-identify with the term "African American".^[108]

Recent African immigrants in the United States come from countries such asJamaica,Haiti,Nigeria,Ethiopia,Dominican Republic,Ghana,Trinidad and Tobago,Kenya,Guyana, andSomalia.^[109]

A third significant minority is theAsian American population, which comprised 19.36 million people, or 5.9% of the US population, in 2019.^[72] In 2019, 6.12 million Asian Americans lived inCalifornia.^[69] As of 2019, approximately 532,300 Asians live inHawaii, forming 37.6% of the islands' people.^[68] This makes Hawaii the state with the highest percentage of Asian Americans.^[110] Although they were historically first concentrated in Hawaii and theWest Coast, Asian Americans now live across the country, living and working in large numbers inNew York City,Chicago,Boston,Houston, and other major urban centers. There are also many Asians living in twoPacificUS territories (Guam and theNorthern Mariana Islands) – as of 2010, Guam's population was 32.2% Asian, and the population of the Northern Mariana Islands was 49.9% Asian.^[23]

Filipinos have been in the territories that would become the United States since the 16th century. In 1635, an "East Indian" is listed in Jamestown, Virginia; preceding wider settlement of Indian immigrants on the East Coast in the 1790s and the West Coast in the 1800s. In 1763, Filipinos established the small settlement of Saint Malo, Louisiana, after fleeing mistreatment aboard Spanish ships. Since there were no Filipino women with them, these "Manilamen", as they were known, married Cajun and indigenous women. The first Japanese person to come to the United States, and stay any significant period of time was Nakahama Manjirō who reached the East Coast in 1841, and Joseph Heco became the first Japanese American naturalized US citizen in 1858. As with the new immigration from central and eastern Europe to the East Coast from the mid-19th century on,Asians started immigrating to the United States in large numbers in the 19th century. This first major wave of immigration consisted predominantly ofChinese andJapanese laborers, but also includedKorean andSouth Asian immigrants. Many immigrants also came during and after this period from thePhilippines, which was aUS colony from 1898 to 1946. Exclusion laws and policies largely prohibited and curtailed Asian immigration until the 1940s. After the US changed its immigration laws during the 1940s to 1960s to make entry easier, a much larger new wave of immigration from Asia began. Today, the largest self-identified Asian American sub-groups, according to census data, areChinese Americans,Filipino Americans,Indian Americans,Vietnamese Americans,Korean Americans, andJapanese Americans,among other groups.^[111]

Not all of Asian Americans' ancestors directly migrated from their country of origin to the US. For example, more than 270,000 people from Guyana, a South American country, reside in the US, but a predominant number of Guyanese people areof Indian descent.^[112]

Middle Eastern Americans and North African Americans are Americans with ancestry from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). There are an estimated 3.5 million Middle Eastern Americans according to the US Census Bureau in 2020 comprising 1.06% of the population^[113] and including both Arab and non-Arab Americans.^[114] TheArab American Institute in 2014 estimated a population of 3.6 million.^[115] US census population estimates are based on responses to the ancestry question on the census, which makes it difficult to accurately count Middle Eastern Americans.^[115][116] Though Middle Eastern American communities can be found in each of the 50 states, the majority live in just 10 states; nearly a third live in California, New York, and Michigan.^[117] More Middle Eastern Americans live in California than any other state, with ethnic groups such as Arabs and Persians being a large percentage, but Middle Eastern Americans represent the highest percentage of the population of Michigan.^[117][118] In particular,Dearborn, Michigan haslong been home to a high concentration of Middle Eastern Americans.^[119][120]

The US Census Bureau is still finalizing the ethnic classification of MENA populations. Middle Eastern Americans are currently counted as racially White on the census, although many do not identify as such. In 2012, prompted in part by post-9/11 discrimination, theAmerican-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee petitioned the Department of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency to designate the MENA populations as a minority/disadvantaged community.^[121] Following consultations with MENA organizations, the US Census Bureau announced in 2014 that it would establish a new MENA ethnic category for populations from theMiddle East,North Africa, and theArab world, separate from the "white" classification that these populations had previously sought in 1909. The expert groups felt that the earlier "White" designation no longer accurately represents MENA identity, so they successfully lobbied for a distinct categorization.^[28][122] This process does not currently include ethnoreligious groups such asSikhs, as the Bureau only tabulates these groups as followers of religions rather than members of ethnic groups.^[123]

