In 2000, just over 1 million people in the United States reported “Arab” ancestry in the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey.1 California (169,000), New York (107,000), and Michigan (97,000) have the nation’s largest Arab populations, and of these, Michigan is the only state where Arabs account for more than 1 percent of the population. Alaska and North Dakota, each with fewer than 500 Arab residents, and Wyoming, with fewer than 300, have the nation’s smallest Arab populations.
About 31 percent of all Arabs living in the United States identified themselves as Lebanese. People of Lebanese ancestry make up more than 80 percent of the Arab population in three states — Maine, Vermont, and New Mexico — and account for at least 50 percent of the Arab population in eight additional states. Egyptians are the second largest Arab group (11 percent), followed by Syrians (10 percent), Palestinians and Jordanians (6 percent each), Moroccans (4 percent), and Iraqis (3 percent). Another 30 percent of Arab Americans identified with “Other Arab” groups or simply marked “Arab/Arabic.” Many of these Arab Americans are of mixed ancestry and have lived in the United States for most or all of their lives.
1. Respondents could list more than one ancestry on the C2SS questionnaire. The figures cited here include only those who listed “Arab” as their first ancestry.
U.S. Census Bureau: Census 2000 Supplementary Survey
