California Ancestry and Population Demographic Data

On this page, you'll find details on the largest ethnic ancestries in California, with links to ancestry pages to research more data.

Below, we'll show you the full list of different ancestries reported in California for the past 6 years. These start from the latest figures from the Census Bureau for , back to -5.

To make the surfacing of this data easier, we've listed it in descending order based on the most recent year of data available, which means that past years may not be in the correct descending order.

All ancestry labels below are the grouping terms used by the U.S. Census Bureau and are not labels that Name Census has provided.

California Ancestry Data

Ancestry 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
White 23,747,013 23,680,584 23,607,242 23,529,068 23,453,222 22,053,721
Hispanic or Latino 14,750,686 14,903,982 15,105,860 15,221,577 15,327,688 15,380,929
Mexican 12,274,907 12,400,437 12,555,044 12,621,844 12,687,312 12,635,258
Asian 5,261,978 5,354,608 5,503,672 5,604,339 5,692,423 5,834,312
Some Other Race 4,974,791 5,133,600 5,329,952 5,415,410 5,481,792 5,623,747
African American 2,265,387 2,261,835 2,263,222 2,267,875 2,274,108 2,250,962
Chinese 1,327,305 1,370,374 1,418,254 1,462,778 1,498,431 1,513,688
Filipino 1,247,073 1,255,672 1,275,057 1,279,680 1,288,414 1,281,691
American 929,971 897,928 869,284 841,607 836,054 797,330
German 834,788 804,105 768,138 722,073 664,261 624,340
Salvadoran 685,635 688,637 698,239 713,703 715,553 719,841
English 657,491 623,600 583,824 539,882 507,619 536,069
Asian Indian 635,718 666,480 712,532 752,127 781,878 810,043
Irish 617,461 601,411 583,356 558,012 531,113 510,839
Italian 520,089 506,779 489,715 471,295 447,684 431,190
Korean 463,977 461,305 466,313 467,380 464,242 470,978
Guatemalan 407,022 416,208 418,854 428,452 436,896 434,671
European 399,858 412,689 432,252 483,203 533,604 536,775
Japanese 278,354 274,797 276,302 274,239 269,696 264,054
Armenian 212,193 210,753 207,038 206,050 202,496 199,886
Puerto Rican 209,771 210,940 215,163 215,961 221,536 227,838
Total Arab 202,311 204,657 207,447 211,457 213,689 209,838
Subsaharan African 199,397 199,037 204,052 205,361 207,413 211,800
American Indian 193,315 190,954 198,197 201,310 209,360 213,841
All other Hispanic or Latino 188,106 199,137 218,431 240,279 257,886 313,814
Russian 169,890 168,102 163,827 155,949 148,883 139,572
Iranian 169,633 172,318 174,057 168,141 166,994 166,016
Spaniard 162,431 158,368 156,704 159,495 161,411 168,020
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 150,370 150,908 152,027 153,366 155,290 149,636
Portuguese 149,579 148,974 143,510 137,270 131,908 126,804
Two or more Asian 146,290 150,535 158,340 163,631 174,261 215,736
Scottish 140,283 137,682 134,459 128,506 120,633 112,856
Polish 137,444 134,783 131,347 127,361 123,449 118,419
Norwegian 119,779 116,435 110,899 107,494 102,503 95,581
Nicaraguan 118,154 117,993 120,827 120,164 117,505 112,896
African 116,485 112,128 113,375 111,457 110,217 106,972
French 116,058 115,661 111,774 107,953 101,402 99,140
Peruvian 105,586 108,966 110,504 108,200 108,165 110,053
Spanish 103,350 103,266 102,318 101,701 99,596 114,564
Swedish 98,316 95,465 92,521 86,811 82,297 76,061
Cambodian 95,126 93,001 94,746 90,601 89,352 92,953
