German ancestry is #1, English ancestry is #2

[Alben Barkley]

Substantial proportions in the Appalachians and wherever there was significant Appalachian diaspora later will also have Welsh ancestry: now there's your ultimate forgotten ancestral grouping, later migration to Scranton, PA and some Mormons notwithstanding.

I have significant Welsh ancestry. In fact I'm almost 100% British according to my test results, mix of English, Scottish, and Welsh. (They have updated the results a few times to show Irish or various Scandinavian is also mixed in there a tiny amount, I'm guessing because Vikings in the latter case, but the other three are much larger and constant in every update.) But I didn't even know about the Welsh part prior to taking the DNA test.

[Alben Barkley]

The Midwest and Pennsylvania is clearly the German American heartland, while most southern whites are of British ancestry.

This is true, but it probably depends on which part of the Midwest you are talking about. Indiana and Missouri, for example, were largely settled by Southern/Appalachian whites, and therefore are likely also more British to this day. The upper Midwest on the other hand is much more German.

[King of Kensington]

In addition to the "American" responses, a lot of English ancestry (or Scottish or Scots-Irish) is just not reported at all I think.

Even the Irish ancestry group is largely "Anglo Saxon American" so to speak.  The majority of people with Irish ancestry outside the Northeast are Protestant. 

[King of Kensington]

This is true, but it probably depends on which part of the Midwest you are talking about. Indiana and Missouri, for example, were largely settled by Southern/Appalachian whites, and therefore are likely also more British to this day. The upper Midwest on the other hand is much more German.

Indiana

German  20.1%
English/American  18.3%

Missouri

German  21.9%
English/American  18.1%

Although German comes out slightly ahead of English + American, I would agree with this.  Add up the Scottish, Scots-Irish, Irish Protestant and Welsh (even with some double-counting) and the "forgotten" English ancestors, the "British" group would almost certainly come ahead in Indiana and Missouri.  A look at the 1890 census showed mostly a "native stock" population in these states too.  

Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Dakotas on the other hand is the German-Scandinavian heartland, and English/British ancestry is rarer.  

[Sol]

Substantial proportions in the Appalachians and wherever there was significant Appalachian diaspora later will also have Welsh ancestry: now there's your ultimate forgotten ancestral grouping, later migration to Scranton, PA and some Mormons notwithstanding.

I have significant Welsh ancestry. In fact I'm almost 100% British according to my test results, mix of English, Scottish, and Welsh. (They have updated the results a few times to show Irish or various Scandinavian is also mixed in there a tiny amount, I'm guessing because Vikings in the latter case, but the other three are much larger and constant in every update.) But I didn't even know about the Welsh part prior to taking the DNA test.

I'd be a little careful with those as actual measures; among other things they measure your DNA and not your heritage, so that means you might randomly end up with more or less DNA from different branches. I have two friends who are brothers, both half-Ecuadorian and half white American, and they ended up with pretty different ancestry DNA test results -- one had much more African and European ancestry and one had much more Native American ancestry.

My theory is that one is far more likely for people to tag their English ancestry if it was via New England as opposed to the South.

Stated 'English' ancestry in the US census has for a long time mostly indicated known ancestry from New England, which is why the patterns are interesting even if they don't show what they purport to.

In fairness in the south it's usually been an indicator of "I'm affluent." (thus usually also corresponding to the pattern Torie talked about as far as who has access to genealogy.)

[LabourJersey]

As I understand it, ACS only lets respondents list one or two ancestries for these surveys.

I wonder whether the changes over time for German, English, Irish etc numbers may just be people list a different answer or combination of answers for the survey.

As intermarriages continue most white Americans are a collection of ancestries. For instance I have Italian, Irish, Scottish, English and German ancestries. I have an Italian last name and feel most attached to my Italian roots, but by percentages I'm more Irish than anything. If I had to pick just one ancestry I don't know which I would pick, and I could see my answer changing over the years.

[Alben Barkley]

Substantial proportions in the Appalachians and wherever there was significant Appalachian diaspora later will also have Welsh ancestry: now there's your ultimate forgotten ancestral grouping, later migration to Scranton, PA and some Mormons notwithstanding.

I have significant Welsh ancestry. In fact I'm almost 100% British according to my test results, mix of English, Scottish, and Welsh. (They have updated the results a few times to show Irish or various Scandinavian is also mixed in there a tiny amount, I'm guessing because Vikings in the latter case, but the other three are much larger and constant in every update.) But I didn't even know about the Welsh part prior to taking the DNA test.

