| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 19,364,103 (5.93%) 2021 estimates, self-reported[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Southern United States andMidwestern United States, especiallyArkansas,Kentucky,Tennessee, andWest Virginia | |
| Languages | |
| English (American English dialects) | |
| Religion | |
| PredominantlyChristianity (mainlyProtestantism) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| White Southerners and otherAmerican ancestries |
In thedemography of the United States, some peopleself-identify their ancestral origin ordescent as "American", rather than the more commonofficially recognized racial and ethnic groups that make up the bulk of theAmerican people.[2][3][4] The majority of these respondents are visibly white and do not identify with their ancestral European ethnic origins.[5][6] The latter response is attributed to a multitude of generational distance from ancestral lineages,[3][7][8] and these tend to beAnglo-Americans[7] ofEnglish,Scots-Irish,Welsh,Scottish or otherBritish ancestries, as demographers have observed that those ancestries tend to be recently undercounted inU.S. Census BureauAmerican Community Survey ancestry self-reporting estimates.[9][10]
AlthoughU.S. census data indicates "American ancestry" is most commonly self-reported in theDeep South, theUpland South, andAppalachia,[11][12] a far greater number of Americans andexpatriates equate theirnational identity not with ancestry, race, or ethnicity, but rather withcitizenship andallegiance.[13][8]
The earliest attested use of theterm "American" to identify an ancestral or cultural identity dates to the late 1500s, with the term signifying "the indigenous peoples discovered in the Western Hemisphere by Europeans."[14] In the following century, the term "American" was extended as a reference to colonists of European descent.[14] TheOxford English Dictionary identifies this secondary meaning as "historical" and states that the term "American" today "chiefly [means] anative (birthright) orcitizen of the United States."[14]
PresidentTheodore Roosevelt asserted that an "American race" had been formed on theAmerican frontier, one distinct from other ethnic groups, such as theAnglo-Saxons.[15]: 78, 131 He believed "(t)he conquest and settlement by the whites of the Indian lands was necessary to the greatness of the race...."[15]: 78 "We are making a new race, a new type, in this country."[15] Roosevelt's "race" beliefs were not unique in the 19th and early 20th century.[16][17][18][19][20] ProfessorEric Kaufmann has suggested thatAmerican nativism has been explained primarily in psychological and economic terms to the neglect of a crucial cultural and ethnic dimension. Kauffman contends American nativism cannot be understood without reference to the theorem of the age that an "American" national ethnic group had taken shape prior to the large-scaleimmigration of the mid-19th century.[18]
"Nativism" gained its name from the "Native American" parties of the 1840s and 1850s.[21][22] In this context, "Native" does not meanindigenous or American Indian, but rather those descended from the inhabitants of the originalThirteen Colonies (Colonial American ancestry).[23][24][18] These "Old Stock Americans," were predominantly Protestants fromEngland, Sweden, the Netherlands, and even modern-day Russia and Finland. They sawCatholic immigrants as a threat to traditionalAmerican republican values, as they were loyal to thepapacy.[25][26] This form ofAmerican nationalism is often identified withxenophobia andanti-Catholic sentiment.[27]
Nativist outbursts occurred in theNortheast from the 1830s to the 1850s, primarily in response to a surge of Catholic immigration.[28] TheOrder of United American Mechanics was founded as a nativist fraternity, following thePhiladelphia nativist riots of the preceding spring and summer, in December 1844.[29] TheNew York City anti-Irish, anti-German, and anti-Catholic secret society theOrder of the Star Spangled Banner was formed in 1848.[30] Popularised nativist movements included theKnow Nothing or American Party of the 1850s and theImmigration Restriction League of the 1890s.[31]
During theantebellum period (pre-Civil War), between 1830 and 1860,Americanism acquired a restrictive political meaning due tonativist moral panics.[32] Nativism would eventually influence Congress;[33] in1924, legislation limiting immigration from Southern and Eastern European countries was ratified, also quantifying previous formal and informal anti-Asian previsions, such as theChinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and theGentlemen's Agreement of 1907.[34][35]
According toU.S. Census Bureau; "Ancestry refers to a person's ethnic origin or descent, 'roots,' or heritage, or the place of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States."[36]
According to2000 U.S. census data, an increasing number of United States citizens identify simply as "American" on the question of ancestry.[37][38][39] The Census Bureau reports the number of people in the United States who reported "American" and no other ancestry increased from 12.4 million in 1990 to 20.2 million in 2000.[40] This increase represents the largest numerical growth of any ethnic group in the United States during the 1990s.[2] The state with the largest increase over the past two census wasTexas, where in 2000, over 1.5 million residents reported having "American ancestry."[41]
