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British American

Encyclopedia : B : BR : BRI : British American

British Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry stems, either wholly or in part, from one of the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom. The term is seldom used by people to refer to themselves (less than 1% chose it in the 2000 census), and can be seen as a demographic tool.

British Americans have English, Scottish, Scots-Irish (Ulster), or Welsh family heritages. Irish-Americans are not usually categorized as having British ancestry and many, but not all, do not consider themselves as being British Americans (although the Republic of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom until 1922). Similarly, most British Americans tend to differentiate further to being English, Scottish or Welsh and do not identify with Great Britain as a whole, therefore tending not to refer to themselves as British American (see English American, Scottish American or Welsh American).

British-Americans are most probably the largest ethnic group of Americans, as there are 57.6 million British-Americans.[link]

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British American or American?

Many British Americans have ancestry in America that dates back to colonial times in the 17th and 18th centuries. Those who went to New England are known as Yankees. With their roots being in America for such a long period, many British Americans and a significant number of Irish Americans have begun to think of themselves ancestrally simply as "Americans." This is especially true in the South. In American society, hyphenated-Americanism prevails because so much of the population has relatively recent roots elsewhere.

Many other Americans are uncertain about the relative proportions in their own ancestry or have forgotten the origins of their distant ancestors, or prefer to identify with the ethnicity of ancestors who arrived more recently, which provide more distinctive folkways than the general American culture. Even as prominent a figure as Senator John Kerry, scion on his mother's side of an old Yankee family, was astonished to discover his paternal grandfather, whom everyone assumed was Irish Catholic, had been born Jewish in Europe, but, before coming to America, had chosen an Irish name and become Catholic.

Great Britain provided millions of immigrants to America after 1776. They typically assimilated quite rapidly.

Number of British Americans

In the 2000 US Census, 36.4 million Americans reported British ancestry. These include:

These figures make British Americans one of the largest "ethnic" groups in the U.S. when counted collectively (although the Census Bureau does not count them collectively, as each of the above is a separate ethnic group, that is English or Scottish or Welsh or Scots-Irish). The Germans and Irish are the largest self-reported ethnic groups in the nation.

See also

Scholarly Sources


European American 




 Albanian American | Austrian American | Basque American | Belgian American | Bulgarian American | Croatian American | Danish American | Dutch American | English American | Estonian American | Finnish American | French American | German American | Greek American | Hungarian American | Icelandic American | Irish American | Italian American | Jewish American | Latvian American | Lithuanian American | Norwegian American | Polish American | Romanian-American | Russian American | Scottish American | Swedish American | Turkish American | Ukrainian American | Welsh American


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