I'd be a little careful with those as actual measures; among other things they measure your DNA and not your heritage, so that means you might randomly end up with more or less DNA from different branches. I have two friends who are brothers, both half-Ecuadorian and half white American, and they ended up with pretty different ancestry DNA test results -- one had much more African and European ancestry and one had much more Native American ancestry.

It may not be exact, but other close family members have taken the test and have similar results when it comes to strong, double digit showings for all of English, Scottish, and Welsh. Seems pretty clear that all three are in both our heritage and DNA to a significant degree. It's the lower percentage stuff like Irish/Scandinavian that fluctuates between and among us.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Anyway, nearly every White American* has at least some English ancestry: the exceptions would be from certain groups that retained the status of ethnic groups for longer and have not assimilated in full or were very late to do so. Substantial proportions in the Appalachians and wherever there was significant Appalachian diaspora later will also have Welsh ancestry: now there's your ultimate forgotten ancestral grouping, later migration to Scranton, PA and some Mormons notwithstanding.

_{*And, if we're being honest, most Black Americans, though rather more distantly. It is the way it is.}

This is correct. I was of the impression that I might be a rare case who has zero English ancestry but, as it turns out, I have a trace from the 18th Century, and I think if that's true for me (seemingly homogenous Catholic ancestry), it's likely going to be true for literally anyone with an ancestor living in the US in the mid-19th Century or before, excepting Pietists or Navajo or Lakota or Jews (true special case due to endogamy) or perhaps New Mexican Hispanics. I suspect just about anyone else has trace amounts of English ancestry and this will include the vast majority of American Indians and virtually all Blacks descendants of slaves who were living in the US. If I have trace English ancestry, anyone should have it and those who suspect otherwise haven't looked or cannot look etc.

Of course, for the vast majority of people with a white parent, English ancestry goes well beyond trace, I'm just a weird edge-case in the year 2022 due to special factors involving heritage from an ethnic enclave.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

If anyone is interested, this is my ancestry (roughly speaking):
Mexican mestizo (probably more indigenous than not based on my appearance and that of my family) - 50%
German (Westphalia Catholic, Luxembourg Catholic, trace amount of Pennsylvania Dutch) - ~43%
Irish - 5%
English Quaker - 1%

[King of Kensington]

German ancestry is less common in New England

New England

Irish  2,550,467  16.9%
English/American  2,422,634  16.1%
Italian  1,715,523  11.4%
French/French Canadian  1,491,299  9.9%
German  1,005,156  6.7%

In the least German state, Rhode Island (4.5%), German ancestry is the sixth most common ancestry among whites (behind Irish, Italian, English/American, French/French Canadian and Portuguese).

[Roll Roons]

While most Southern whites are primarily of English descent, I've heard that the more educated ones specifically identify as "English" while less educated ones identify "American".

For instance, Williamson County, TN is by far the most college-educated county in the state and also the only one where a plurality of residents specifically identify as English as opposed to American. Is there something distinct about the ancestry of people living in that particular county? I don't think so.

It's just one data point, but it's something to consider.

[King of Kensington]

The increase in "English" is strongly correlated with the drop in "American" responses. A plurality report English ancestry in Tennessee now. 

The only state where "American" has a plurality is Alabama (and maybe Mississippi and West Virginia but the Census Bureau didn't have data for the states).

But yes, I'm sure there's an educational difference.  Though it's interesting English ancestry domianted in the South when the ancestry question was first asked, but it dropped significantly after that.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

German American-ness is pretty interesting because it is still widely reported and recognized as an ancestry but it stopped being a distinct sociopolitical identity a long time ago. It could be argued that German American culture not only assimilated into generic middle American culture but effectively came to dominate it, especially in food (after barbecue, what image does "real American food" conjure in the rest of the world if not hamburgers, hot dogs and lager beers with names like Budweiser?).

[King of Kensington]

Yes, and the least "German" regions - New England and the Deep South - feel the least "mainstream American." 

[All Along The Watchtower]

German American-ness is pretty interesting because it is still widely reported and recognized as an ancestry but it stopped being a distinct sociopolitical identity a long time ago. It could be argued that German American culture not only assimilated into generic middle American culture but effectively came to dominate it, especially in food (after barbecue, what image does "real American food" conjure in the rest of the world if not hamburgers, hot dogs and lager beers with names like Budweiser?).

Part of that decline in German-American “distinctiveness”—not all of it, but certainly part of it—was the impact of the World Wars. Much more of an incentive to assimilate!

