Iowa Ancestry and Population Demographic Data

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

Below, we'll show you the full list of different ancestries reported in Iowa 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.

Iowa Ancestry Data

Ancestry 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
White 2,820,046 2,823,890 2,824,197 2,827,889 2,826,070 2,806,418
German 517,707 500,956 484,007 468,295 449,031 441,731
American 173,981 163,364 152,356 140,002 132,676 124,973
Hispanic or Latino 168,230 172,707 178,294 183,296 188,311 194,407
Mexican 131,476 134,532 137,874 143,368 145,886 148,372
Irish 106,348 103,997 101,934 100,078 97,840 95,043
African American 97,788 103,052 106,762 109,911 116,359 117,035
English 84,504 79,778 75,615 71,246 68,043 76,623
Asian 62,997 66,570 71,178 75,083 75,741 79,296
Norwegian 60,193 58,060 55,885 53,197 51,780 51,073
Dutch 54,106 52,742 51,323 50,349 49,198 46,745
Some Other Race 39,872 39,410 39,527 39,168 39,048 39,804
Swedish 25,299 24,068 22,509 21,821 20,818 19,944
European 25,205 26,703 29,047 32,407 37,145 39,309
Italian 19,611 19,963 20,229 19,895 20,441 19,571
Danish 19,100 18,477 18,186 17,694 16,884 15,558
Czech 18,349 17,919 17,766 16,684 16,463 15,281
Subsaharan African 13,594 14,896 17,045 20,080 21,901 26,578
Asian Indian 13,139 13,073 13,759 13,788 13,885 15,625
Scottish 12,746 12,917 12,480 12,038 11,710 11,775
French 11,888 10,657 10,603 10,028 8,946 7,319
Chinese 11,858 12,769 13,718 13,786 14,167 14,013
Polish 11,409 11,235 11,324 11,228 10,907 9,863
Scotch-Irish 9,233 9,149 8,517 8,184 8,262 8,154
Yugoslavian 8,004 8,255 7,745 7,270 7,676 6,619
American Indian 7,015 7,259 7,895 8,121 8,418 7,603
Salvadoran 6,504 5,907 5,725 6,253 7,306 6,713
Korean 6,291 6,124 6,818 6,685 6,382 6,495
Guatemalan 6,038 6,942 7,388 6,502 6,797 6,841
African 6,022 6,107 7,646 9,678 11,412 11,899
Puerto Rican 5,879 6,347 6,739 6,728 7,103 8,704
Laotian 5,049 5,403 5,284 4,943 4,976 5,034
Welsh 4,995 5,035 5,307 5,200 5,126 4,585
Total Arab 4,991 5,086 5,380 6,182 6,631 5,973
Scandinavian 4,601 4,572 4,790 4,906 5,246 6,099
All other Hispanic or Latino 4,302 4,582 5,129 5,159 5,449 6,368
Filipino 4,059 4,099 4,659 5,237 5,729 5,447
Burmese 3,660 5,272 5,972 7,091 7,112 6,313
British 3,391 3,258 3,726 4,576 5,176 5,143
French Canadian 3,382 3,141 2,844 2,409 2,435 2,330
Russian 3,277 2,941 2,490 2,117 2,030 2,815
Pennsylvania German 3,075 2,949 3,279 2,736 2,298 2,091
Swiss 2,998 3,040 3,118 3,159 3,079 3,333
Northern European 2,831 2,788 3,013 3,814 4,493 4,487
Czechoslovakian 2,730 2,601 2,642 2,850 2,680 2,024
Sudanese 2,368 2,252 2,397 2,820 2,962 5,028
Belgian 2,333 2,436 2,474 2,507 2,423 2,716
Greek 2,218 1,858 1,783 1,732 1,738 1,745
Cuban 1,959 1,916 2,217 2,170 2,283 2,522
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 1,882 2,422 2,913 3,129 3,729 3,941
Spaniard 1,854 1,985 2,199 2,145 2,145 2,292
Honduran 1,821 1,929 2,262 2,612 3,278 2,976
Canadian 1,735 1,578 1,269 871 1,005 1,064
Thai 1,608 1,822 1,917 2,541 2,662 2,669
Luxembourger 1,502 1,316 1,402 1,259 1,190 1,220
Japanese 1,448 1,451 1,500 1,344 1,291 1,428
West Indian (except Hispanic groups) 1,373 1,677 1,813 2,222 1,909 1,704
Croatian 1,306 1,657 1,533 1,327 1,293 1,271
