     .jpg)     |
| Notable British Americans: Benjamin Franklin · Douglas MacArthur James Monroe · Thomas Paine Tracey Ullman · George Washington Butch Cassidy · James Madison Christopher Hitchens · Rick Rescorla |
| Total population |
|---|
| British 36,564,465 Americans (2000) Estimated up to 18% of US population |
| Regions with significant populations |
| The U.S. South, Northeast, West |
| Languages |
| Religion |
|
Christian |
| Related ethnic groups |
|
Britons · English Americans · Scottish Americans · Scots-Irish Americans · Welsh Americans |
British Americans are Americans whose ancestry stems, either wholly or in part, from the United Kingdom, i.e. from Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) or Northern Ireland. The term is seldom used by people to refer to themselves (approximately 0.4% chose it in the 2000 census[1]), and is used primarily as a demographic or historical research term.
Contents |
History
Early settlement and colonization
British Americans have English, Scottish, Ulster Scots, and/or Welsh family heritages, or came from Canada where their ancestors were of British descent, and are those Americans who were British born. Catholic Irish-Americans are not usually categorized as having British ancestry; they do not usually consider themselves as being British Americans. Immigrants from Canada of British ancestry tend to call themselves Canadian Americans. Similarly, most British Americans tend to differentiate to being specifically English, Scottish, Welsh or ethnic minorities (eg. Pakistani Scottish) and do not identify with the UK as a whole, therefore tending not to refer to themselves as British American (see: English American, Scottish American, Welsh American, or Scots-Irish American) and settlers of British heritage from other former British territories like Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa also consider themselves by their nationalities, Australian Americans, New Zealand Americans, South African-Americans, like those with British citizenship would identify themselves as British-American.
Number of British Americans
| Ancestry | 1980 | % of U.S | 1990 | % of U.S | 2000 | % of U.S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | 32,651,788 | 13.1% | 24,515,138 | 8.7% | ||
| Scottish | 10,048,816 | 5.34% | 5,393,581 | 2.2% | 4,890,581 | 1.7% |
| Scots-Irish | no data | no data | 5,617,773 | 2.3% | 4,319,232 | 1.5% |
| Welsh | 1,664,598 | 0.88% | 2,033,893 | 0.8% | 1,753,794 | 0.6% |
| British | no data | no data | no data | no data | 1,085,720 | 0.4% |
| American | no data | no data | 12,395,999 | 5.0% | 20,625,093 | 7.3% |
2000 U.S Census
The Twenty-Second United States Census, 2000, 36.4 million Americans reported British ancestry.[1]
Most of the population who stated their ancestry as "American" are said to be of old colonial British stock.
- American 20,625,093 (7.3%)
1990 U.S Census
The Twenty-first United States Census, 1990.[2]
| 1790 U.S Ancestry Based on Evaluated census figures[3] |
2000 U.S Ancestry[3] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ancestry group | Number (1790 estimate) |
% of total |
Ancestry | Number (2000 count) |
% of total |
| English | 1,900,000 | 47.5 | German | 42,885,162 | 15.2 |
| African | 750,000 | 19.0 | African | 36,419,434 | 12.9 |
| Scotch-Irish | 320,000 | 8.0 | Irish | 30,594,130 | 10.9 |
| German | 280,000 | 7.0 | English | 24,515,138 | 8.7 |
| Irish | 200,000 | 5.0 | Mexican | 20,640,711 | 7.3 |
| Scottish | 160,000 | 4.0 | Italian | 15,723,555 | 5.6 |
| Welsh | 120,000 | 3.0 | French | 10,846,018 | 3.9 |
| Dutch | 100,000 | 2.5 | Hispanic | 10,017,244 | 3.6 |
| French | 80,000 | 2.0 | Polish | 8,977,444 | 3.2 |
| Native American | 50,000 | 1.0 | Scottish | 4,890,581 | 1.7 |
| Spanish | 20,000 | 0.5 | Dutch | 4,542,494 | 1.6 |
| Swedish or other | 20,000 | 0.5 | Norwegian | 4,477,725 | 1.6 |
| British (Total) | 2,500,000 | 62.5 | Scotch-Irish | 4,319,232 | 1.5 |
| Total | 3,929,326[4] | 100 | Native American | 4,119,301 | 1.5 |
| Welsh | 1,753,794 | 0.6 | |||
| British (Total) | 36,564,465 | 13.0 | |||
1980 U.S Census
The Twentieth United States Census, 1980, 61.3 million (61,311,449) Americans reported British ancestry.
The total U.S population in 1980 was 226,545,805 and was the first census-form that asked peoples ancestry.[5]
These include: In 1980, the total census reported that British ancestry was (32.56%) of the total U.S population.
Triple ancestry response:English-Irish-Scotch: 897,316 There are no concrete figures for the Scots-Irish and some group responses were undercounted, but in 1980, 29,828,349 people claimed Irish and another ethnic ancestry. These figures make British Americans the largest "ethnic" groups in the U.S. and would have natuarally increased in population with more people of British origin than in 1980. When counted collectively (the Census Bureau does give the choice to count them collectively as one ancestry, and also count them in a separate ethnic group, that is English, Scottish, Welsh or Scots-Irish). In 2000, Germans and Irish are the largest self-reported ethnic groups in the nation.
British ancestry maps
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| English American, Scottish American, Scots-Irish American, Welsh American |
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| Dark red and brown colours indicate a higher density.(see also Maps of American ancestries). | ||||
See also
- European American
- Hyphenated American
- List of English Americans
- List of Scots-Irish Americans
- List of Scottish Americans
- List of Welsh Americans
- Anglo-Celtic Australian
References
- ^ a b "Ancestry: 2000". United States Government. June 2004. http://www.census.gov/history/pdf/ancestry.pdf.
- ^ United States 1990 Census
- ^ a b The Source: Gen
- ^ U.S 1790 Census
- ^ United States 1980 Census
Scholarly sources
- Oscar Handlin, Ann Orlov and Stephan Thernstrom eds. Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (1980) the standard reference source for all ethnic groups.
- Rowland Tappan Berthoff. British Immigrants in Industrial America, 1790-1950 (1953).
- David Hackett Fischer. Albion's Seed, Four British Folkways In America (1989).
External links
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