[All Along The Watchtower]

New England and the Deep South….feel the least "mainstream American." 

Not the Mormon Triangle?!

[King of Kensington]

Another area with relatively low German ancestry.  3x as many English/American as German ancestry responses in Utah.

[King of Kensington]

English/American ancestry

Utah   32.9%
Maine 28.5%
Kentucky 26.5%
Idaho 25.2%
Tennessee 25.2%
Alabama 25%
New Hampshire 22.1%
North Carolina 21.5%
South Carolina 21%
Virginia 21%
Arkansas 19.5%
Kansas 19.1%
Oregon 18.9%
Montana 18.4%
Indiana 18.3%
Georgia 18.1%
Missouri 18.1%
Oklahoma 17.4%
Florida 16.7%
Ohio 16.7%
Colorado 16%
Washington 16%
Rhode Island 15.1%
Iowa   14.8%
Delaware 14.7%
Michigan 14.7%
Louisiana 14%
Arizona 13.8%
Nebraska 13%
Connecticut 12.8%
Maryland 12.7%
Pennsylvania 12.7%
Nevada 12.4%
Texas 12.4%
New Mexico 12%
Illinois 10.2%
Minnesota   9.9%
Wisconsin   9.9%
New York 9.8%
California 9.2%
New Jersey 8.5%

[King of Kensington]

All of the 20%+ English/American states are in the South, New England or Mormon belt.

20%+ German ancestry in Pennsylvania, most of the Midwest and Great Plains.

[Builder Refused]

Regional distribution:


English ancestry

Northeast  4,470,376
Midwest  6,597,026
South  13,017,354
West  7,740,315

American ancestry

Northeast  2,327,089
Midwest  3,143,033
South  9,604,178
West  2,551,657

German ancestry

Northeast  6,383,529
Midwest  15,961,078
South  11,578,159
West  8,297,414

Irish ancestry

Northeast  7,651,157
Midwest  7,535,454
South  10,354,771
West  5,954,515

Italian ancestry

Northeast  6,513,333
Midwest  2,665,795
South  4,011,238
West  2,756,772

I assume most of the Eastern European groups are dominant in the Midwest? This is also a reason I consider Pittsburgh Midwestern. High German and Polish populations. Also, is there any group with it's highest population in the west?

[King of Kensington]

Danish American plurality in the West.  I think there was a good number of Danish Mormons.

Also, Basque Americans.  There's only 60,000, and there's a Basque community in Idaho.

[King of Kensington]

Here are the remaining European ancestries with at least 3 million.

Polish

Northeast  2,524,970
Midwest  2,965,897
South  1,670,678
West  1,075,481

French/French Canadian

Northeast  2,197,921
Midwest  1,676,271
South  2,696,592
West  1,549,749

Scottish

Northeast  759,135
Midwest  1,032,914
South  2,059,036
West  1,393,703

Norwegian

Northeast  235,166
Midwest  1,826,733
South  555,373
West  1,268,108

Swedish

Northeast  420,720
Midwest  1,197,837
South  613,748
West  1,086,273

Dutch

Northeast  426,269
Midwest  1,164,460
South  754,791
West  737,521

[Builder Refused]

I wonder why the Russian-American population is so low despite being the largest European country. Then there’s also Norway and Sweden, they punch way above their weight, I assume that’s somewhat due to the quotas from the 20s to the 60s but it also make me think of Svidrigailov in Crime and Punishment “I’m going to America” and all that

[the artist formerly known as catmusic]

I wonder why the Russian-American population is so low despite being the largest European country. Then there’s also Norway and Sweden, they punch way above their weight, I assume that’s somewhat due to the quotas from the 20s to the 60s but it also make me think of Svidrigailov in Crime and Punishment “I’m going to America” and all that

That could also just be because Scandinavian immigrants moved to big, rural places in the midwest where having huge families was the norm.

It was very, very difficult for Russians to immigrate to the US during the Soviet period, which decreased their presence in the country. Many Russian immigrants also settled in big cities like NYC, and probably had less children. Not to mention a large number of those Russian immigrants were Jews, who likely don't identify themselves as Russian.

[King of Kensington]

Also the Scandinavians had a bit of a head-start.  Peak decade of Scandinavian immigration was in the 1880s.  More Norwegians and Swedes immigrated between 1870-1900 than between 1900-1930.  The shift to Southern and Eastern Europe was after 1890.  Immigration from Russia peaked 1900-1910.

https://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/pdfs/by_region/region_table.pdf