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Genetic ancestry tests probably pushed the needle on that. A lot of people used to identify solely as American, so that makes a lot of sense in my books.
Yep. It’s about time this changed. I am still shocked but I have been telling people for years that the vast majority of white Americans are English. Even many of the “German Americans” with a German grandparent or whatever find that the rest of them is English.
Almost no white Americans are 100% descendant from one country unless they are 1st, 2nd and in rare cases 3rd generation American-born, so that's an increasingly large problem for this question as more and more time has passed since the last major European immigration waves.
But these counts have always favored those ethnic groups which (1) arrived relatively recently and thus had less time to 'dilute' (2) placed importance on belonging to a culture distinct from the mainstream and (3) heavily clustered in certain areas. All of those factors work to the statistical disadvantage of protestant British ancestry declaration - especially English.
When using these statistics one thus always just had to consider the "English/Scottish/Welsh" as sort of the background of the canvas against which the other groups appear distinctive. When you look at one of those maps showing the biggest ancestry group per county, and you pick out the counties showing English, you will notice three regions - the upland South, Northern New England and Mormon country. But of course if you go to those areas you will not see English or British flags or 'English Pride" in any meaningful sense. It's in fact highly likely that those counties are no more English culturally than any others.
But what it does indicate is the absence of large, distinct other ethnic groups. The upland South simply had fewer slaves than the lowland South due to its economic circumstances, so there's fewer blacks today. Mormons simply recruited themselves more from white American protestants than other groups. Northern New England was never industrialized in a serious way, so didn't see the influx of new non-British immigrants that most of the rest of the country saw in the 19th and 20th century.
I think this Census statistic is useful if you're interested in tracking specific non-British immigrant groups and their clustering as well as their influence in specific areas, but it's never been especially useful in truly establishing America's real 'ethnic mix', especially among the white population.
It seems to me there are a lot of white Americans over the age of 40 that are of 1 ethnic group. My ex girlfriends dad was from Pennsylvania and 100% German. My dad has a small amount of Cherokee but other than that 100% British (English and scots Irish)
It is pretty rare for younger people though it seems. I would guess there are still some purely English / scots Irish people in the south and maybe Germans in the Midwest. But a small amount
It seems to me there are a lot of white Americans over the age of 40 that are of 1 ethnic group. My ex girlfriends dad was from Pennsylvania and 100% German. My dad has a small amount of Cherokee but other than that 100% British (English and scots Irish)
It is pretty rare for younger people though it seems. I would guess there are still some purely English / scots Irish people in the south and maybe Germans in the Midwest. But a small amount
Among boomers there's still a pretty significant % of people who're first or second generation American-born, and who grew up in white ethnic enclaves. Took a nose dive with the generation after that however, especially with the big push to send most kids to college.
Among boomers there's still a pretty significant % of people who're first or second generation American-born, and who grew up in white ethnic enclaves. Took a nose dive with the generation after that however, especially with the big push to send most kids to college.
Both of the people I personally know families go back over 100 years ago.
Both of the people I personally know families go back over 100 years ago.
One of those cases you mention actually illustrates the situation because British mixes are kind of an awkward problem for the Census question. British is an option but not one chosen by many, but there's also separate English, Scottish, Scotch-Irish, Welsh, Manx, Cornish, Irish options as well as the generic "American" or "Anglo" answer. Many of those groups intermarried already in colonial days, so it's very difficult to pin down.
With regard to people 100% German after 5-6 generations in America, I'm sure it happens in some communities, especially religious minorities like the Mennonites or Amish, but I don't think it's the rule. I think a family though may identify as "100% German" even if there were a few non-Germans in the mix, especially if the surnames mostly remained German.
I tracked both of their ancestries so I can say without certainty what they are. Both were pretty surprised. My dad actually thought we were German but not any German ancestors whatsoever
It seems to me there are a lot of white Americans over the age of 40 that are of 1 ethnic group. My ex girlfriends dad was from Pennsylvania and 100% German. My dad has a small amount of Cherokee but other than that 100% British (English and scots Irish)
It is pretty rare for younger people though it seems. I would guess there are still some purely English / scots Irish people in the south and maybe Germans in the Midwest. But a small amount
Almost no white Americans are 100% descendant from one country unless they are 1st, 2nd and in rare cases 3rd generation American-born, so that's an increasingly large problem for this question as more and more time has passed since the last major European immigration waves.