According to the Arab American Institute, countries of origin for Arab Americans includeAlgeria,Bahrain,Egypt,Iraq,Jordan,Kuwait,Lebanon,Libya,Morocco,Oman,Qatar,Palestine,Saudi Arabia,Syria,Tunisia,United Arab Emirates, andYemen. As of December 2015, the sampling strata for the new MENA category includes the Census Bureau's working classification of 19 MENA groups, as well asAfghan, Iranian, Israeli, andAzerbaijani groups.^[124] The new category will identify "Israeli" as a choice and raises questions as to how the largeUS Jewish population (7-8 million) will identify.^[125]

The new question on the US census will identify the MENA category to include:^[126]

"Individuals with origins in any of the original peoples of the Middle East or North Africa, including, for example, Lebanese, Iranian, Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi, and Israeli."

Indigenous peoples of the Americas, particularlyNative Americans, made up 1.1% of the population in 2020, numbering 3.7 million. An additional 5.9 million persons declared part-American Indian orAlaska Native ancestry, totaling 2.9% of the population.^[127] Levels of Native American ancestry (distinct fromNative American identity) differ. According to a study using data from23andMe customers, genomes of self-reported African Americans averaged to 0.8% Native American ancestry, those of European Americans averaged to 0.18%, and those of Latinos averaged to 18.0%.^[128][129] Among the Hispanic population, numbering over 60 million in total, a genetic study from 2018 has found an average of 38% Native American ancestry, 1% African Americans, and 0.1% European Americans.^[130]

The legal and official designation of who is Native American has aroused controversy by demographers, tribal nations, and government officials for many decades.Federally recognized tribes andstate recognized tribes set their own membership requirements; tribal enrollment may require residency on a reservation, documentedlineal descent from recognized records, such as theDawes Rolls, and other criteria. Some tribes have adopted the use of blood quantum, requiring members to have a certain percentage. The federal government requires individuals to certify documented blood quantum of ancestry for certain federal programs, such as education benefits, available to members of recognized tribes. Census takers accept any respondent's identification. Genetic scientists estimate that millions of other Americans, including some African Americans and many Hispanic Americans (especially those of Mexican heritage), may have significant Native ancestry.^[131]

Once thought to face extinction as a race or culture, Native Americans of numerous tribes have achieved revival of aspects of their cultures, and have fought to retain sovereignty and control of their own affairs for centuries. In recent years, many have started language programs to revive use of traditional languages, establishedtribally controlled colleges and other schools on their reservations, and developedgaming casinos on their sovereign land to raise revenues for economic development, as well as to promote the education and welfare of their people through health care and construction of improved housing.^[132]

Today, more than 800,000 to one million persons claim Cherokee descent in part or as full-bloods; of these, an estimated 300,000 live in California, 160,000 inOklahoma (of which a majority areCherokee Nation citizens), and 15,000 inNorth Carolina, living in ancestral homelands as members of theEastern Band of Cherokee Indians.^[133]

The second largest tribal group is theNavajo, who call themselves Diné and live on a 16‑million-acre^[f]Indian reservation covering northeastArizona, northwestNew Mexico, and southeastUtah. It is home to half of the 450,000 members of theNavajo Nation.^{[citation needed]} The third largest group are theLakota (Sioux) Nation, with distinct federally recognized tribes located in the states ofMinnesota,Nebraska,Montana,Wyoming; andNorth andSouth Dakota.^{[134][135][clarification needed]}

As of the2020 census, the largest self-identified Native American group not combined with another race isAztec, numbering 378,122 individuals. Though Aztecs are indigenous toMexico and not the United States, they are nevertheless considered Native American people per census guidelines, which includes any indigenous people from theAmericas.^[136][137] Of the 3.2 million Americans who identified as American Indian or Alaska Native alone in 2022, around 45% are of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, with this number growing as increasing numbers of Indigenous people from Latin American countries immigrate to the US and more Latinos self-identify with indigenous heritage.^[138]

