Distribution of U.S. Ethnicities

The three most numerous U.S. ethnicities are Hispanic American, African American, and Asian American. Approximately l7 percent of Americans say they are Hispanic, 12 percent African American, and 5 percent Asian American. In addition, 2 percent of Americans identify their ethnicity as American Indian, Native Hawaiian, or Alaska Native. Within the United States, ethnicities are clustered at both the regional and urban scales. On a regional scale, ethnicities have distinctive distributions within the United States.

Hispanic Americans

A Hispanic or Hispanic American is a person whose ancestry is a Spanish-speaking country in Latin America. The terms Latino (for males) and Latina (for females) are generally used interchangeably with Hispanic. The U.S. government adopted the term Hispanic in 1973 because it was considered an inoffensive label that could be applied to all people from Spanish-speaking countries while avoiding the gender-specific limitation of the term Latino.

Nearly two-thirds of people classified as Hispanic American came from Mexico. This correlates with the immigration patterns noted in Chapter 3. The second largest group is Puerto Rican. Some Hispanics trace their ancestry to people who lived in territory that was part of Mexico and controlled by Spain prior to becoming part of the United States in 1848, following the Mexican-American War.

Hispanics By Place of Origin

A 2013 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 33 percent of Americans of Latin American descent preferred the term Hispanic and 15 percent Latino/Latina, leaving 50 percent who didn’t care. The Pew survey found that only 20 percent of Americans of Latin American descent actually used either of the terms to identify themselves. Instead, most Americans of Latin American heritage prefer to identify with a more specific ethnicity or national origin. Nearly two-thirds come from Mexico and one-fourth from Caribbean islands. Mexican Americans are sometimes called Chicanos (males) or Chicanas (females). Originally these terms were considered insulting, but in the 1960s Mexican American youths in Los Angeles began to call themselves Chicanos and Chicanas with pride.

Hispanics are clustered in the Southwest. They exceed one-third of the population of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas and one-quarter of California (Figure 7-6). California is home to one-third of all Hispanics in the United States, Texas one-fifth, and Florida and New York one-sixth each.

Distribution of Hispanics in the United States

Hispanics are clustered in the Southwest, near the Mexico border.

Asian Americans

The term Asian American encompasses Americans who trace their heritage to a number of countries in Asia. Only 19 percent of Asian Americans identify their ethnicity as Asian American, whereas 62 percent identify their ethnicity as the country of origin of themselves or their ancestors. The largest numbers come from China, the Philippines, and India

Asian American by Country of Origin

Asian Americans are clustered in the West, comprising more than 40 percent of the population of Hawaii. One-half of all Asian Americans in the United States live in California, where they comprise 12 percent of the population

Distribution of Asian Americans in the United States

Asian Americans are clustered in the West.

African Americans

It is difficult to pinpoint precisely the ethnic origins of African Americans. The ancestors of most African Americans arrived around 300 years ago from places in Africa that were not yet organized into independent countries. Records were not kept of the ethnic origin of African Americans who arrived as slaves.

DNA testing is now helping to narrow the ethnic heritage of African Americans. The ancestors of most African Americans came from three areas in West Africa. The modern-day countries of these three areas are:

• Senegal, Mali, The Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.

• Southern Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria and southeastern Côte d’Ivoire.

• Western Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.

African Americans are clustered in the Southeast, where they comprise at least one-fourth of the population in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, and South Carolina and more than one-third in Mississippi. Concentrations are even higher in selected counties. At the other extreme, nine states in upper New England and the West have less than 1 percent African Americans.

Distribution of African Americans in the United States

African Americans are clustered in the Southeast.

Descendants of Indigenous Peoples

The descendants of people who lived in North America prior to the arrival of Europeans comprise numerous ethnicities. They are grouped in the United States into three principal ethnic identities: Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian. The most numerous are Native Hawaiians, Cherokee, Navajo, Chippewa, Sioux, and Choctaw. The largest numbers of Native Americans, however, do not specify a group.

Indigenous peoples comprise 4 percent of the population of Canada. The Indigenous peoples of Canada are grouped into three main ethnic identities: First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. The Inuit settled in northern Canada around 4,000 years ago. Métis are descendants of indigenous peoples who married Europeans beginning 400 years ago. First Nations, a term for indigenous peoples other than Inuit and Métis, first settled in present-day Canada tens of thousands of years ago.

Native Americans are clustered in the southwest and north-central regions of the United States as well as Alaska. Native Americans exceed 10 percent of the population of Alaska, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and South Dakota. Indigenous people occupied much of the land for thousands of years before the first European explorers arrived. Forced migration during the nineteenth century then played a major role in the current distribution of Native Americans (see also Why Do People Migrate? in Chapter 3).

Distribution of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian In The United States

Native Americans are clustered in the Southwest and north-central states.

Kindergarten Class, Navajo Nation

Pause & Reflect 7.1.3

What region of the United States has low concentrations of all four of the ethnicities? Why might that be the case?