page_title: Kansas
section_title: Ancestry
hierarchical_section_title: Kansas / Demographics / Ancestry
caption_attribution_description: English: en:Category:U.S. State Population Maps en:Category:Kansas maps Kansas population density map based on Census 2010 data. See the data lineage for a process description.
context_page_description: Kansas is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named after the Kansas River, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native Americans who lived along its banks. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" although this was probably not the term's original meaning. For thousands of years, what is now Kansas was home to numerous and diverse Native American tribes. Tribes in the eastern part of the state generally lived in villages along the river valleys. Tribes in the western part of the state were semi-nomadic and hunted large herds of bison.
  Kansas was first settled by Americans in 1827 with the establishment of Fort Leavenworth. The pace of settlement accelerated in the 1850s, in the midst of political wars over the slavery debate.
context_section_description: According to the 2010 United States Census, the racial makeup of the population was:
  83.8% of the population was White American
  5.9% was Black or African American
  1.0% American Indian and Alaska Native
  2.4% Asian American
  0.1% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander
  3.0% from two or more races.
  Ethnically 10.5% of the total population was of Hispanic or Latino origin (they may be of any race).
  As of 2004, the population included 149,800 foreign-born (5.5% of the state population). The ten largest reported ancestry groups, which account for nearly 90% of the population, in the state are: German (33.75%), Irish (14.4%), English (14.1%), American (7.5%), French (4.4%), Scottish (4.2%), Dutch (2.5%), Swedish (2.4%), Italian (1.8%), and Polish (1.5%). German descendants are especially present in the northwest, while those of descendants of English and of white Americans from other states are especially present in the southeast.
  Mexicans are present in the southwest and make up nearly half the population in certain counties. Many African Americans in Kansas are descended from the Exodusters, newly freed blacks who fled the South for land in Kansas following the Civil War.
  As of 2011, 35.0% of Kansas's population younger than one year of age belonged to minority groups (i.e., did not have two parents of non-Hispanic white ancestry).
caption: A population density map of Kansas
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