American ancestry
People in the United States who self-identify their ancestral origin or descent as "American" / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about American ancestry?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
American ancestry refers to people in the United States who self-identify their ancestral origin or descent as "American", rather than the more common officially recognized racial and ethnic groups that make up the bulk of the American people.[2][3][4] The majority of these respondents are visibly White Americans, who are far removed from and no longer self-identify with their original ethnic ancestral origins.[5][6] The latter response is attributed to a multitude of generational distance from ancestral lineages,[3][7][8] and these tend be Anglo-Americans[7] of English, Scotch-Irish, Welsh, Scottish or other British ancestries, as demographers have observed that those ancestries tend to be recently undercounted in U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey ancestry self-reporting estimates.[9][10]
Total population | |
---|---|
19,364,103 (5.93%) 2021 estimates, self-reported[1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Southern United States and Midwestern United States, especially Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia | |
Languages | |
English (American English dialects) | |
Religion | |
Predominantly Christianity (mainly Protestantism) | |
Related ethnic groups | |
American ancestries |
Although U.S. census data indicates "American ancestry" is most commonly self-reported in the Deep South, the Upland South, and Appalachia,[11][12] a far greater number of Americans and expatriates equate their nationality not with ancestry, race, or ethnicity, but rather with citizenship and allegiance.[13][8]