This report presents sample data on the population size and geographic distribution of 215 ancestry groups in the United States.

The general ancestry (ethnicity) question (number 13 on the long-form sample questionnaire) was based on selfidentification, provided examples but no prelisted categories, and allowed for one or two ancestry responses. (In this report "ancestry" and "ethnic origin" mean the same thing.) As in 1980, the census of 1990 collected ethnic data on persons regardless of the number of generations removed from their country of origin. Ethnic information collected in censuses before 1980 came from questions on country of birth of persons and their parents, and identified ethnicity for only foreign-born or native persons of foreign or mixed parentage.

In text tables, this report displays data on such things as the distribution of large European (excluding Spanish) ancestry groups, along with State rankings.

Detailed tables show the type of ancestry response (for example, those who answered "American"), the number of persons who reported at least one specific ancestry group, and the number in each ancestry group.