In the1980 census, 26% of United States residents cited that they were ofEnglish ancestry, making them the largest group at the time.[42] In the 2000 United States Census, 6.9% of the American population chose to self-identify itself as having "American ancestry."[2] The four states in which aplurality of the population reported American ancestry wereArkansas (15.7%),Kentucky (20.7%),Tennessee (17.3%), andWest Virginia (18.7%).[40] Sizable percentages of the populations ofAlabama (16.8%),Mississippi (14.0%),North Carolina (13.7%),South Carolina (13.7%),Georgia (13.3%), andIndiana (11.8%) also reported American ancestry.[43]
In theSouthern United States as a whole, 11.2% reported "American" ancestry, second only toAfrican American. American was the fourth most common ancestry reported in the Midwest (6.5%) and West (4.1%). All Southern states except forDelaware,Maryland,Florida, andTexas reported 10% or more American, but outside the South, onlyMissouri and Indiana did so. American was one of the top five ancestries reported in all Southern states except for Delaware, in four Midwestern states bordering the South (Indiana,Kansas,Missouri, andOhio) as well asIowa, and in six Northwestern states (Colorado,Idaho,Oregon,Utah,Washington,Wyoming), but only one Northeastern state,Maine. The pattern of areas with high levels of American is similar to that of areas with high levels of not reporting any national ancestry.[43]
In the2020 United States census,English Americans (46.6 million),German Americans (45 million),Irish Americans (31.7 million), andItalian Americans (16.8 million) were the four largest self-reportedEuropean ancestry groups in the United States, forming 37.8% of the total population.[44] However, English andScotch-Irish demography is considered to be seriously undercounted, as the 6.9% of U.S. Census respondents who self-report and identify simply as "American" are primarily of these ancestries.[9][10]
Reynolds Farley writes that "we may now be in an era of optional ethnicity, in which no simple census question will distinguish those who identify strongly with a specific European group from those who report symbolic or imagined ethnicity."[37]
Stanley Lieberson andMary C. Waters write "As whites become increasingly distant in generations and time from their immigrant ancestors, the tendency to distort, or remember selectively, one's ethnic origins increases.... [E]thnic categories are social phenomena that over the long run are constantly being redefined and reformulated."[39][45] Mary C. Waters contends that white Americans of European origin are afforded a wide range of choice: "In a sense, they are constantly given an actual choice—they can either identify themselves with their ethnic ancestry or they can 'melt' into the wider society and call themselves American."[46]
Professors Anthony Daniel Perez and Charles Hirschman write "European national origins are still common among whites—almost 3 of 5 whites name one or more European countries in response to the ancestry question. ... However, a significant share of whites respond that they are simply "American" or leave the ancestry question blank on their census forms. Ethnicity is receding from the consciousness of many white Americans. Because national origins do not count for very much in contemporary America, many whites are content with a simplified Americanized racial identity. The loss of specific ancestral attachments among many white Americans also results from high patterns of intermarriage and ethnic blending among whites of different European stocks."[8]
The response of American ancestry is addressed by theUnited States Census Bureau as follows:
Some people identify their ancestry as American. This could be because their ancestors have been in United States for so long or they have such mixed backgrounds that they do not identify with any particular group. Some foreign born or children of the foreign born may report American to show that they are part of American society. There are many reasons people may report their ancestors as American, and the growth in this response has been substantial.[47]
A 2015 genetic study published in theAmerican Journal of Human Genetics analyzed the genetic ancestry of 148,789European Americans. The study concluded that Inferred English ancestry is found in European Americans from all states at mean proportions of more than 20% and represents a majority of ancestry (more than 50% mean proportion) in states such asMississippi,Arkansas, andTennessee. These states are similarly highlighted in the map of the self-reported "American" ethnicity in the US Census survey, which might reflect regions with lower subsequent migration from other parts of Europe.[48]
To be or to become an American, a person did not have to be of any particular national, linguistic, religious, or ethnic background. All he had to do was to commit himself to the political ideology centered on the abstract ideals of liberty, equality, and republicanism. Thus the universalist ideological character of American nationality meant that it was open to anyone who willed to become an American.
In the case of the United States, the national ethnic group was Anglo-American Protestant ("American"). This was the first European group to "imagine" the territory of the United States as its homeland and trace its genealogy back to New World colonists who rebelled against their mother country. In its mind, the American nation-state, its land, its history, its mission and its Anglo-American people were woven into one great tapestry of the imagination. This social construction considered the United States to be founded by the "Americans", who thereby had title to the land and the mandate to mould the nation (and any immigrants who might enter it) in their own Anglo-Saxon, Protestant self-image.
The upsurge of the faithful fueled bigotry among Americans who demonized cities and discounted foreigners, especially Catholics and Jews, as true citizens. Old stock American nativists feared that "papists"...
