Italian Americans

An **Italian American** is a U.S. citizen of Italian descent. It may mean someone born in the United States with Italian parents or grandparents or someone born in Italy who moved to the United States. The largest group of Italians moved to the United States in the early 1900s; two million moved between 1900 to 1914. Only Irish and Germans moved to the United States in bigger numbers. In 2000 the government counted 15.6 million Italian Americans in the United States. This means that in the year 2000, for every 1000 Americans, 56 of them were Italian Americans.

Italian Americans have been an important part in building the United States. Many great politicians, inventors, scientists, soldiers, musicians and film makers (actors and directors) have been Italian Americans. The Mafia in the United States was made by some Italian Americans but nearly all Italian Americans have nothing to do with it.

Most of them came from southern Italy, in regions such as Sicily, Naples and Calabria, only a sizeable minority of Italian Americans have ancestral roots in Northern Italy.

New York City has more Italian Americans than any other city in the United States.  More than 3 million Italians live in or near New York. The states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Florida and Massachusetts also have large Italian American populations.  There are large Italian-American populations in the cities of Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Ohio, which each have over a half million Italians.

## Infobox (ethnic group)

- **group**: Italian Americans
- **image**: Americans with Italian Ancestry by state.svg
- **image caption**: Americans with Italian ancestry by state according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey in 2019
- **pop**: ** 17,767,630 (5.3%) alone or in combination**

**5,953,262 (1.8%) Italian alone**

**17,285,619 (2015)**

**17,566,693 (2010)**

**17,829,184 (2006)**

**16,688,000 (2000)**

**14,664,550 (1990)**

**12,183,692 (1980)**
- **popplace**: Northeastern United States (parts of New York (state), New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island); Illinois (especially Chicago); also, parts of Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area, Baltimore–Washington, Ohio, St. Louis, Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Detroit; parts of California (such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, California, San Diego), Florida (particularly South Florida, the southern part of the state) and the Atlantic coast, Louisiana (especially New Orleans), with growing populations in Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix and Albuquerque
- **rels**: Christianity (Catholic Church)
- **related**: Italian Argentines, Italian Bolivians, Italian Brazilians, Italian Canadians, Italian Chileans, Italian Colombians, Italian Costa Ricans, Italian Cubans, Italian Dominicans, Italian Ecuadorians, Italian Guatemalans, Italian Haitians, Italian Hondurans, Italian immigration to Mexico, Italian Mexicans, Italian Panamanians, Italian Paraguayans, Italian Peruvians, Italian Puerto Ricans, Italian Salvadorans, Italian Uruguayans, Italian Venezuelans, Italian Australians, Italian South Africans, Italians in the United Kingdom, Italian Britons, Italian New Zealanders, Sicilian Americans, Corsican Americans, Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico, Corsican Puerto Ricans, Maltese Americans, Sammarinese Americans and other Italians