Origins
| European-born population in the U.S 1850 - 2010 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Population | Percentage | ||
| 1850 | 2,031,867 | 92.2% | ||
| 1860 | 3,807,062 | 92.1% | ||
| 1870 | 4,941,049 | 88.8% | ||
| 1880 | 5,751,823 | 86.2% | ||
| 1890 | 8,030,347 | 86.9% | ||
| 1900 | 8,881,548 | 86.0% | ||
| 1910 | 11,810,115 | 87.4% | ||
| 1920 | 11,916,048 | 85.7% | ||
| 1930 | 11,784,010 | 83.0% | ||
| 1960 | 7,256,311 | 75.0% | ||
| 1970 | 5,740,891 | 61.7% | ||
| 1980 | 5,149,572 | 39.0% | ||
| 1990 | 4,350,403 | 22.9% | ||
| 2000 | 4,915,557 | 15.8% | ||
| 2010 | 4,817,000 | 12.1% | ||
| European Emigration 1820-1978 | |
|---|---|
| Country | Total |
| Germany | 6,978,000 |
| Italy | 5,294,000 |
| Great Britain | 4,898,000 |
| Ireland | 4,723,000 |
| Austria-Hungary | 4,315,000 |
| Russia | 3,374,000 |
| Sweden | 1,272,000 |
| Norway | 856,000 |
| France | 751,000 |
| Greece | 655,000 |
| Portugal | 446,000 |
| Denmark | 364,000 |
| Netherlands | 359,000 |
| Finland | 33,000 |
| Total | 34,318,000 |
| U.S. Historical Populations | ||
|---|---|---|
| Country | Immigrants Before 1790 |
Population (1790 est.) |
| England* | 230,000 | 1,900,000 |
| Ulster Scot-Irish* | 135,000 | 320,000 |
| Germany | 103,000 | 280,000 |
| Scotland* | 48,500 | 160,000 |
| Ireland* | 8,000 | 200,000 |
| Netherlands | 6,000 | 100,000 |
| Wales* | 4,000 | 120,000 |
| France | 3,000 | 80,000 |
| Sweden and Other | 500 | 20,000 |
| *British total | 425,500 | 2,500,000+ |
| Total | 950,000 | 3,929,214 |
Since 1607, some 57 million immigrants have come to the United States from other lands. Approximately 10 million passed through on their way to some other place or returned to their original homelands, leaving a net gain of some 47 million people. Prior to 1960, the overwhelming majority came from Europe or European descent from Canada. In 1960 for example, 75.0% of foreign-born population in the U.S came from the region of Europe.
Before 1881, the vast majority of immigrants, almost 86% of the total, arrived from northwest Europe, principally Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia. The years between 1881 and 1893 the pattern shifted, in the sources of U.S. “New immigration”. Between 1894 and 1914, immigrants from southern, central, and eastern Europe accounted for 69% of the total.
European Americans are largely descended from colonial American stock supplemented by two sizable waves of immigration from Europe. Approximately 53 percent of European Americans today are of colonial ancestry, and 47 percent are descended from European, Canadian, or Mexican (or any Latin American) immigrants who have come to the U.S. since 1790 (and post-independence Mexico supplied Mexican-American immigration since 1890). Today, each of the three different branches of immigrants are most common in different parts of the country.
Read more about this topic: European American
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)
“Lucretius
Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
smiling carves dreams, bright cells
Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and erotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying: “Look what I killed. Aren’t I the best?””
—Katharine Hamnett (b. 1948)