But these counts have always favored those ethnic groups which (1) arrived relatively recently and thus had less time to 'dilute' (2) placed importance on belonging to a culture distinct from the mainstream and (3) heavily clustered in certain areas. All of those factors work to the statistical disadvantage of protestant British ancestry declaration - especially English.
When using these statistics one thus always just had to consider the "English/Scottish/Welsh" as sort of the background of the canvas against which the other groups appear distinctive. When you look at one of those maps showing the biggest ancestry group per county, and you pick out the counties showing English, you will notice three regions - the upland South, Northern New England and Mormon country. But of course if you go to those areas you will not see English or British flags or 'English Pride" in any meaningful sense. It's in fact highly likely that those counties are no more English culturally than any others.
But what it does indicate is the absence of large, distinct other ethnic groups. The upland South simply had fewer slaves than the lowland South due to its economic circumstances, so there's fewer blacks today. Mormons simply recruited themselves more from white American protestants than other groups. Northern New England was never industrialized in a serious way, so didn't see the influx of new non-British immigrants that most of the rest of the country saw in the 19th and 20th century.
I think this Census statistic is useful if you're interested in tracking specific non-British immigrant groups and their clustering as well as their influence in specific areas, but it's never been especially useful in truly establishing America's real 'ethnic mix', especially among the white population.
British heritage groups are lower because fewer of them came over. The population of the US in 1776 was merely 2.6 million. By 1850 it was almost 24 million but few of these new migrants were actually British. British migration to the US was significantly lower for obvious reasons after 1776. The most obvious is two American wars with the UK over a few decades which created anti-British sentiment in the US which lasted way into 19th century. Second The UK was now focused on colonizing two new nations, New Zealand and Australia and cities were setup all over these nations in the 19th century so clearly why go to a hostile Republic like the US when there are exciting new colonies to go to that share a similar culture to your own and values.
Meanwhile In a century alone just after the 1812 war right up until the 20th century around 5 million Irish people arrived which dwarfs the numbers of British ancestry and the Germans were even more numerous by far outnumbering every other ancestry in the US. I've often wondered why there isn't that same connection to Germany among many Americans as they have for the likes of Italy and Ireland and I've read a number of reasons for this. I've also always wondered why after almost two centuries when it's migration was at it's peak why do so many people still have a connection to Ireland even though they are now just the mainstream?
In Australia things make a bit more sense. English and Irish make most of the heritage of the entire country. However today only 10% of people here claim to be Irish due to their heritage while Australian is the second highest group. The top group in Australia is actually English. The reason for this is obvious. Right up until a few decades ago the English made up the VAST number of migrants to Australia thus with such a fresh connection to their motherland many still don't fully recognise themselves as Australian just yet. In the second highest group, Australian, these people would have lineage so far back to England, Ireland and Scotland that they no longer associate themselves with it. People don't tend to associate themselves with a particular heritage here after a long period of time but in the US people still do. It's just different which I find interesting
Scots-Irish are *in theory* the descendants of Scottish settlers who took a detour on their way from Scotland to America via the Ulster plantation i.e. Ulster Scots. It was a pretty sizable group in Virginia in colonial days, and many of them then moved further inland to form the nucleus of the white population of places like Tennessee and Kentucky as a result they're often associated with Appalachia.
I suspect in practice it also includes just generally people who have mixed Scottish, English and Irish protestant ancestry.
It's broken out separately for the obvious reason that there's a pretty significant identity gap between that group and the "green" catholic Irish who mostly arrived post-1800.
Scots-Irish are *in theory* the descendants of Scottish settlers who took a detour on their way from Scotland to America via the Ulster plantation i.e. Ulster Scots. It was a pretty sizable group in Virginia in colonial days, and many of them then moved further inland to form the nucleus of the white population of places like Tennessee and Kentucky as a result they're often associated with Appalachia.
I suspect in practice it also includes just generally people who have mixed Scottish, English and Irish protestant ancestry.
It's broken out separately for the obvious reason that there's a pretty significant identity gap between that group and the "green" catholic Irish who mostly arrived post-1800.
If they were born in Scotland then they would just be Scottish. Similar to Ireland. Scots Irish makes as much sense as English Irish. Those two Island's are filled with people who descended from each other's lands. They have been integrating for thousands of years so they all have mixed Irish, English, Scottish, Welsh ancestry. Never heard of Any Irish Unionists declaring themselves as Scots Irish however. They either call themselves Irish Unionists or Northern Irish. Just trying to make sense of these labels lol
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