page_title: Greek Americans
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Greek Americans / History / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: English: Persistent URL: http://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/244988 Local call number: JJS0099 Title: Sponge auction in Tarpon Springs Date: June 27, 1947 Physical descrip: 1 transparency - col. - 4 x 5 in. Series Title: http://www.floridamemory.com/photographiccollection/collections/?id=49 Repository: http://www.floridamemory.com/, 500 S. Bronough St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250 USA. Contact: 850.245.6700. Archives@dos.myflorida.com
context_page_description: Greek Americans are Americans of full or partial Greek ancestry. Over 1.4 million Americans are of Greek descent. 321,444 people older than five spoke Greek at home in 2010.
  Greek Americans have the highest concentrations in the New York City, Boston, and Chicago regions, but have settled in major metropolitan areas across the United States. In 2000, Tarpon Springs, Florida, was home to the highest per capita representation of Greek Americans in the country. The United States is home to the largest Greek community outside of Greece, ahead of Australia, Cyprus, Albania, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
context_section_description: The events of the early 1920s also provided the stimulus for the first permanent national Greek American religious and civic organizations. Greeks again began to arrive in large numbers after 1945, fleeing the economic devastation caused by World War II and the Greek Civil War. From 1945 until 1982, approximately 211,000 Greeks emigrated to the United States. These later immigrants were less influenced by the powerful assimilation pressures of the 1920s and 1930s and revitalized Greek American identity, especially in areas such as Greek-language media.
  Greek immigrants founded more than 600 diners in the New York metropolitan area in the 1950s through the 1970s. Immigration to the United States from Greece peaked between the 1950s and 1970. After the 1981 admission of Greece to the European Union, annual U.S. immigration numbers fell to less than 2,000. In recent years, Greek immigration to the United States has been minimal; in fact, net migration has been towards Greece. Over 72,000 U.S. citizens currently live in Greece (1999); most of them are Greek Americans.
  The predominant religion among Greeks and Greek Americans is Greek Orthodox Christianity. There are also a number of Americans who descend from Greece's smaller Sephardic and Romaniote Jewish communities.
caption: Sponge auction in Tarpon Springs, Florida, in 1947. The community has the highest percentage of Greek Americans of any city in the US
exif: {}