German American Community Service
Information for the German American Community
Who's Counting?
The l990 Census of German-Americans
The results of the 1990 U.S. Census indicate that the total
U.S. population is: 248,709,873.
The five major groups and their percentages of the total population
are as follows:
| 1. German | 57,985,595 | (23.3 %) |
| 2. Irish | 38,739,548 | (15.6 %) |
| 3. English | 32,655,779 | (13.1 %) |
| 4. Italian | 14,714,939 | (5.9 %) |
| 5. Polish | 9,366,106 | (3.8 %) |
The "German" category does not include Germans from other German-speaking states and regions of Europe and the Americas. Hence, to the "German" statistic the following can be added:
| 1. Austrian | 870,531 |
| 2. Swiss-German | 700,000 |
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| 3. Pennsylvania German | 305,841 |
| 4. Luxemburger | 49,061 |
| 5. Alsatian | 16,465 |
| 6. German-Russian | 10,153 |
These six additional Germanic ethnic groups total 1,952,051.
The total combination then of all seven German ethnic categories
is:
| German | 57,985,595 | (23.3 %) |
| Other categories | 1,952,051 | (4.8 %) |
| Total | 59,937,646 | (24.09 %) |
The results clearly confirm that German-Americans constitute
nearly a full one-fourth of the population. German-Americans
take pride in the fact that they are the major ethnic group in
America, just as they can be proud of their long history, dating
back to the arrival of the first Gerrnans in America at Jamestown,
Virginia in 1608.
July 26, 2004
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