British Americans

British Americans are citizens of the United States of British or partial British ancestry. British Americans commonly have English, Scottish, or Welsh family heritage, although some Americans of Irish descent prefer to recognize themselves as British since Ireland was part of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1922 and Northern Ireland is still part of the UK.

British American or American?

Many British Americans have ancestry in the United States that dates back to the 13 colonies in the 17th century. With ancestry so "American", some British Americans have begun recognizing their ancestry simply as "American". In an historical context, that terminology would be correct. For instance, today's southern Italians don't consider themselves Greeks or partially Greek because their ancestors came from Greece. Today's English population doesn't consider themselves to be German because their ancestors were Anglo-Saxons from Germany. American society tends to believe in hyphenated-Americanism, despite the fact that one's ancestry may date back to the foundations of this nation.

Many Americans with Irish, Scots, or Welsh background identify with those "nations" and not with the UK as a whole and do not refer to themselves as British.

Number of British Americans

According to 2000 Census figures, there are 60.7 million Americans of British Isles ancestry today. These include:

• 28.2 million English
• 5.2 million Scotch-Irish
• 5.4 million Scottish
• 20 million United States or American by ancestry (the overwhelming majority of these being originally British ancestry)
• 1.9 million Welsh

These figures make British Americans the largest ethnic group in the U.S. when counted collectively (although the Census Bureau does not count them collectively). About 30% of the white non-Hispanic population in America is of British ancestry.

External Link

Census Bureau ancestry figures (bottom of page)