Personal qus: British/Irish ancestry among Americans, Canadians, and Australians?

24 February 2006 | NZerFromHK

[NZerFromHK]

Does anyone have a summary of what proportions of Americans with British and Irish ancestry? I'm currently looking at the data for New Zealand and I note that in the 2001 Census, it was recorded 75% of all New Zealanders have majority British/Irish ancestry, and 5% have European ancestry from outside Britain and/or Ireland. Maori comprises 14.7% and Pacific Islanders 6.5%.

The definition of British/Irish ancestry that I use is: anyone who has 50% or more ancestral blood who came from what we call the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland today.

In addition, does anyone have a comparable set of figures for the cases of Canada and Australia as well?

Thanks for your help.

[NZerFromHK]

Ping! I need some help for a few demographic questions for the US, Canada and Australia. Any of your help will be much appreciated.

[SouthernFreebird]

Well my Paternal Grandmother was an Irish Catholic and my Grandfather was an English Protestant. There was 11 children by them and they had a total of over 30 kids and we have probably produced 60 or so with 2 to 3 kids each so your looking at over 100 of us here. That oughta get you started...lol

[cripplecreek]

Curious about this one myself.

[NZerFromHK]

I had a look at the table provided here:

http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U_QTP13&-geo_id=01000US&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false&-_sse=on

It seems that if I add "British", "American", "Scottish", "Welsh", "Irish", "Scots-Irish", "English", and unspecified ancestry (adjusting it by probability that they are German or Italian ancestry) together, it seems not more than 35% of all Americans have majority British/Irish ancestry. Not sure if my guess proves correct.

[Fred Nerks]

http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/1249.02005-06?OpenDocument

Perhaps this link might be helpful?

[cripplecreek]

I know that there were a large number of Welsh in my states (Michigan) upper penninsula at one time. Mostly miners from what I can find. I live in an area called the Irish hills, so I'm assuming there was a fair sized Irish population here. I'm German and grew up in a town named after Hanover Germany.

We were a pretty diverse european bunch here.

[Wallace T.]

If you assume those that identify themselves as American, United States, or White are mostly people of pre-1800 British Isles origin, and that about half of those who self-identified as Canadians had similar origins, then there are 92.2 million Americans who claim British Isles origin out of 225.3 million Americans who identified their national origin, 40.9% of those who identified their origin are English, Scots, Welsh, Scots-Irish, or Irish by ancestry. (The assumption that the self-identified Americans are mostly of British descent is supported by the concentration of these people in Appalachia, the Upland South, the Ozarks, and North and West Texas, where (except for Texas), there is little black or Hispanic population and little impact by the European immigration of the 1840-1920 period.)

Out of a total U.S. population of 281.4 million as of the 2000 census, about 115.1 million Americans have roots in the British Isles, assuming those that did not identify their national origin were equally distributed among the population.

[NZerFromHK]

This sounds semsible - although I also know some German, Scandinavian or Dutch descents also use the general "American" label in the census and so the figure could be a little lower?

It looks quite astonishing when comparing the set of data between New Zealand and the United States: overwhelming of New Zealand Europeans have majority British/Irish ancestry, while it is not so for American whites.

[NZerFromHK]

I think you could joke that it is possible count every New Zealander with German ancestry with both your hands . THere are so few that it is possible to seat all of them in a sports stadium.

[Wallace T.]

New Zealand and Australia were part of the British Empire and are still members of the British Commonwealth, as is Canada, while America became independent in 1776. As a result, there was greater attraction for British settlers to nations under the Union Jack and less of one for non-British Europeans. Additionally, both the U.S. and Canada are closer to Europe than are Australia and New Zealand. With respect to Dutch and German preference for America as opposed to the British Empire/Commonwealth nations, you must remember that there was a strong Dutch and German presence in colonial America, concentrated in the Middle Atlantic colonies of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Even today, the concentration of German Americans in Pennsylvania is one of the highest in the nation.

[Max in Utah]

I recall reading some time ago that the ethnic makeup of European-Americans was 1/4 British/Irish, 1/4 Italian, 1/4 German and the rest Scandinavian, Polish, French, etc.

It varies a good deal by region. Lots of Germans in Texas, for example. Quite a few Norwegians in the Northwest. Lots of Johnsons everywhere!

[NZerFromHK]

There was also a lot of discrimination on non-British Europeans on the part of New Zealand. There were a number of documents in the government archives at Wellington's National Library that showed post-WWII New Zealand governments discouraged Italians, Greeks, and German immigrants because culturally "they are imcompatible with the values and life of a majority of New Zealanders". Dutch and Scandinavians were reluctantly admitted since there were fairly similar to British.

Policies were in place to favour British/Irish migrants right up to the 1970s. Until 1977 any British and Irish national landing in New Zealand could register and become a NZ citizen. At times the New Zealand government even paid for the entire cost of voyage from Britain or Ireland: they were called "10-pound migrants". It has always been said that New Zealand is a kin migrant country, and that it is not a New World country but rather, a New Britain.

[Sam Gamgee]

The largest category is German at a whopping 15%. English only comes in at 8%. Irish is a huge category as well.

[NZerFromHK]

Thanks, although I must confess the list of figures looks confusing at times! LOL

I found anotehr source that implies the results from 2001 Census indicates 71% of all Australians are Anglo-Celtic (British/Irish) while 92% are whites, meaning 21% of Australians are non-British/Irish European in ancestry.

[Fred Nerks]

Last I read was 25% of Aussie citizens were post-WW2 migrants and their descendants. Don't remember the source.

[NZerFromHK]

The data in the Canadian census in 2001 gives an incomplete picture as many people refused to answer ancestry information. A cursory search on the net shows "4 out of 9 Canadians have majority British descent" while 12.9% reports majority Irish descents.

This gives about 57% of all Canadians as British/Irish descent. Minus French (30%) this means 81% of all "English Canadians" are British/Irish in descent. The figures do look interesting.

[NZerFromHK]

I suspect it is an an art of inexact science to analyse census results about ancestry. Many refuse to answer what their major ancestry was, and many may answer he has English, Irish, and German descent and it could constitute three counts in the census results.

Having said this, non-British/Irish descent Australians with European ancestries constitute 20's percents of Australian population sounds right.

[Wallace T.]

If you create a "metaethnicity" of all Germanic language speakers in continental Europe (German s, Dutch, Swiss, Austrians, Flemish, Alsatians, German-Russians), there are about 50 million Americans of a Germanic metaethnicity in the U.S., about 21% of the population.

[Khurkris]

What? No mention of the Scots?

(mumbling)...mrf*8^#@...ungrateful Kiwi git!

Just kidding of course..;-)