Spatial features of changing ethnic self-identification of US residents of European origin

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the location of the main ethnic groups of European origin in the United States. Being immigrants descendants, the US population has a different ethnic origin. To date, the majority of US residents are the descendants of European immigrants. On the example of the five most numerous ethnic groups of Americans of European origin — the British, Germans, Irish, French, Italians — the spatial changes of their distribution on the US territory in the period from 1980 to 2015 are considered. The ethnic assimilation processes of various ethnic groups in the American «melting pot» occur with different intensity. But the ethnic identity changing rate depends not only on a particular ethnic group membership, but also on the characteristics of its spatial localization. Among the five ethnic groups in question, over the past 35 years, the number of Americans of English and French origin has fallen most dramatically. The number of «Italians» over the same period has increased by more than 40 %. The appearance in 1990 in the US Census Bureau statistic data a new ethnic category — «Americans», which has a distinct spatial localization, has become an important indicator of the European ethnic groups assimilation process speed and direction in the United States.