English Americans

This article is about people of the U.S. with roots in England. For the language, see American English. For other uses, see American English (disambiguation).

English Americans
England United States
Total population
46,550,968 (14.0%)
English alone and in any combination[1][2]
25,536,410 (7.7%) English alone[3]
2020 U.S. census
50,000,000+ Steady (1980)[4][a]
Regions with significant populations
California3,754,933[5]
Texas3,520,547[6]
Florida2,540,795[7]
Ohio2,037,771[8]
North Carolina1,869,609[9]
New York1,641,789[10]
Pennsylvania1,641,137[11]
Michigan1,637,351[12]
Georgia1,594,956[13]
Tennessee1,430,466[14]
Illinois1,385,480[15]
Languages
English
Religion
Christianity[16]
Related ethnic groups
Other English diaspora, American ancestry, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, Old Stock Americans, other British Americans, White Americans, European Americans, Irish Americans, Scottish Americans, Welsh Americans, Cornish Americans, Scotch-Irish Americans[citation needed]
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English Americans (historically known as Anglo-Americans) are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England. In the 2020 United States census, English Americans were the largest group in the United States with 46.5 million Americans self-identifying as having some English origins (many combined with another heritage) representing (19.8%) of the White American population. This includes 25,536,410 (12.5%) who were "English alone".[17]

Despite them being the largest self-identified ancestral origin in the United States,[18] demographers still regard the number of English Americans as an undercount.[19] As most English Americans are the descendants of settlers who first arrived during the colonial period which began over 400 years ago, many Americans are either unaware of this heritage or choose to elect a more recent known ancestral group[20] even if English is their primary ancestry.[21]

The term is distinct from British Americans, which includes not only English Americans but also others from the United Kingdom such as Scottish, Scotch-Irish (descendants of Ulster Scots from Ulster and Northern Ireland), Welsh, Cornish, Manx Americans and Channel Islanders.[citation needed] In 1980, 49.6 million Americans claimed English ancestry. At 26.34%, this was the largest group amongst the 188 million people who reported at least one ancestry. The population was 226 million which would have made the English ancestry group 22% of the total.[22]

Scotch-Irish Americans are for the most part descendants of Lowland Scots and Northern English (specifically County Durham, Cumberland, Northumberland and Yorkshire) settlers who migrated to Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century. Additionally, African Americans tend to have a significant degree of English and Lowland Scots ancestry tracing back to the Colonial period, typically ranging between 17 and 29%.[23] English immigrants in the 19th century, as with other groups, sought economic prosperity. They began migrating in large numbers, without state support, in the 1840s and continued into the 1890s. [24]

English American elites, known as "WASPs" (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants), have dominated American society, culture, and politics for most of American history. The majority of presidents of the United States, as well as the majority of sitting U.S. congressmen and congresswomen, were born into families of English ancestry. The majority of the Founding Fathers of the United States were also of English ancestry. Ivy League universities such as Harvard University, Yale University, and Princeton University were established by and have been mostly composed of WASPs.[25]

  1. ^ "English Most Common Race or Ethnicity in 2020 Census". United States census. October 10, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  2. ^ "Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census". United States census. September 21, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  3. ^ "English Most Common Race or Ethnicity in 2020 Census". United States census. October 10, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  4. ^ "1980 United States census" (PDF). census.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 23, 2019. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
  5. ^ "Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census". United States census. September 21, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  6. ^ "Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census". United States census. September 21, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  7. ^ "Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census". United States census. September 21, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  8. ^ "Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census". United States census. September 21, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  9. ^ "Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census". United States census. September 21, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  10. ^ "Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census". United States census. September 21, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  11. ^ "Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census". United States census. September 21, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  12. ^ "Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census". United States census. September 21, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  13. ^ "Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census". United States census. September 21, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  14. ^ "Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census". United States census. September 21, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  15. ^ "Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census". United States census. September 21, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  16. ^ Cortés, Carlos E. (August 15, 2013). Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia. SAGE Publications. p. 780. ISBN 978-1-4522-7626-7.
  17. ^ "Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census". United States census. September 21, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  18. ^ "English Most Common Race or Ethnicity in 2020 Census". United States census. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  19. ^ Pulera, Dominic (October 20, 2004). Sharing the Dream: White Males in Multicultural America. A&C Black. ISBN 9780826416438. Retrieved August 21, 2017 – via Google Books.
  20. ^ Stanley Lieberson and Mary C. Waters, "Ethnic Groups in Flux: The Changing Ethnic Responses of American Whites", Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 487, No. 79 (September 1986), pp. 82–86.
  21. ^ Mary C. Waters, Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), p. 36.
  22. ^ "Ancestry of the Population by State: 1980 – Table 2" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  23. ^ Bryc, Katarzyna; et al. (2015). "The Genetic Ancestry of African Americans, Latinos, and European Americans across the United States". American Journal of Human Genetics. 96 (1): 37–53. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.11.010. PMC 4289685. PMID 25529636. Retrieved June 29, 2023 – via National Center for Biotechnology Information.
  24. ^ "English Emigration". Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk. Archived from the original on April 8, 2014. Retrieved August 21, 2017.
  25. ^ Useem, Michael (1984). The Inner Circle: Large Corporations and the Rise of Business Political Activity in the U.S. and U.K. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-1950-4033-3. pp. 179-180,.


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