Americans

For other uses, see American (disambiguation), and American (word) for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts.

Christian (Mostly Protestantism and Catholicism)
No religion •  Jewish •  Muslim •  Buddhist •  Hinduism • New Religious Movements and others.

The people of the United States, also known as simply Americans or American people, are the inhabitants or citizens of the United States. The United States is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds. As a result, Americans do not consider their nationality as an ethnicity but as a citizenship with various ethnicities comprising the "American people." Aside from the indigenous Native American population, nearly all Americans or their ancestors immigrated within the past five centuries.^[21]

Despite its multi-ethnic composition^[22][23], the culture held in common by most Americans is referred to as mainstream American culture, a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Western European migrants, beginning with the early English, Scottish, Welsh and Dutch settlers. German and Irish cultures have also been very influential.^[22] Certain cultural attributes of Igbo, Mandé, Kongo and Wolof slaves from West Africa were adopted by the American mainstream; based more on the traditions of Central African Bantu slaves, a distinct African American culture developed that would also deeply affect the mainstream.^[24] Westward expansion integrated the Creoles and Cajuns of Louisiana and the Hispanos of the Southwest and brought close contact with the culture of Mexico. Large-scale immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from Southern and Eastern Europe introduced many new cultural elements. More recent immigration from Asia, Africa, and especially Latin America has had broad impact. The resulting cultural mix may be described as a homogeneous melting pot, or as a pluralistic salad bowl in which immigrants and their descendants retain distinctive cultural characteristics.^[22]

In addition to the United States, Americans and people of American descent can be found internationally. As many as 4 million Americans are estimated to be living abroad.^[4]

Racial and ethnic groups

White and European Americans

Whites constitute the majority of the 308 million (308,745,538) people living in the United States, with 223,553,265 or 72.4% of the population in the 2010 United States Census, down from 89.5% in 1950 Census.^[25] They are people who trace their ancestry to the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. White Americans are the majority in forty-nine of the fifty states, with Hawaii as the exception. Non-Hispanic whites are the majority in forty-six states; the four minority-majority states are California, Texas, New Mexico, and Hawaii. In addition, the District of Columbia has a non-white majority.

The largest continental ancestral group of Americans are Europeans who have origins in any of the original peoples of Europe. This includes people via African, North American, Caribbean, Central American or South American and Oceanian nations which have a large European diaspora.^[26]

The Spanish were the first Europeans to establish a continuous presence in what is now the United States.^[27] Martín de Argüelles born 1566, San Agustín, La Florida, was the first person of European descent born in what is now the United States.^[28] Twenty-one years later, Virginia Dare born 1587 Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina, was the first child born in the Thirteen Colonies to English parents.

In 2009, German Americans (16.5%), Irish Americans (11.9%), and English Americans (9.0%) were the three largest self-reported ancestry groups in the United States forming 37.4% of the population.^[29] Sixty million Americans, one fifth of the total United States population, claim British ancestry.^[30]

Overall, as the largest group, European Americans have the lowest poverty rate^[31] and the second highest educational attainment levels, median household income,^[32] and median personal income^[33] of any racial demographic in the nation.

Black and African Americans

African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, and formerly as American Negroes) are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa.^[36] In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry. According to the 2009 American Community Survey, there were 38,093,725 blacks in the United States, which represented 12.4% of the population. In addition, there were 37,144,530 non-Hispanic blacks, which represented 12.1% of the population.^[37]

Most African Americans are the direct descendants of captive Africans who survived the slavery era within the boundaries of the present United States, although some are—or are descended from—immigrants from African, Caribbean, Central American or South American nations.^[38] As an adjective, the term is usually spelled African-American.^[39]

African American history starts in the 17th century with indentured servitude in the American colonies and progresses onto the election of Barack Obama as the 44th and current President of the United States. Between those landmarks there were other events and issues, both resolved and ongoing, that were faced by African Americans. Some of these were slavery, reconstruction, development of the African-American community, participation in the great military conflicts of the United States, racial segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement.

Black Americans make up the single largest racial minority in the United States and form the second largest racial group after whites in the United States.^[40]

Asian Americans

Another significant population is the Asian American population, comprising 17.3 million in 2010, or 5.6% of the U.S. population.^[43][44] California is home to 4.5 million Asian Americans, whereas 495,000 live in Hawaii, where they compose the plurality, at 38.5% of the islands' people. This is their largest share of any state.^[45] Asian Americans live across the country, and are also found in large numbers in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Houston, and other urban centers.

They are by no means a monolithic group. The largest sub-groups are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from the Philippines, Pakistan, China, India, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and Thailand. Asians overall have higher income levels than all other racial groups in the United States, including whites, and the trend appears to be increasing in relation to those groups.^[46] While the Asian American population is generally a fairly recent addition to the nation's ethnic mix, relatively large waves of Chinese, Filipino and Japanese immigration happened in the mid-to-late 19th century.

Two or more races

The U.S. has a growing multiracial identity movement. Multiracial Americans numbered 7.0 million in 2008, or 2.3% of the population.^[44] They can be any combination of races (White, Black or African American, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, "Some other race") and ethnicities.^[47] Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, is biracial with his mother being of English and Irish descent and his father being of Kenyan birth.^[48][49]

American Indians and Alaska Natives

Indigenous peoples of the Americas, such as American Indians and Inuit, made up 0.8% of the population in 2008, numbering 2.4 million.^[44] An additional 2.3 million declared part-American Indian or Alaska Native ancestry.^[50] The legal and official designation of who is Native American by descent aroused controversy by demographers, tribal nations and government officials for many decades. The blood quantum laws are complex and contradictory in admittance of new tribal members, or for census takers to accept any respondent's claims without official documents from the US Bureau of Indian Affairs. Genetic scientists estimated that over 15 million other Americans may be one quarter or less of American Indian descent.

