Americans

This article is about the people of the United States of America. For a background on their demonym, see American (word). For other uses, see American (disambiguation) and The Americans (disambiguation). For the legal term, see United States person.

Americans
Flag of the United States
Total population
c. 331.4 million[1]
(2020 U.S. census)
Regions with significant populations
American diaspora:
c. 2.996 million (by U.S. citizenship)[2][3]
Mexico799,000+[2][3]
Colombia790,000+[4]
Germany324,000+[5]
Philippines38,000–300,000[2][3][6]
Canada273,000+[2][3]
Brazil22,000-260,000[2][7]
United Kingdom171,000+[2][3]
Australia117,000+[2][3]
France100,000+[8] – 191,930 [9]
Saudi Arabia70,000–80,000[10][11]
Israel77,000+[2][3]
South Korea68,000+[2][3]
Hong Kong  60,000[12]–85,000[13]
Japan58,000+[2][3]
Spain57,000+[2][3]
Italy54,000+[2][3]
Bangladesh45,000+[2][3]
Peru41,000+[2][3]
Switzerland39,000+[2][3]
Ireland35,000+[2][3]
Netherlands35,000+[2][3]
India33,000+[2][3]
Languages
Majority:
American English
Minority:
Spanish, Indigenous languages and various others
Religion
Majority:
Christianity (Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Mormonism and other denominations)[14]
Minority:
Irreligion, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, and various others[14]

Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States.[15][16] The United States is home to people of many racial and ethnic origins; consequently, American law does not equate nationality with race or ethnicity but with citizenship.[17][18][19][20] The majority of Americans or their ancestors immigrated to the United States or are descended from people who were brought as slaves within the past five centuries, with the exception of the Native American population and people from Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, Texas, and formerly the Philippines,[21] who became American through expansion of the country in the 19th century;[22] additionally, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands came under American sovereignty in the 20th century, although American Samoans are only nationals and not citizens of the United States.[23][16]

Despite its multi-ethnic composition,[24][25] the culture of the United States held in common by most Americans can also be referred to as mainstream American culture, a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Northern and Western European colonists, settlers, and immigrants.[24] It also includes significant influences of African-American culture.[26] Westward expansion integrated the Creoles and Cajuns of Louisiana and the Hispanos of the Southwest and brought close contact with the culture of Mexico. Large-scale immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from Eastern and Southern Europe introduced a variety of elements. Immigration from Africa, Asia, and Latin America has also had impact. A cultural melting pot, or pluralistic salad bowl, describes the way in which generations of Americans have celebrated and exchanged distinctive cultural characteristics.[24]

The United States currently has 37 ancestry groups with more than one million individuals.[27] White Americans with ancestry from Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa form the largest racial and ethnic group at 57.8% of the United States population.[28][29] Hispanic and Latino Americans form the second-largest group and are 18.7% of the United States population. African Americans constitute the country's third-largest ancestry group and are 12.1% of the total U.S. population.[27] Asian Americans are the country's fourth-largest group, composing 5.9% of the United States population. The country's 3.7 million Native Americans account for about 1%,[27] and some 574 native tribes are recognized by the federal government.[30] In addition to the United States, Americans and people of American descent can be found internationally. As many as seven million Americans are estimated to be living abroad, and make up the American diaspora.[31][32][33]

