European American - Origins

Origins

European-born population
in the U.S 1850 - 2010
Year Population Percentage
1850 2,031,867 92.2%
1860 3,807,062 92.1%
1870 4,941,049 88.8%
1880 5,751,823 86.2%
1890 8,030,347 86.9%
1900 8,881,548 86.0%
1910 11,810,115 87.4%
1920 11,916,048 85.7%
1930 11,784,010 83.0%
1960 7,256,311 75.0%
1970 5,740,891 61.7%
1980 5,149,572 39.0%
1990 4,350,403 22.9%
2000 4,915,557 15.8%
2010 4,817,000 12.1%
European Emigration 1820-1978
Country Total
Germany 6,978,000
Italy 5,294,000
Great Britain 4,898,000
Ireland 4,723,000
Austria-Hungary 4,315,000
Russia 3,374,000
Sweden 1,272,000
Norway 856,000
France 751,000
Greece 655,000
Portugal 446,000
Denmark 364,000
Netherlands 359,000
Finland 33,000
Total 34,318,000
U.S. Historical Populations
Country Immigrants
Before 1790
Population
(1790 est.)
England* 230,000 1,900,000
Ulster Scot-Irish* 135,000 320,000
Germany 103,000 280,000
Scotland* 48,500 160,000
Ireland* 8,000 200,000
Netherlands 6,000 100,000
Wales* 4,000 120,000
France 3,000 80,000
Sweden and Other 500 20,000
*British total 425,500 2,500,000+
Total 950,000 3,929,214

Since 1607, some 57 million immigrants have come to the United States from other lands. Approximately 10 million passed through on their way to some other place or returned to their original homelands, leaving a net gain of some 47 million people. Prior to 1960, the overwhelming majority came from Europe or European descent from Canada. In 1960 for example, 75.0% of foreign-born population in the U.S came from the region of Europe.

Before 1881, the vast majority of immigrants, almost 86% of the total, arrived from northwest Europe, principally Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia. The years between 1881 and 1893 the pattern shifted, in the sources of U.S. “New immigration”. Between 1894 and 1914, immigrants from southern, central, and eastern Europe accounted for 69% of the total.

European Americans are largely descended from colonial American stock supplemented by two sizable waves of immigration from Europe. Approximately 53 percent of European Americans today are of colonial ancestry, and 47 percent are descended from European, Canadian, or Mexican (or any Latin American) immigrants who have come to the U.S. since 1790 (and post-independence Mexico supplied Mexican-American immigration since 1890). Today, each of the three different branches of immigrants are most common in different parts of the country.

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