Albanian Americans

Albanian Americans
The language spread of Albanian in the United States as of the 2000 census.
States
Total population
 United States 224,000 (2024)
(0.07% of the US population)[1][2]
Regions with significant populations
 New York52,000[3]
 Michigan30,200[4][3]
 Massachusetts21,300[3]
 Ohio4,000-20,000[5]
 Illinois15,300[3]
 Connecticut12,000[3]
 New Jersey15,500[6]
 Pennsylvania10,000[6]
 Florida16,000[6]
 California7,000
 Texas7,000[6]
Languages
Religion

Albanian Americans (Albanian: shqiptaro-amerikanët) are Americans of full or partial Albanian ancestry and heritage in the United States. They trace their ancestry to the territories with a large Albanian population in the Balkans and southern Europe, including Albania, Italy, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Montenegro. They are adherents of different religions and are predominantly Muslims and Christians, while some are irreligious.

In 2024, there were 224,000 counted people of Albanian descent living in the United States,[2] mostly in the Northeast and the Great Lakes region.[7] This is a major increase since 1990, when there were only 47,710 Albanians in the U.S.[8] The figure includes all people affiliated with United States who claim Albanian ancestry, both those born in the country and naturalized citizens, as well as those with dual citizenship who affiliate themselves with both cultures.

People of Albanian descent are often concentrated in the Greater Philadelphia, Greater Boston, Metro Detroit, Chicagoland, Tampa and Jacksonville, Florida; New York City, and Waterbury, Connecticut areas. About three-quarters of the Albanian American population lives in the aforementioned Eastern U.S. states (52,000 in New York State, 30,000 in Michigan, 21,000 in Massachusetts, 16,000 in Florida, 15,000 in Illinois, 15,000 in New Jersey, and 12,000 in Connecticut).

There are also smaller, yet sizable communities within the Midwest such as Greater Cleveland, and Kenosha and Milwaukee, and as well as smaller East Coast communities like that of in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area that encompasses Northern Virginia and Maryland. West of the Mississippi River, there are smaller ethnic Albanian communities in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Phoenix, and San Diego areas.

  1. ^ "Table B04006 - SELECTED POPULATION PROFILE IN THE UNITED STATES 2024 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates: People Reporting Ancestry". United States Census Bureau.
  2. ^ a b "Albanian population by state". World Population Review/U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved May 10, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e Nedelkoska 2015, p. 17.
  4. ^ "People Reporting Ancestry". U.S. Census.
  5. ^ "Albanians". The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Case Western Reserve University. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d "Table B01003 - TOTAL POPULATION Universe: Total population 2011-2015 American Community Survey Selected Population Tables". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2018-12-21.
  7. ^ United States Census Bureau. "Table B04003 - Total ancestry categories tallied for people with one or more ancestry categories reported - 2012 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates". US Census Bureau. Archived from the original on January 28, 2015. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
  8. ^ "1990 Census of Population: Detailed Ancestry Groups for States" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. p. 15. Retrieved 3 December 2015.