  1. ^ "Census Bureau's 2020 Population Count". United States census. Retrieved April 26, 2021. The 2020 census is as of April 1, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r "International Migrant Stock". United Nations. Archived from the original on September 4, 2022. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Immigrant and Emigrant Populations by Country of Origin". Migration Policy Institute. February 10, 2014. Archived from the original on March 19, 2022. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
  4. ^ Vidal, Roberto (2013). "Chapter III: Public Policies on Migration in Colombia" (PDF). In Chiarello, Leonir Mario (ed.). Public Policies on Migration and Civil Society in Latin America: The Cases of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico (PDF) (1st ed.). New York: Scalabrini International Migration Network. pp. 263–410. ISBN 978-0-9841581-5-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 19, 2015. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
  5. ^ "BiB - Bundesinstitut für Bevölkerungsforschung - Pressemitteilungen - Archiv 2017 - Zuwanderung aus außereuropäischen Ländern fast verdoppelt". www.bib-demografie.de. Archived from the original on December 9, 2017. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  6. ^ "U.S. Relations With the Philippines Bilateral Relations Fact Sheet". United States Department of State. Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. Retrieved August 17, 2022.
  7. ^ "Embaixador dos Estados Unidos Todd C. Chapman chega ao Brasil". U.S. Embassy in Brazil. March 29, 2020. Archived from the original on July 13, 2020. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
  8. ^ étrangères, Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires. "Présentation des États-Unis". France Diplomatie: Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères. Archived from the original on January 25, 2022. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  9. ^ "How Many Americans Live Abroad?". aaro.org.
  10. ^ Abizaid, John, U.S. Ambassador Abizaid's Message to American Citizens about COVID-19., U.S. Mission Saudi Arabia, archived from the original on March 10, 2022, retrieved March 10, 2022
  11. ^ "Houthi Terrorist Attack in Saudi Arabia". United States Department of State. Archived from the original on February 11, 2022. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  12. ^ "US citizens in rush for offshore tax advice". Financial Times. September 8, 2009. Archived from the original on August 28, 2011. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
  13. ^ "U.S. Relations with Hong Kong". Archived from the original on December 15, 2020. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
  14. ^ a b Luis Lug; Sandra Stencel; John Green; Gregory Smith; Dan Cox; Allison Pond; Tracy Miller; Elixabeth Podrebarac; Michelle Ralston (February 2008). "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey" (PDF). Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Pew Research Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 5, 2013. Retrieved February 12, 2012.
  15. ^ 8 U.S.C. § 1401; 8 U.S.C. § 1408; 8 U.S.C. § 1452
  16. ^ a b * "U.S. nationals born in American Samoa sue for citizenship". NBC News. Associated Press. March 28, 2018. Archived from the original on September 28, 2018. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  17. ^ *"Fernandez v. Keisler, 502 F.3d 337". Fourth Circuit. September 26, 2007. p. 341. Archived from the original on August 30, 2021. Retrieved June 8, 2021. The INA defines 'national of the United States' as '(A) a citizen of the United States, or (B) a person who, though not a citizen of the United States, owes permanent allegiance to the United States.'
    • "Robertson-Dewar v. Mukasey, 599 F. Supp. 2d 772". U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. February 25, 2009. p. 779 n.3. Archived from the original on August 30, 2021. Retrieved June 8, 2021. The [INA] defines naturalization as 'conferring of nationality of a state upon a person after birth, by any means whatsoever.'
  18. ^ "Permanent Allegiance Law and Legal Definition". USLegal. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  19. ^ * Christine Barbour; Gerald C Wright (January 15, 2013). Keeping the Republic: Power and Citizenship in American Politics, 6th Edition The Essentials. CQ Press. pp. 31–33. ISBN 978-1-4522-4003-9. Archived from the original on February 5, 2023. Retrieved January 6, 2015. Who Is An American? Native-born and naturalized citizens
  20. ^ Petersen, William; Novak, Michael; Gleason, Philip (1982). Concepts of Ethnicity. Harvard University Press. p. 62. ISBN 9780674157262. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved February 1, 2013. ...from Thomas Paine's plea in 1783...to Henry Clay's remark in 1815... "It is hard for us to believe ... how conscious these early Americans were of the job of developing American character out of the regional and generational polaritities and contradictions of a nation of immigrants and migrants." ... To be or to become an American, a person did not have to be of any particular national, linguistic, religious, or ethnic background. All he had to do was to commit himself to the political ideology centered on the abstract ideals of liberty, equality, and republicanism. Thus the universalist ideological character of American nationality meant that it was open to anyone who willed to become an American.
  21. ^ Lifshey, Adam (2015). Subversions of the American Century: Filipino Literature in Spanish and the Transpacific Transformation of the United States. University of Michigan Press. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-472-05293-6. Archived from the original on September 28, 2023. Retrieved May 26, 2018. the status of Filipinos in the Philippines as American nationals existed from 1900 to 1946
    Rick Baldoz (February 28, 2011). The Third Asiatic Invasion: Empire and Migration in Filipino America, 1898–1946. NYU Press. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-8147-9109-7. Archived from the original on September 23, 2023. Retrieved May 28, 2018. Recalling earlier debates surrounding Filipinos' naturalization status in the United States, he pointed out that U.S. courts had definitively recognized that Filipinos were American "nationals" and not "aliens".
    "8 FAM 302.5 Special Citizenship Provisions Regarding the Philippines". Foreign Affairs Manual. United States Department of State. May 15, 2020. Archived from the original on July 19, 2018. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  22. ^ Fiorina, Morris P., and Paul E. Peterson (2000). The New American Democracy. London: Longman, p. 97. ISBN 0-321-07058-5;
  23. ^ U.S. Census Bureau. Foreign-Born Population Frequently asked Questions Archived November 17, 2015, at the Wayback Machine viewed January 19, 2015. The U.S. Census Bureau uses the terms native and native born to refer to anyone born in Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or the U.S. Virgin Islands.
  24. ^ a b c Adams, J.Q., and Pearlie Strother-Adams (2001). Dealing with Diversity. Chicago: Kendall/Hunt. ISBN 0-7872-8145-X.
  25. ^ Thompson, William, and Joseph Hickey (2005). Society in Focus. Boston: Pearson. ISBN 0-205-41365-X.
  26. ^ Holloway, Joseph E. (2005). Africanisms in American Culture, 2d ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 18–38. ISBN 0-253-34479-4. Johnson, Fern L. (1999). Speaking Culturally: Language Diversity in the United States. Thousand Oaks, California, London, and New Delhi: Sage, p. 116. ISBN 0-8039-5912-5.
  27. ^ a b c "Ancestry 2000" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. June 2004. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 4, 2004. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
  28. ^ "The Chance That Two People Chosen at Random Are of Different Race or Ethnicity Groups Has Increased Since 2010".
  29. ^ "Table 52. Population by Selected Ancestry Group and Region: 2009" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 25, 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  30. ^ "Federally recognized American Indian tribes and Alaska Native entities | USAGov". www.usa.gov. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  31. ^ Jay Tolson (July 28, 2008). "A Growing Trend of Leaving America". U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on October 23, 2012. Retrieved December 17, 2012. Estimates made by organizations such as the Association of Americans Resident Overseas put the number of nongovernment-employed Americans living abroad anywhere between 4 million and 7 million, a range whose low end is based loosely on the government's trial count in 1999.
  32. ^ "6.32 million Americans (excluding military) live in 160-plus countries". Association of Americans Resident Overseas. Archived from the original on November 19, 2012. Retrieved December 17, 2012. The total is the highest released to date: close to 6.32 million.
  33. ^ "The American Diaspora". Esquire. Hurst Communications, Inc. September 26, 2008. Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved December 17, 2012. he most frequently cited estimate of nonmilitary U. S. citizens living overseas is between three and six million, based on a very rough State Department calculation in 1999—and never updated.