Once thought to face extinction in race or culture, there has been a remarkable revival of Native American identity and tribal sovereignty in the 20th century. The Cherokee are at 800,000 full or part-blood degrees. 70,000 Cherokee live in Oklahoma in the Cherokee Nation, and 15,000 in North Carolina on remnants of their ancestral homelands.

The second largest tribal group is the Navajo, who call themselves "Diné" and live on a 16-million acre (65,000 km²) Indian reservation covering northeast Arizona, northwest New Mexico, and southeast Utah. It is home to half of the 450,000 Navajo Nation members. The third largest group are the Lakota (Sioux) Nation located in the states of Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming; and North and South Dakota.

Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders

Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders numbered 427,810 in 2008, or 0.14% of the population.^[44] Additionally, nearly as many report partial Native Hawaiian ancestry, for a total of 829,949 people of full or part Native Hawaiian ancestry.^[51] This group constitutes the smallest minority race in the United States. Although the numbers show that just more than half are "full-blooded", most Native Hawaiians on the island chain of Hawaii are said to be highly mixed with Asian, European and other ancestries.

Only 1 out of 50 Native Hawaiians can be legally defined as "full blood" and some demographers believe that by the year 2025, the last full-blooded Native Hawaiian will die off, leaving a culturally distinct, but racially-mixed population. However, there is more individual self-designation of Native Hawaiian than before the US annexed the islands in 1898. Native Hawaiians are receiving ancestral land reparations. Throughout Hawaii, the preservation and universal adaptation of Native Hawaiian customs, Hawaiian language, cultural schools solely for legally Native Hawaiian students, and historical awareness has gained momentum for Native Hawaiians.

National personification

A national personification is an anthropomorphization of a nation or its people; it can appear in both editorial cartoons and propaganda.

Uncle Sam is a national personification of the United States and sometimes more specifically of the American government, with the first usage of the term dating from the War of 1812. He is depicted as a stern elderly white man with white hair and a goatee beard, and dressed in clothing that recalls the design elements of flag of the United States – for example, typically a top hat with red and white stripes and white stars on a blue band, and red and white striped trousers.

Columbia is a poetic name for the Americas and the feminine personification of the United States of America, made famous by African-American poet Phillis Wheatley during the American Revolutionary War in 1776. It has inspired the names of many persons, places, objects, institutions, and companies in the Western Hemisphere and beyond.

Language

English is the de facto national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2007, about 226 million, or 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language.^[52][53] Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in at least twenty-eight states.^[54] Both Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii by state law.^[55]

While neither has an official language, New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as Louisiana does for English and French.^[56] Other states, such as California, mandate the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents including court forms.^[57] Several insular territories grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English: Samoan and Chamorro are recognized by American Samoa and Guam, respectively; Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern Mariana Islands; Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico.

Religion

Religion in the United States has a high adherence level, compared to other developed countries, and diversity in beliefs. The First Amendment to the country's Constitution prevents the Federal government from making any "law respecting an establishment of religion", and guarantees the free exercise of religion. The Supreme Court has interpreted this as preventing the government from having any authority in religion. A majority of Americans report that religion plays a "very important" role in their lives, a proportion unusual among developed nations, although similar to the other nations of the Americas.^[58] Many faiths have flourished in the United States, including both later imports spanning the country's multicultural immigrant heritage, as well as those founded within the country; these have led the United States to become the most religiously diverse country in the world.^[59]

The majority of Americans (76%) identify themselves as Christians, mostly within Protestant and Catholic denominations, accounting for 51% and 25% of the population respectively.^[60] Non-Christian religions (including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism), collectively make up about 4% to 5% of the adult population.^[60][61][62] Another 15% of the adult population identifies as having no religious belief or no religious affiliation.^[60] According to the American Religious Identification Survey, religious belief varies considerably across the country: 59% of Americans living in Western states (the "Unchurched Belt") report a belief in God, yet in the South (the "Bible Belt") the figure is as high as 86%.^[60][63]

Several of the original Thirteen Colonies were established by settlers who wished to practice their own religion without discrimination: the Massachusetts Bay Colony was established by English Puritans, Pennsylvania by Irish and English Quakers, Maryland by English and Irish Catholics, and Virginia by English Anglicans. Although some individual states retained established religious confessions well into the nineteenth century, the United States was the first nation to have no official state-endorsed religion.^[64] Modeling the provisions concerning religion within the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the framers of the Constitution rejected any religious test for office, and the First Amendment specifically denied the federal government any power to enact any law respecting either an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise, thus protecting any religious organization, institution, or denomination from government interference. The decision was mainly influenced by European Rationalist and Protestant ideals, but was also a consequence of the pragmatic concerns of minority religious groups and small states that did not want to be under the power or influence of a national religion that did not represent them.^[65]

Culture

The development of the culture of the United States of America has been marked by a tension between two strong sources of inspiration: European ideals, especially British; and domestic originality, such as Jeffersonian democracy. Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia was perhaps the first influential domestic cultural critique by an American.

American culture encompasses traditions, ideals, customs, beliefs, values, arts, folklore and innovations developed both domestically and imported via colonization and immigration from the British Isles. Prevalent ideas and ideals which evolved domestically such as important national holidays, uniquely American sports, proud military tradition, and innovations in the arts and entertainment give a strong sense of national pride among the population as a whole.

See also

• American diaspora
• American Mexican
• American Australian
• American Brazilian
• American Canadians
• Americo-Liberian
• American New Zealander
• Emigration from the United States
• Hyphenated American
• Immigration to the United States
• North Americans in Chile

References