The USA as a multiethnic society.

In the 2000 census, the country had 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, with numerous others represented in smaller amounts. By the federal government's categorization of race, most Americans (80.4% in 2004) are white. These white Americans are mostly European Americans—the descendants of European immigrants to the United States—along with some non-Europeans counted as white (those with origins in the original peoples of the Middle East and North Africa). To the exclusion of Hispanic-origin European Am-s, non-Hispanic whites constituted 67.4% of the population. The non-Hispanic white population is proportionally declining, because of both immigration by, and a higher birth rate among, ethnic and racial minorities. The largest ethnic group of European ancestry is German at 15.2%, followed by Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from French Canada, as well as from such Slavic countries as Poland and Russia. African Americans, or Blacks, largely descend from Africans who arrived as slaves during the 17th through 19th centuries, and number about 35 million or 12.9% of the population. At about 1.5% of the total population, Native Americans and Alaska Natives number about 4.4 million, approximately 35% of whom were living on reservations in 2005.

The US government keeps no official register of Americans' religious status. about 52% of adults described themselves as Protestant, 24.5% Roman Catholics. The most popular other faiths include Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Unitarian Universalism. Religion has traditionally played a large role in American society; many of the original European colonists came to America for religious reasons. Religion still has a major influence on American politics and culture, arguably more so than in other industrialized nations.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1659