Dutch 93,981 90,759 88,589 83,801 80,564 75,878
Hmong 91,705 94,354 94,454 95,361 95,672 99,591
Cuban 91,274 93,974 96,754 98,404 99,206 105,913
Honduran 88,486 92,033 92,701 88,569 92,011 91,216
Scotch-Irish 79,030 75,948 72,021 69,263 66,507 62,912
British 77,113 78,623 83,602 90,773 95,949 90,719
Colombian 75,361 75,364 78,425 81,055 83,932 91,707
Laotian 68,481 66,873 67,331 66,461 62,098 56,678
Taiwanese 66,709 67,327 68,567 72,314 75,678 86,674
Ukrainian 60,514 59,957 60,829 62,549 61,866 62,158
Greek 54,145 52,710 51,251 50,553 48,979 44,794
Pakistani 52,695 54,928 59,744 63,038 64,938 67,044
Thai 52,676 52,986 52,915 52,791 52,517 50,885
Argentinean 50,611 49,358 49,678 51,073 53,316 53,778
West Indian (except Hispanic groups) 46,661 47,593 49,410 48,341 49,505 49,704
Danish 45,441 43,050 42,932 40,010 37,903 34,699
Canadian 43,877 42,322 41,717 41,014 39,015 35,920
Ecuadorian 42,971 42,981 43,370 41,678 42,094 42,251
Eastern European 42,274 43,481 47,018 53,158 59,809 64,337
French Canadian 41,340 41,215 40,748 38,409 35,666 34,082
Hungarian 39,319 38,330 36,794 35,583 33,560 31,299
Other Arab 37,634 40,781 40,583 43,514 46,896 47,219
Egyptian 37,513 37,505 37,440 36,409 36,981 39,568
Afghan 37,482 35,998 38,722 42,304 49,166 50,896
Northern European 36,713 38,512 41,068 46,219 51,047 51,577
Romanian 36,617 35,499 35,659 34,653 33,802 32,374
Arab 34,338 31,982 32,633 31,982 31,053 26,663
Lebanese 30,295 30,447 30,319 29,743 29,673 30,096
Welsh 29,383 28,900 27,865 25,056 23,600 21,759
Scandinavian 28,818 29,132 29,306 31,562 33,160 33,641
Indonesian 28,184 29,030 29,716 28,753 28,314 28,980
Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac 27,784 28,608 27,153 24,259 22,319 21,107
Chilean 27,686 28,363 28,665 29,405 29,063 30,531
Ethiopian 26,514 29,545 29,267 29,545 31,142 31,227
Costa Rican 25,212 25,594 26,037 26,345 26,114 26,627
Nigerian 23,728 24,324 24,675 26,477 26,539 31,213
Other Asian, not specified 23,434 23,450 23,649 25,318 26,957 31,011
Swiss 23,005 23,551 22,673 21,536 21,451 20,380
Czech 22,659 21,961 21,936 20,879 19,839 18,524
Brazilian 20,876 21,832 22,998 23,270 25,277 26,284
Israeli 20,797 20,201 20,024 18,968 18,761 18,909
Panamanian 19,890 19,332 20,077 19,621 19,090 20,116
Croatian 18,466 18,487 18,035 17,767 16,895 16,495
Iraqi 18,397 18,643 18,695 18,667 18,330 16,222
Austrian 17,531 17,440 16,710 15,339 14,089 13,375
Finnish 16,976 16,791 15,960 15,047 13,470 11,522
Jamaican 16,588 16,761 16,757 17,242 17,703 19,346
Dominican 16,489 16,385 17,007 17,391 17,281 17,808
Other Central American 16,337 15,817 16,388 15,896 15,372 13,431
Burmese 16,324 16,407 16,620 15,858 16,043 15,899
Lithuanian 15,343 14,542 13,966 13,792 13,784 12,398
Turkish 15,176 16,127 16,218 16,370 17,588 18,095
Syrian 14,868 16,352 16,813 17,115 17,000 17,952
Belizean 14,288 14,807 15,644 14,733 15,499 14,493
Venezuelan 14,145 13,743 13,133 13,860 15,277 19,181
Bolivian 13,800 14,104 13,983 14,780 15,553 15,292
Yugoslavian 13,649 13,685 12,738 12,213 11,667 10,446
Palestinian 13,047 13,676 15,021 16,346 16,482 15,379
Sri Lankan 12,006 11,855 11,679 11,127 11,144 10,965
Jordanian 10,390 9,906 10,625 12,060 12,189 11,668
Nepalese 9,611 11,015 12,384 13,572 15,231 14,040
Bangladeshi 9,580 10,205 10,748 11,355 11,404 11,491
Serbian 9,429 9,430 9,320 9,176 8,852 9,652
