English Americans
 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Alone (one ancestry) 25,536,410 (2020 census) 7.70% of the total US population Alone or in combination 46,550,968 (2020 census) 14.04% of the total US population | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Found Nationwide with significant populations in the South and New England | |
| California | 3,754,933 |
| Texas | 3,520,547 |
| Florida | 2,540,795 |
| Ohio | 2,037,771 |
| North Carolina | 1,869,609 |
| New York | 1,641,789 |
| Pennsylvania | 1,641,137 |
| Michigan | 1,637,351 |
| Georgia | 1,594,956 |
| Tennessee | 1,430,466 |
| Languages | |
| English (American and English) | |
| Religion | |
| Traditionally Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other English diaspora, American ancestry, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, Old Stock Americans, other British Americans, White Americans, European Americans, Irish Americans, Scottish Americans, Welsh Americans, Cornish Americans, Scotch-Irish Americans, Dutch Americans, German Americans, French Americans, Scandinavian Americans | |
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English Americans (also known as Anglo-Americans) are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England. According to the 2020 United States census, English Americans are the largest ethnic demographic in the United States with 46.6 million Americans self-identifying as having some English origins (many combined with another heritage) representing (19.8%) of the White American population. This includes 25,536,410 (12.5% of whites) identified as predominantly or "English alone". Despite their status as the largest self-identified ancestral-origin group in the United States, demographers still regard the number of English Americans as an undercount. The term is distinct from British Americans, which includes not only English Americans but also others from the United Kingdom such as Scottish, Scotch-Irish (descendants of Ulster Scots from Ulster and Northern Ireland), Welsh, Cornish, Manx Americans and Channel Islanders. In 1980, 49.6 million Americans claimed English ancestry. At 26.34%, this was the largest group amongst the 188 million people who reported at least one ancestry. The population was 226 million which would have made the English ancestry group 22% of the total. English immigrants in the 19th century, as with other groups, sought economic prosperity. They began migrating in large numbers, without state support, in the 1840s and continued into the 1890s.
English American elites, known as "WASPs" (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants), have dominated American society, culture, and politics for most of American history. The majority of presidents of the United States, as well as the majority of sitting U.S. congressmen and congresswomen, were born into families of English ancestry. The majority of the Founding Fathers of the United States were also of English ancestry. Ivy League universities such as Harvard University, Yale University, and Princeton University were established by and have been mostly composed of WASPs. In states such as Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, and California; former colonies of Spain and France, Anglo-American settlers developed a cohesive identity centered around their Protestantism, English language, and British colonial heritage. The term Anglo-American can be ambiguous and used in several different ways. While it is primarily intended to refer to people of English ancestry, it (along with terms like Anglo, Anglic, Anglophone, and Anglophonic) is also used to denote all people of British or Northwestern European ancestry. Most broadly it is used to include all people of Northwestern European ethnic origin who currently speak English as a mother tongue and their descendants are in the New World, thus including a large assimilated group of mostly Protestant Europeans.