Ukrainian Americans areAmericans who are of full or partialUkrainian ancestry. According to U.S. census estimates, in 2021 there were 1,017,586 Americans of Ukrainian descent representing 0.3% of the American population.[1] The Ukrainian population of the United States is thus the second largest outside the formerEastern Bloc; onlyCanada has a largerUkrainian community under this definition. According to the 2000 U.S. census, themetropolitan areas with the largest numbers of Ukrainian Americans are:New York City with 160,000;Philadelphia with 60,000;Chicago with 46,000;Detroit with 45,000;Los Angeles with 36,000;Cleveland with 26,000;Sacramento with 20,000;[4] andIndianapolis with 19,000.[5][6] In 2018, the number of Ukrainian Americans surpassed 1 million.[7]
Despite the United States’s much larger total population, Ukrainian Americans are outnumbered in absolute numbers by theirCanadian counterparts[8][9]. They are one of the few, if not the only, ethnic groups in North America for which this is the case. In contrast, most other groups—includingIndian,Chinese,Filipino, andIndigenous communities—represent a smaller share of the population in Canada but remain more numerous in the United States due to its much larger overall population.
Large-scale Ukrainian immigration to America did not begin until the 1880s.[11] Between 1870 and 1914, the majority of Ukrainian immigrants came fromAustro-Hungary (Galicia and other regions). They were described asRuthenians” Many arrived inNew York City andPennsylvania. In 1899 estimates of the number of Ukrainians in the US ranged from 200,000 to 500,000.[12] TheUkrainian National Association (Ukrainian:Український народний союз), known before 1914 as the Ruthenian National Union (Ukrainian:Руський Народний Союз) was founded inShamokin, Pennsylvania, on February 22, 1894.
Between 1920 and 1939, about 40,000 more Ukrainians arrived, mostly fromWestern Ukraine.[12] After World War II, about 85,000 Ukrainiandisplaced persons emigrated to the United States from Europe.[12]
The largest wave of Ukrainians came in the early 1990s, after the 1991fall of the Soviet Union. Some[quantify] of those emigrating from Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union wereJewish orProtestant. Many Ukrainians of the newest immigration wave settled in large cities and regional centers, formingethnic enclaves. In addition, many Ukrainian Americans arrived by way of Canada, which has a largerUkrainian presence.
On September 11, 2001, 11 Ukrainian Americans perished at theWorld Trade Center inNew York City during theacts of mass terrorism committed on that day. All of their names were listed and commemorated byUkrinform, the National News Agency of Ukraine, during the nineteenth anniversary of the attacks in 2020.[13]
In February 2022, the Pastor Right Reverend Mitred Archpriest Philip Weiner, the leader of St. Josaphat'sUkrainian Catholic Church inRochester, New York, said that there were more than 40,000 Ukrainians in the Rochester metropolitan area, which would make it one of the largest Ukrainian American communities in the country.[17]
It is estimated that during 2022–2023, around 300,000 Ukrainians have sought asylum in the United States through various means, making the U.S. the fifth-largest destination forrefugees of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and also making Ukrainians one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the United States that don't originate from the American continent.
As of the2000 U.S. census, there were 892,922 Americans of full or partial Ukrainian descent. TheNew York City Metropolitan Area contains by far the largest Ukrainian community in the United States, due to historically receiving the highest number of Ukrainian immigrants.[2]
The U.S. states with the largest Ukrainian populations are as follows:
Kuropas, Myron B.; Shust, Maria; Pevna, Chrystyna (1984).To Preserve A Heritage: The Story of the Ukrainian Immigration in the United States. New York:The Ukrainian Museum. 84-050811.
Fedunkiw, Marianne P. "Ukrainian Americans." inGale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 4, Gale, 2014), pp. 459–474.online
340,468
332,145