Bulgarian 9,312 9,624 8,870 8,901 8,598 8,919
Czechoslovakian 8,850 8,828 8,203 8,300 7,614 7,814
Australian 8,659 8,994 8,692 8,339 8,513 8,405
Slovak 8,271 7,668 7,775 7,726 7,629 7,137
Belgian 7,674 8,089 7,712 7,689 7,682 7,867
Basque 7,067 7,422 7,199 7,145 7,055 7,035
South African 6,224 6,110 6,704 5,958 6,482 6,157
Other Subsaharan African 6,057 6,296 7,780 9,268 9,768 10,936
Moroccan 5,829 5,365 5,318 5,621 5,085 5,071
Other South American 5,793 5,150 5,316 5,698 5,406 4,960
Mongolian 5,142 5,405 5,531 5,832 5,864 6,244
Haitian 4,967 5,393 6,481 6,912 7,670 7,090
Somali 4,934 4,952 4,928 4,770 5,027 4,313
Slavic 4,780 4,746 5,337 5,827 4,918 4,461
Latvian 4,436 4,371 4,003 3,953 3,793 3,681
Kenyan 4,407 4,418 5,007 4,652 4,859 5,296
Ghanaian 4,208 4,673 4,913 4,736 4,439 4,950
Malaysian 3,846 4,223 4,097 3,764 3,818 3,479
Trinidadian and Tobagonian 3,679 3,361 3,400 3,208 2,839 3,201
West Indian 3,646 3,800 3,895 3,258 3,161 2,702
Uruguayan 3,493 4,125 4,543 4,569 4,869 6,620
Maltese 3,209 2,860 2,764 2,754 2,592 2,295
Slovene 3,154 2,921 2,836 2,946 3,025 2,976
Celtic 2,712 2,504 2,439 2,256 1,872 1,571
Albanian 2,485 2,242 2,579 2,369 2,780 2,692
Spanish American 2,440 1,982 2,031 1,755 1,580 3,110
Pennsylvania German 2,327 2,493 2,424 2,464 2,455 2,114
New Zealander 2,271 2,206 2,169 2,533 2,349 1,970
Guyanese 2,140 2,593 2,960 2,705 2,529 2,361
Alaska Native tribes 2,127 2,373 2,573 2,497 2,519 2,507
Icelander 1,753 1,945 2,009 2,076 1,984 1,752
Paraguayan 1,736 1,725 1,668 1,679 1,664 1,433
Estonian 1,566 1,594 1,909 1,782 1,763 1,727
Macedonian 1,513 1,396 1,482 1,413 1,528 1,476
Cape Verdean 1,452 1,473 1,556 1,787 1,645 1,438
Sudanese 1,386 1,283 1,446 1,952 1,980 3,671
Cajun 1,213 1,242 1,169 855 914 953
German Russian 1,153 1,325 1,141 1,132 915 806
Ugandan 1,138 1,187 1,463 1,633 2,032 2,032
Other Asian, specified 1,079 1,185 1,318 1,488 1,582 24,010
Barbadian 989 1,065 919 850 701 628
British West Indian 972 965 848 841 809 1,118
Liberian 936 936 1,082 1,128 1,000 1,662
Zimbabwean 912 627 598 735 742 333
Luxembourger 676 642 578 374 368 380
Sierra Leonean 521 660 750 867 1,077 921
Dutch West Indian 497 437 441 317 219 217
Senegalese 495 425 508 396 464 679
United States Virgin Islander 363 205 199 114 93 121
Cypriot 312 404 436 458 464 579
Bhutanese 295 406 399 367 229 301
Bahamian 267 322 370 488 502 490
Okinawan 225 188 218 274 316 370
Other West Indian 213 246 218 255 208 197
Soviet Union 196 236 244 326 304 271
Bermudan 192 231 238 123 101 101
Alsatian 184 217 265 257 247 159
Carpatho Rusyn 116 104 140 69 61 72

Data Source(s)

All of the data on this page is sourced from the latest American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates, from the United States Census Bureau. The latest year for the ACS is currently .

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  • "California Ancestry and Population Demographic Data". NameCensus.com. Accessed on June 4, 2023. https://namecensus.com/ancestry/state/california/.

  • "California Ancestry and Population Demographic Data". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/ancestry/state/california/. Accessed 4 June, 2023

  • California Ancestry and Population Demographic Data. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from https://namecensus.com/ancestry/state/california/.