Italian Americans

Italian Americans (Italian: italoamericani or italo-americani, pronounced [ˌitaloameriˈkaːni]) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. According to the Italian American Studies Association, the current population is about 18 million, an increase from 16 million in 2010, corresponding to about 5.4% of the total population of the United States. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, with significant communities also residing in many other major U.S. metropolitan areas.[10]

Quick facts: Italo-americani (Italian), Total populat... ▼

Italian Americans

Italo-americani (Italian)
Americans with Italian ancestry by state according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey in 2019
Total population
17,767,630 (5.3%) alone or in combination 5,953,262 (1.8%) Italian alone 2021 estimates, self-reported[1] 17,285,619 (2015)[2] 17,566,693 (2010)[3] 17,829,184 (2006)[4] 16,688,000 (2000)[5] 14,664,550 (1990)[6] 12,183,692 (1980)[7]
Regions with significant populations
Northeastern United States (parts of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island); Illinois (especially Chicago); also, parts of Baltimore–Washington, Ohio, St. Louis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Detroit; parts of California (such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego), Florida (particularly the southern part of the state) and the Atlantic coast, Louisiana (especially New Orleans), with growing populations in Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Albuquerque
Languages
English Italian Various languages of Italy Italian American pidgin (including Itanglese and Siculish)[8][9]
Religion
Predominantly Catholicism with small minorities practicing Greek Orthodoxy, Protestantism and Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Italian Argentines, Italian Bolivians, Italian Brazilians, Italian Canadians, Italian Chileans, Italian Colombians, Italian Costa Ricans, Italian Cubans, Italian Dominicans, Italian Ecuadorians, Italian Guatemalans, Italian Haitians, Italian Hondurans, Italian Mexicans, Italian Panamanians, Italian Paraguayans, Italian Peruvians, Italian Puerto Ricans, Italian Salvadorans, Italian Uruguayans, Italian Venezuelans, Italian Australians, Italian South Africans, Italian Britons, Italian New Zealanders, Sicilian Americans, Corsican Americans, Corsican Puerto Ricans, Maltese Americans, Sammarinese Americans and other Italians

Between 1820 and 2004, approximately 5.5 million Italians migrated to the United States during the Italian diaspora, in several distinct waves, with the greatest number arriving in the 20th century from Southern Italy. Initially, many Italian immigrants (usually single men), so-called "birds of passage", sent remittance back to their families in Italy and, eventually, returned to Italy.

Immigration began to increase during the 1880s, when more than twice as many Italians immigrated than during the five previous decades combined.[11][12] The 1870s were followed by the greatest surge of immigration, which occurred between 1880 and 1914 and brought more than 4 million Italians to the United States,[11][12] the largest number came from Southern Italy, which at that time was largely agricultural and where much of the populace had been impoverished by centuries of foreign rule and heavy tax burdens [13][14] This period of large-scale immigration ended abruptly with the onset of World War I in 1914 and, except for one year (1922), never fully resumed. Thousands of Italians immigrated despite new quota-based immigration restrictions.