Middle Eastern American facts for kids
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Continental United States, smaller populations in Alaska and Hawaii | |
| Languages | |
| English • Arabic • Aramaic • Azerbaijani • Armenian • Georgian • Greek • Hebrew • Persian • Turkish, others | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity: (Eastern Orthodoxy · Catholicism) Islam · Judaism · Druze · Zoroastrianism · Atheism · Yezidism · Agnosticism · Deism |
Middle Eastern Americans are people who live in the United States and have family roots or citizenship from the Middle East.
The U.S. Census Bureau says that "Middle-Eastern American" includes people from Western Asia and North Africa. This means it covers both groups who have lived in the Middle East for a long time, like Jewish Americans or Assyrian Americans, and newer immigrants. These immigrants come from countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Iran, Israel, Turkey, and countries in the Arab League. Middle Eastern communities have been settling in America for a very long time. For example, Sephardic Jews found a safe place in New Amsterdam (now New York) in 1654. They were escaping difficult times in Brazil.
How Many Middle Eastern Americans Live Here?
There are at least 10 million Middle Eastern Americans. This number comes from adding up estimates for Arab-American (about 3.7 million) and Jewish-American (about 6.5 million) populations.
The group of Middle Eastern Americans includes both Arabs and non-Arabs. The U.S. Census Bureau and the National Health Interview Survey include people from places like Armenia, Cyprus, Iran, Israel, and Turkey in their definition.
As of 2013, about 1.02 million immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) lived in the United States. This was about 2.5 percent of all immigrants in the country. Most Middle Eastern and North African immigrants have settled in a few key states. These include California (20%), Michigan (11%), and New York (10%). From 2009 to 2013, the counties with the most MENA immigrants were Los Angeles County, California; Wayne County, Michigan (Detroit); Cook County, Illinois (Chicago); and Kings County, New York (Brooklyn). These four areas had about 19 percent of all MENA immigrants in the U.S.
Different Backgrounds, One Community
The U.S. Census has collected information on race and ethnicity since 1790. However, providing this information has been optional since the end of the Civil War. This means that the census numbers might not include everyone. So, the actual populations of each ethnic group could be higher than what the census shows.
Many different groups make up the Middle Eastern American community. Some of the larger groups include:
There are also smaller but important groups like Assyrian Americans, Azerbaijani Americans, Cypriot Americans, Georgian Americans, Israeli Americans, and Kurdish Americans.
Organizations that are not part of the government also make their own estimates. They use census data and other surveys to get a more complete picture. For example, the Mandell L. Berman Institute and the North American Jewish Data Bank estimated the total population of Jewish Americans to be around 6.54 million in 2010. The Arab-American Institute estimated that there were 3.7 million Arab Americans in 2012.
A survey from 2002 by Zogby International found that most Arab Americans are Christian. The survey showed that 63% were Christian, 24% were Muslim, and 13% belonged to another religion or no religion. Christian Arab Americans include different groups like Maronites, Melkites, Chaldeans, Orthodox Christians, and Copts. Muslim Arab Americans mainly follow either Sunni or Shia branches of Islam.
Images for kids
-
Armenian American dancers in New York City in July 1976 during the United States Bicentennial.
