Origins of people in the USA

I'd say Russians and Italians take up second place...

Population of Ireland is something like 6 million, i've read somewhere that there were 40 million people in USA with Irish origins, just how can this be possible? And also it seems the number of people with German background are also significant, was there any event or specific reason for that many Germans leaving their country?

Irish are catholics, they get lots of kids... Well, they used to anyway...

Germans are the single largest ethnic group in the United States.

the rest are a guess for the order, but I think they're somewhat right:

2.) Irish
3.) Italians
4.) West Africans
5.) English
6.) Scandinavians
7.) Polish
8.) Jews

Edit:

Wikipedia states, "The largest ethnic group of European ancestry is German at 15.2%, followed by Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%)."

Edit 2:

I also want to make clear, that the reason American whites have a somewhat distinct look is beacuse all of the ethnic groups have merged so much. Last names which indicate ethnicity are so irrelivant now, as someone with a portuguese or Greek last name could be as blonde and blue-eyed as a Northern European from generations of German and Scandinavian admixture. I consider myself Irish because of my stereotypically obvious Irish name, but I actually have more Scandinavian and German blood in me.


Edited by Herschel - 21-Jul-2006 at 19:37

I believe it was Cywr who originally posted this ages ago in another topic. Proving for once and for all Roosavelt and Wilson both declared war on the wrong side.

Edited by Paul - 21-Jul-2006 at 20:23

Just to add a note to the map above. Most people who clasify themselves as simply "American" are of English and Scottish decent. They are some of the longest settled and most established immigrants to the Americas. Many can trace their roots to before the Revolutionary War.

Edit:

I see Barbarossa beat me to that statement by two minutes.


Edited by Herschel - 21-Jul-2006 at 20:29

Germans across almost all of Northern US? so why did the public support UK during both wars? especially WWI?

Originally posted by Herschel Just to add a note to the map above. Most people who clasify themselves as simply "American" are of English and Scottish decent. They are some of the longest settled and most established immigrants to the Americas. Many can trace their roots to before the Revolutionary War. Edit: I see Barbarossa beat me to that statement by two minutes.

I would also like to note for my Scottish argument I said earlier that about 7% of Americans consider themselves of "American" ancestry, as you said, mostly of English and Scottish descent. Also, besides the Scots-Irish, many people stupidly think that Scotland is part of England, and thus, most undoubtedly the Scots and Welsh were lumped together into English. Also take note that many Americans considered themselves of "British ancestry", of which I am sure some Scots belonged to.

Aparently Greeks don't seem to be in your lists. According to the Greek foundation of Greek diaspora, there are about 2,000,000 Greeks in the USA now. Of course that would make them a tiny minority. I think that is because Greeks migrated to the USA mostly in the 20th century, and especially the second half. So they found an already big and established population, and they did not have much time to intermix.