US Population

The USA is a multi-ethnic society. It is so called “a melting pot”. The term “the melting pot” originates from the United States. It is often used to describe societies experiencing large scale immigration from many different countries. According to the Melting Pot Theory peoples from various cultures come to America and contribute aspects of their culture to create a new, unique American culture.

U.S. government classifies United States citizens or resident aliens having origins in any of the original people of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.

US Population 1. Native Americans (American Indians and Eskimos or Inuits) 2. Black Americans (African Americans) 3. Hispanics (Latin Americans) (Latinas and Latinos) 4. Asian Americans (American Asians) (Amerasians) 5. Americans (White Americans)

Religious Statistics for the United States The order of religious preferences in the United States: Christian: (78.5%) Protestant (51.3%) Roman Catholic (23.9%) Mormon (1.7%) other Christian (1.6%) unaffiliated (12.1%) none (4%) other or unspecified (2.5%) Jewish (1.7%) Buddhist (0.7%) Muslim (0.6%)

Geographic distribution of the population in the United States

Native Americans Native Americans in the United States are the peoples from the regions of North America , including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, many of which survive as intact political communities. About 1.0 percent of the U.S. population is of American Indian or Alaska Native descent. This population is unevenly distributed across the country.

White Americans are the majority racial group in almost all of the United States. They are not the majority in Hawaii, many American Indian reservations, parts of the South known as the Black Belt, and in many urban areas throughout the country. Although all large geographical areas are dominated by white Americans, much larger differences can be seen between specific parts of large cities. States with highest percentage of American whites, as of 2007: Vermont 96.2% Maine 95.5% New Hampshire 95.0% West Virginia 94.3% Iowa 92.9% Idaho 92.1% Wyoming 91.6% North Dakota 90.9% White

White German Americans (16.8%), Irish Americans (12.1%), English Americans (9.3%), Italian Americans (5.9%), Polish Americans (3.3%), French Americans (3.2%), Scottish Americans (2%), Scotch-Irish Americans (1.8%), Dutch Americans (1.7%), Norwegian Americans (1.5%), Swedish Americans (1.4%), Russian Americans (1%) make up 60% of the “White" population. Included in the category are White Hispanics representing 8.11%, mainly Mexican Americans.

Hispanics The largest city with a Hispanic majority is San Antonio, Texas, and the highest percentage for any major U.S. city is El Paso, Texas at 76%. This list does not include cities such as Los Angeles, California or Houston, Texas in which merely a plurality of the residents are Hispanic. Thirty-one states do not have any communities that are majority-Hispanic. Note: Hispanics can be of any race.

African Americans 54.8% of African Americans live in the South. 17.6% - in the Northeast 18.7% - in the Midwest, only 8.9% - in the western states. The west does have a sizable black population in certain areas, however. California, the nation's most populous state, has the fifth largest African-American population, only behind New York, Texas, Georgia, and Florida.

Almost 58% of African Americans live in metropolitan areas. With over 2 million black residents, New York City had the largest black urban population in the United States , overall the city has a 28% black population. Chicago has the second largest black population, with almost 1.6 million African Americans in its metropolitan area representing about 18 percent of the total metropolitan population.

Asians Nearly three-quarters of the Asian American population live in metropolitan areas with population greater than 2.5 million. Asian Americans are concentrated in the largest U.S. cities, with 40% of all Asian Americans living in the metropolitan areas around Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York , and Chicago.

Half of all Asian Americans live in Hawaii or the West Coast, mostly in California. In regions with large numbers of Asian Americans, suburban communities have developed greatly. The schools in these areas may offer languages such as Mandarin as a second language. Since the 1970s, in addition to Chinatowns, “Little Manila”, “ Koreatowns” and “Little Saigons" have appeared in several cities.

Questions: A. 1. What is the population of the USA? 2. What is the main idea of “the Melting pot”? 3. What are the religious groups in the USA? 4. What is the largest population group? 5. What regions of the country are inhabited by the White population? 6. What are the names of the cities of the Hispanic origin? B. 1. What parts of the world do the population of the USA come from? 2. How is the USA called? 3. What are the main population groups in the USA? 4. What is the smallest population group in the country? 5. What regions of the country are inhabited by the African Americans? 6. What are the names of the cities of the French origin?