The roots of the USA population
The USA has many ancestry groups. In this article we will take a closer look of the roots of USA people.
Americans have a complicated and varied ancestry. Indigenous peoples are the descendants of those who first settled the Americas and their cultures span thousands of years.
At the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, Europeans began colonizing the Americas, bringing with them their many languages, civilizations, and faiths.
Slaves originally from Africa began to be introduced to the Americas in the 16th century.
Over the subsequent centuries, individuals from Asia, Europe, Africa, and Central and South America flooded into the Americas, bringing with them their diverse cultures and ancestries.
Conflict and cooperation, adversity and perseverance, and the ever-evolving process of defining what it means to be an American are all part of the history of all Americans.
2020 American Community Survey
According to the 2015–2020 American Community Survey, the thirty largest ancestry groups in the United States were:
| Rank | Ancestry | Population | Percent of total population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | German | 42,589,571 | 13.04% |
| 2 | Black or African American (non-Hispanic) | 39,994,653 | 12.22% |
| 3 | Mexican | 36,537,028 | 11.19% |
| 4 | Irish | 31,518,129 | 9.65% |
| 5 | English | 25,213,619 | 7.72% |
| 6 | American | 19,364,103 | 5.93% |
| 7 | Italian | 16,549,022 | 5.07% |
| 8 | French (including French Canadian) | 9,372,988 | 2.87% |
| 9 | Polish | 8,936,002 | 2.74% |
| 10 | Puerto Rican | 5,699,150 | 1.75% |
| 11 | Scottish | 5,298,861 | 1.62% |
| 12 | Norwegian | 4,289,825 | 1.31% |
| 13 | Chinese | 4,151,009 | 1.27% |
| 14 | Asian Indian | 4,143,134 | 1.27% |
| 15 | Dutch | 3,692,889 | 1.13% |
| 16 | Swedish | 3,627,796 | 1.11% |
| 17 | West Indian (non-Hispanic) | 3,008,035 | 0.92% |
| 18 | Scotch-Irish | 2,937,156 | 0.9% |
| 19 | Filipino | 2,884,210 | 0.88% |
| 20 | Russian | 2,538,436 | 0.78% |
| 21 | Cuban | 2,332,584 | 0.71% |
| 22 | Salvadoran | 2,244,914 | 0.68% |
| 23 | Native American | 2,075,852 | 0.63% |
| 24 | Arab | 2,056,594 | 0.62% |
| 25 | Dominican | 2,042,360 | 0.62% |
| 26 | Vietnamese | 1,852,906 | 0.56% |
| 27 | Welsh | 1,851,256 | 0.56% |
| 28 | Guatemalan | 1,484,005 | 0.45% |
| 29 | Korean | 1,477,325 | 0.45% |
| 30 | Portuguese | 1,363,964 | 0.41% |
In the map below you can see how all ancestry groups are distributed across the USA:
