Home >  Nation & World >  Census

Saturday, June 08, 2002

By Genaro C. Armas, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The nation of immigrants is again reshaping its identity. While Hispanic immigration surged in the 1990s, new census figures show a decline in the number of people identifying themselves as Irish, German and other European ancestries.

More people are simply calling themselves "American."

"When I was younger, my parents explained that you are an American citizen, but your heritage was from Ireland," said Jim Donohue, a New York City investment banker who has dual citizenship.

Some of Donohue's ancestors came to America as early as the 1860s. While he has grown closer to his Irish roots in recent years, he said, "I'm definitely an American first."

Demographer Martha Farns-worth Riche, a former head of the Census Bureau, said, "The longer you are here, the more it makes you American."

Many Americans are descended from Europeans who arrived in the 1800s or early 1900s.

The data come from the 2000 census long form distributed to about 20 million households. One question asked people to write in up to two ancestries that defined their background.

Overall, while the U.S. population rose 13 percent over the decade to 281 million, the total ancestry responses -- based on a sample -- declined from 296 million in 1990 to 287 million in 2000.

Results for a select number of ancestries from the most recent release showed declines mainly in European heritage.

Nearly 43 million people, or 15 percent of the country, reported being "German" in 2000, down 23 percent from nearly 58 million in 1990.

"Irish" or "Celtic" decreased from 38 million (16 percent of the total) to 30 million (11 percent), while "English" decreased from 32 million (13 percent) to 24 million (9 percent).

Census Bureau analyst Campbell Gibson pointed to several reasons for the change. Many residents who immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s died in the 1990s.

Also, the question requires write-in answers, which could distort the results since some may be influenced by the examples of several ancestries provided with the question, or write in any response on a whim, Gibson says. Others may ignore the question entirely.

Some ancestries did see increases, including "Arab" and "sub-Saharan African."

More information on Hispanic and Asian ancestries will be released starting later this month, and they are expected to show an increase.

As for U.S. residents born overseas, the 2000 census showed over half came from Latin America, while 16 percent came from Europe. While not directly comparable because of differences in data collection, the 1990 census showed 44 percent of the foreign-born were from Latin America, and 23 percent from Europe.

The number of people writing in "American" for their ancestry increased from 13 million in 1990 to 20 million in 2000. Those who are generations removed from immigrants may simply be more comfortable with "American," Gibson said.

Manfred Schnetzer, vice president of the German-American Citizens League in Cincinnati, agreed. About 25 percent of Ohio residents said they were German or part German in 2000, down from 38 percent in 1990.

"Most of the younger [German-Americans] are not learning the language at all. The parents don't teach them," Schnetzer said.

The tendency to report an ancestry was highest in the Midwest and Northeast, and lowest in the South. More than one in five people in Kentucky classified themselves as being of American heritage, the highest rate in the nation.