Immigrants have built and shaped the United States. Through the years, these resourceful Americans endured many hardships, from discrimination to the Great Depression. They brought cultural elements like food, dress, and religious traditions from around the world. The complexity of our national culture reflects the great diversity of our people. Let’s think about that diversity mathematically.

This table shows the 20 most common ancestries reported on the 2013 American Community Survey. Don’t forget that many people have multiple ancestries, and can check multiple boxes. For example, if all four of your grandparents emigrated from different countries, you might check four boxes. But if you’re the first person in your family to immigrate to America, it’s more likely that you will report one ancestry.

Option 1:

According to the table, which of the following statements is true?

A. Most Americans have German ancestry.

B. More Americans reported having Chinese ancestry than Puerto Rican ancestry.

C. More Americans reported having Italian ancestry than English ancestry.

D. More Americans reported having German ancestry than any other ancestry.

Option 2:

If 2,500 Americans were chosen randomly, how many would you predict would be of Mexican ancestry? What about Dutch ancestry? What is a reasonable way of dealing with decimals when working with questions like these?

Discussion Question:

Our national culture blends elements of many different cultural traditions, and yet Americans feel great pride in being American. The responses to the question about ancestry on the U.S. Census hint at the complexity of Americans’ cultural identity. For example, about 6% of Americans – over 20 million people – said their ancestry is “American” although the question was worded to encourage a different answer. What does this mean? Is it possible to have American ancestry? Or do these people just have such strong feelings about the U.S. that they consider themselves “American” regardless of their earlier ancestry? What do you think?