Native Hawaiians and otherPacific Islanders numbered approximately 656,400 in 2019, or 0.2% of the population.^[72] Additionally, nearly as many individuals identify themselves as having partial Native Hawaiian ancestry, for a total of 829,949 people of full or part Native Hawaiian ancestry.^[139] This group constitutes the smallest minority in the United States. More than half identify as "full-blooded", but historically most Native Hawaiians on the island chain ofHawaii are believed to have some Asian and European ancestry.^[140][141]

Some demographers believe that by 2025, the last full-blooded Native Hawaiian will die off, leaving a culturally distinct but racially mixed population.^{[citation needed]} However, throughout Hawaii, they are working to preserve and assert adaptation of Native Hawaiian customs and theHawaiian language by establishing cultural schools solely for legally Native Hawaiian students and more.

There are significantPacific Islander populations living in threePacificUS territories (American Samoa,Guam, and theNorthern Mariana Islands). As of 2010,American Samoa's population was 92.6% Pacific Islander (mostlySamoan),Guam's population was 49.3% Pacific Islander (mostlyChamorro), and the population of theNorthern Mariana Islands was 34.9% Pacific Islander.^[22][23] Out of all US states/territories, American Samoa has the highest percentage of Pacific Islanders.^[22]

Self-identifiedmultiracial Americans numbered 7.0 million in 2008, or 2.3% of the population.^[142] They have identified as any combination of races (White, Black or African American, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and "some other race") and ethnicities.^[143] The US has a growing multiracial identity movement.

While the colonies and southern states protected White fathers by making all children born to slave mothers be classified as slaves, regardless of paternity, they also bannedmiscegenation orinterracial marriage, most notably between Whites and Blacks. However, this did little to stop interracial relationships. Demographers state that, due to new waves of immigration, the American people through the early 20th century were mostly multi-ethnic descendants of various immigrant nationalities, who maintained cultural distinctiveness until, over time,assimilation, migration andintegration took place.^[144][145] Thecivil rights movement through the 20th century gained passage of important legislation to enforce constitutional rights of minorities, including multiracial Americans.

The multiracial population that is part White is the largest percentage of the multiracial population. As of the 2000 census, 7,015,017 people self-identified as White/American Indian and Alaskan Native, 737,492 as White/Black, 727,197 as White/Asian, and 125,628 as White/Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander.^[146]

A 2002 study found an average of 18.6% European genetic contribution and 2.7% Native American genetic contribution (with standard errors of 1.5% and 1.4% respectively) in a sample of 232 African Americans.^{[citation needed]} Meanwhile, in a sample of 187 European Americans fromState College, Pennsylvania, there was an average of 0.7% West African genetic contribution and 3.2% Native American genetic contribution (with standard errors of 0.9% and 1.6% respectively). Most of the non-European admixture was concentrated in 30% of the sample, with West African admixture ranging from 2 to 20% with an average of 2.3%.^[147]

In 1958, Robert Stuckert produced a statistical analysis using historical census data and immigration statistics. He concluded that the growth in the White population could not be attributed solely to births in the White population and immigration from Europe, but was also due to people identifying as White who were partly Black. He concluded that 21% of White Americans had some recent African-American ancestors and that the majority of Americans of known African descent were partly European and not entirely sub-Saharan African.^[148]

More recently, many different DNA studies have shown that many African Americans have European admixture, reflecting the long history in this country of the various populations. Proportions of European admixture in African-American DNA have been found in studies to be 17%^[149] and between 10.6% and 22.5%.^[150] Another recent study found the average to be 21.2%, with astandard error of 1.2%.^[147]

The Race, Ethnicity, and Genetics Working Group of theNational Human Genome Research Institute notes that "although genetic analyses of large numbers of loci can produce estimates of the percentage of a person's ancestors coming from various continental populations, these estimates may assume a false distinctiveness of the parental populations, since human groups have exchanged mates from local to continental scales throughout history."^[151]

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In the 2000 census, the non-standard category of "Other"^[3] was especially intended to capture responses such asmestizo andmulatto,^[31] two large multiracial groups in most of the countries of origin of Hispanic and Latino Americans. However, many other responses are captured by the category.

