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U.S. Bureau of the Census has 2012 Selected Social Characteristics of the United States. Here is the section of the larger table that deals with ancestry. I think you will find the numbers intriguing. I did. It was especially interesting to me that the numbers of people with English ancestors was so low. I was not surprised at the number of people with German ancestors. But I was surprised at the number of people with Irish ancestors. I was also interested to look at the current statistics on race and national origin in the U.S. The white population is already a distinct minority in California and Texas and is close to being a minority in Arizona.
| ANCESTRY | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total population | 313,914,040 | ***** | 313,914,040 | (X) |
| American | 23,567,147 | +/-90,901 | 7.5% | +/-0.1 |
| Arab | 1,798,991 | +/-35,987 | 0.6% | +/-0.1 |
| Czech | 1,507,815 | +/-23,682 | 0.5% | +/-0.1 |
| Danish | 1,296,751 | +/-25,129 | 0.4% | +/-0.1 |
| Dutch | 4,350,633 | +/-43,932 | 1.4% | +/-0.1 |
| English | 25,261,814 | +/-102,997 | 8.0% | +/-0.1 |
| French (except Basque) | 8,475,331 | +/-55,608 | 2.7% | +/-0.1 |
| French Canadian | 1,992,174 | +/-32,854 | 0.6% | +/-0.1 |
| German | 46,875,013 | +/-113,136 | 14.9% | +/-0.1 |
| Greek | 1,296,119 | +/-27,039 | 0.4% | +/-0.1 |
| Hungarian | 1,427,110 | +/-22,143 | 0.5% | +/-0.1 |
| Irish | 34,148,645 | +/-130,918 | 10.9% | +/-0.1 |
| Italian | 17,343,394 | +/-88,194 | 5.5% | +/-0.1 |
| Lithuanian | 680,912 | +/-13,465 | 0.2% | +/-0.1 |
| Norwegian | 4,398,608 | +/-37,483 | 1.4% | +/-0.1 |
| Polish | 9,500,696 | +/-66,115 | 3.0% | +/-0.1 |
| Portuguese | 1,380,877 | +/-28,735 | 0.4% | +/-0.1 |
| Russian | 2,895,912 | +/-41,054 | 0.9% | +/-0.1 |
| Scotch-Irish | 3,117,627 | +/-32,277 | 1.0% | +/-0.1 |
| Scottish | 5,379,735 | +/-48,537 | 1.7% | +/-0.1 |
| Slovak | 742,738 | +/-17,871 | 0.2% | +/-0.1 |
| Subsaharan African | 3,008,961 | +/-51,662 | 1.0% | +/-0.1 |
| Swedish | 3,980,614 | +/-41,929 | 1.3% | +/-0.1 |
| Swiss | 941,692 | +/-18,807 | 0.3% | +/-0.1 |
| Ukrainian | 968,769 | +/-20,640 | 0.3% | +/-0.1 |
| Welsh | 1,780,002 | +/-30,844 | 0.6% | +/-0.1 |
| West Indian (excluding Hispanic origin groups) | 2,758,050 | +/-40,768 | 0.9% | +/-0.1 |
It looks to me like we need to broaden our research experience. The large online database companies could take a lesson from these statistics and broaden their database records and serve more of the population. It looks like to me, the most representative company of the big four is the membership of MyHeritage.com. Of course, FamilySearch.com has the most diverse collections of records. Neither of these statements is much of a surprise.
You might note that a pretty big percentage of the people are classified as Americans. According to the U.S. Census Records, I should be putting myself in that category. I'm not really sure how to characterize myself since I would easily belong to five different ancestries. I guess I really am American.
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