For the first time ever, respondents to the 2020 Census who reported White as a race could write in more details such as Italian, Palestinian or Cajun.
Together, the English (46.6 million), German (45 million), and Irish (38.6 million) alone or in any combination populations made up over half of the White alone or in combination population in 2020.
Among those who identified as White alone or in combination, English (46.6 million), German (45 million), and Irish (38.6 million) were the largest groups.
The addition of a new write-in area for collecting detailed White responses was one of the improvements made to the 2020 Census race question design. As a result, data are now available from the decennial census for 104 detailed White groups, including Lithuanian, Irish, Libyan, Syrian, Pennsylvania Dutch and Australian.
Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) responses, such as Lebanese and Moroccan, were included with the White category, following the standards[PDF <1.0 MB] set by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in 1997, which classify MENA responses as part of the White racial category.
Detailed responses from the race question are tabulated in two ways: race alone and race alone or in any combination. The alone population includes those who reported only one response to the race question, such as Austrian. The alone or in any combination population includes those who reported one or more responses to the race question such as only Austrian or Austrian and German or Austrian and Asian.
In the 2020 Census, over 235 million people reported they were White alone or in combination with another race group, such as Black or African American.
As our country’s demographics change and the nation becomes more multiracial, it’s important to understand the composition of the race alone and race alone or in any combination populations.
About two-thirds of the White alone and White alone or in combination populations reported a detailed response, such as German, Irish, Lebanese or French Canadian.
Detailed European responses accounted for 58.8% of the White alone and 56.1% of the White alone or in combination populations.
Other White responses, such as Canadian and Pennsylvania German, represented around 2% of the White alone and White alone or in combination populations.
Middle Eastern and North African responses, such as Lebanese, Iranian, and Egyptian, represented over 1% of the White alone and White alone or in combination populations.
Among those who identified as White alone or in combination, English (46.6 million), German (45 million), and Irish (38.6 million) were the largest groups.
Several other alone or in any combination groups had at least 8 million people: Italian (16.8 million), Polish (8.6 million), Scottish (8.4 million), and French (8.0 million).
An additional 11 detailed White alone or in any combination groups had at least 1 million people, including Swedish (3.8 million), Norwegian (3.8 million), and Dutch (3.6 million) (Figure 1).
French Canadian and Canadian were the two largest detailed groups in the “Other White” population, with their alone or in any combination populations each exceeding half a million. The next largest groups were Pennsylvania German, Cajun, and Australian (Figure 2).
Among White respondents who reported a MENA response (Figure 3):
- The largest MENA alone groups were Iranian (413,842), Lebanese (328,137) and Egyptian (313,720).
- These same groups also accounted for the largest MENA alone or in any combination groups: Lebanese (685,672), Iranian (568,564), and Egyptian (396,854).
The English alone population was the largest detailed White group nationally, in 35 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The German alone population was the largest in 10 states, the Italian alone population in four, and the Irish alone population only in Massachusetts.
Texas had the largest English alone population (over 2.1 million) (Table 1).
The largest German alone population was in Pennsylvania — 1,112,662, or 11.4% of the state’s White alone population.
California had the largest Irish alone population (803,899), followed by New York (730,165) and Florida (692,142).
The Italian alone population was concentrated in New York and New Jersey. Together, the two states accounted for over a quarter (1,712,976) of those who reported Italian alone. New York was home to 1.1 million.
Illinois had the largest number of people who identified as Polish alone (352,882), followed by New York (274,580), Michigan (256,398), Pennsylvania (206,264), and Florida (160,119).
Louisiana had the largest French alone population (136,390), or 5.1% of its total White alone population, followed closely by California (127,756), Massachusetts (111,502), Florida (107,687) and Texas (105,770).
English alone or in any combination was the largest detailed White group in approximately two-thirds (2,050) of the counties in the United States and Puerto Rico. The English population was the most prevalent group in northern New England, the South, and throughout the West, as well as in Puerto Rico (Figure 4).
German was the largest group in over 1,000 counties, particularly in the Midwest, Pennsylvania, and parts of Texas, including the Texas Hill Country. Maricopa County, Arizona, home to Phoenix, had the largest English and German populations of all counties in the nation (620,199 and 639,586 respectively).
Irish was the largest group in 80 counties, concentrated in southern New England and New York, the Philadelphia area, parts of south Florida, as well as several counties in Alaska, two counties in Montana (Deer Lodge and Silver Bow), San Mateo and San Francisco counties in California, and Orleans Parish, Louisiana. The largest Irish population (567,668) was in Cook County, Illinois, home to Chicago.
Italian was the largest group in several counties in New Jersey and the Long Island area of New York. Italian was also the largest group in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, New Haven County, Connecticut and Guaynabo Municipio, Puerto Rico. The largest Italian population (360,345) was in Suffolk County, New York on Long Island.
Norwegian was the most common group in 15 counties, all in northern Minnesota, North Dakota or Montana. The county with the largest Norwegian population (135,077) was Hennepin, Minnesota, which includes Minneapolis.
Although there is a great deal of diversity in the detailed White groups, many of the largest groups are also broadly distributed across the United States. The result is that the most common detailed White group was a group other than English, German, Irish, Italian or Norwegian in only 11 of the 3,221 counties in the U.S. and Puerto Rico:
- Ukrainian was the largest group in Aleutians East and Aleutians West, Alaska, and Dutch was the largest group in Sioux County, Iowa, and Ottawa County, Michigan.
- French was the largest in two Louisiana Parishes (St. Charles and St. James) while Bristol, Massachusetts, was the only county with Portuguese as the largest detailed White group.
- Finnish was the largest group in four counties, all in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
- English and German were tied as the two largest detailed groups in two counties: Coryell, Texas and Skamania, Washington.