In 2008, 15 million people, nearly five percent of the total US population, were estimated to be "some other race",^[142] with 95% of them being Hispanic or Latino.^[21]

Due to this category's non-standard status, statistics from government agencies other than the Census Bureau (for example, theCenters for Disease Control's data onvital statistics, or theFBI's crime statistics), but also the Bureau's own official Population Estimates, omit the "some other race" category and include most of the people in this group in the White population, thus including the vast majority (about 90%) of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the White population.^[152]

The ancestry of the people of the United States is widely varied and includes descendants of populations from around the world. In addition to its variation, the ancestry of people in the United States is also marked by varying amounts of intermarriage between ethnic and racial groups.^[153][154]

While some Americans can trace their ancestry back to a single ethnic group or population inEurope,Africa, orAsia, these are often first, second and third-generation Americans. Generally, the degree of mixed heritage increases the longer people's ancestors have lived in the United States (seemelting pot). There are several means available to discover the ancestry of the people living in the United States, includinggenealogy,genetics,oral andwritten history, and analysis ofFederal Population Census schedules; in practice, only few of these have been used for a larger part of the population.^[155][156]

This table displays all self-reportedancestries with over 50,000 members, alone or in combination, according to estimates from the 2022 American Community Survey. The total population of the US according to the survey was 333,287,550, and 251,732,240 people reported an ancestry. Of these, 175,054,020 reported a single ancestry, and 76,678,224 reported two or more ancestries.^[157] Hispanic groups are not distinguished between total and partial ancestry^{[158][159][160][161][162]}

However,demographers regard the reported number of English Americans as a statistical error, as the index of inconsistency is high and many, if not most, Americans from English stock have a tendency to identify simply as Americans,^{[164][165][166][167]} or, if of mixed European ancestry, with a different European ethnic group.^[168]

These images display frequencies of self-reported ancestries, as of the 2000 US census. Regional African ancestries are not listed, though an African American map has been added from another source.

• 
  Frequency ofAmerican ancestry
• 
  Density ofAsian Americans
• 
  Percent ofAsian Americans
• 
  Density ofAfrican Americans
• 
  Percent ofAfrican Americans
• 
  Density ofPacific Islander Americans
• 
  Percent ofPacific Islander Americans
• 
  Density ofNative Americans
• 
  Percent ofNative Americans
• 
  Density ofWhite Americans
• 
  Percent ofWhite Americans
• 
  African ancestry
• 
  Arab ancestry
• 
  Density ofHispanic ancestry
• 
  Percent ofHispanic ancestry
• 
  West Indian ancestry

These images display frequencies of self-reported European American ancestries as of the 2000 US census.

• 
  Czech ancestry
• 
  Danish ancestry
• 
  Dutch ancestry
• 
  English ancestry
• 
  Finnish ancestry
• 
  French ancestry
• 
  French Canadian ancestry
• 
  German ancestry
• 
  Greek ancestry
• 
  Hungarian ancestry
• 
  Icelandic ancestry
• 
  Irish ancestry
• 
  Lithuanian ancestry
• 
  Norwegian ancestry
• 
  Polish ancestry
• 
  Portuguese ancestry
• 
  Romanian ancestry
• 
  Russian ancestry
• 
  Scotch-Irish ancestry
• 
  Scottish ancestry
• 
  Slovak ancestry
• 
  Swedish ancestry
• 
  Ukrainian ancestry
• 
  Welsh ancestry

• Culture of the United States
• Culture of the Southern United States
• Demographics of the United States
• Discrimination in the United States
• Historical racial and ethnic demographics of the United States
• History of ethnocultural politics in the United States
• History of the United States
• History of the Southern United States
• Immigration to the United States
• Language Spoken at Home
• Nativism in United States politics
• Person of color
• Politics of the United States
• Politics of the Southern United States
• Race and crime in the United States
• Racism against African Americans
• Racism in the United States
• Religion in the United States
• Slavery in the United States
• Xenophobia in the United States

• American Factfinder; keyword search for "Ancestry", all programs;United States Census Bureau
• For additional county-level US maps on a wide range of ethnic and nationality groups, visit theMap Gallery of Ethnic Groups in the United StatesArchived March 10, 2013, at theWayback Machine, part of the course materials for American Ethnic Geography atValparaiso University.
• American terminology for different racial groups by sociologistPamela E. Oliver

• Demographics of the United States
• Ethnic groups in the United States
• Race in the United States

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