Colombian 1,228 1,182 1,270 1,267 1,201 1,784
Somali 1,220 1,451 1,612 1,798 1,044 870
Ecuadorian 1,186 1,251 1,472 1,250 967 836
Hungarian 1,133 1,089 1,033 921 805 869
Other Arab 1,094 1,255 1,440 1,316 1,129 1,093
Two or more Asian 1,076 1,280 1,461 1,396 1,558 1,929
Ukrainian 1,037 1,158 1,259 1,342 1,370 1,335
Spanish 999 1,080 1,122 986 789 1,365
Pakistani 947 886 744 1,393 1,373 1,552
Lebanese 947 1,051 1,161 1,386 1,347 1,545
Other Subsaharan African 932 1,302 1,647 2,166 2,557 3,728
Other Asian, not specified 910 1,012 917 985 1,343 1,793
Austrian 895 812 890 966 993 818
Eastern European 885 850 1,097 1,552 2,352 2,382
Hmong 880 816 992 1,066 527 260
Serbian 806 676 594 502 454 404
Haitian 790 862 1,031 1,278 968 791
Arab 764 454 422 417 833 703
Nicaraguan 753 812 912 1,024 1,050 1,008
Lithuanian 736 764 750 710 627 660
Finnish 702 671 608 613 578 710
Taiwanese 701 650 455 424 379 421
Nepalese 686 577 1,159 1,677 1,651 2,268
Liberian 679 921 801 786 699 1,859
Ethiopian 676 959 746 819 1,001 1,280
Romanian 669 532 455 448 560 433
Kenyan 662 891 991 820 783 343
Nigerian 600 612 674 702 761 895
Iraqi 598 597 685 1,364 1,335 865
Portuguese 581 528 607 572 437 419
Peruvian 551 597 782 711 731 868
Panamanian 541 486 461 497 656 644
Cambodian 533 558 768 941 1,135 1,050
Costa Rican 495 494 392 361 501 402
Moroccan 466 523 404 422 565 388
Egyptian 459 501 422 488 556 530
Dominican 457 533 576 456 524 797
Argentinean 434 351 424 450 413 365
Iranian 423 453 376 393 530 441
Brazilian 402 430 369 399 352 604
Chilean 384 437 310 329 266 284
Palestinian 382 375 450 397 408 133
Other Central American 377 369 139 185 256 161
Slovak 377 405 483 469 494 526
Turkish 363 396 265 278 205 235
Malaysian 354 401 402 367 117 142
Latvian 342 376 511 418 286 256
Jamaican 338 504 472 547 553 652
Australian 328 212 136 137 140 163
Armenian 321 236 213 134 109 97
Venezuelan 310 357 463 435 273 579
Albanian 293 316 223 242 346 329
Alaska Native tribes 260 268 186 146 102 48
Paraguayan 249 267 65 97 74 58
Bulgarian 248 258 291 317 295 371
Syrian 244 295 353 301 344 471
Bolivian 242 207 197 189 264 280
Indonesian 238 154 178 198 184 245
Slavic 238 221 394 361 303 374
German Russian 232 232 141 140 81 107
Bangladeshi 217 254 370 379 346 358
Israeli 188 266 264 257 169 149
Sri Lankan 169 220 170 269 147 283
Icelander 145 121 81 88 74 70
Celtic 141 90 79 82 84 40
Slovene 127 123 120 116 224 394
Cajun 101 105 67 42 30 8
Ghanaian 98 109 199 199 427 471
Other South American 92 96 85 82 23 29
West Indian 91 122 112 163 143 97
Zimbabwean 89 98 115 88 16 22
Uruguayan 84 48 79 24 54 48
South African 84 83 79 34 125 132
Senegalese 83 27 33 0 0 1
Belizean 82 97 87 73 113 36
Guyanese 70 61 50 17 19 46
Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac 57 78 73 11 28 29
Estonian 54 40 37 8 5 22
Ugandan 54 61 70 131 90 37
Mongolian 47 68 31 17 74 175
Maltese 44 37 32 30 11 11
Bhutanese 41 164 284 356 475 582
Alsatian 41 39 55 69 70 0
Jordanian 37 35 43 91 114 245
New Zealander 31 50 38 11 10 29
Cypriot 29 19 2 16 14 27
Basque 23 24 18 19 14 6
Afghan 22 22 21 118 156 138
Macedonian 20 11 6 93 128 111
Other Asian, specified 19 16 0 0 0 433
British West Indian 19 25 19 44 29 11
Sierra Leonean 18 16 20 21 4 1
Bahamian 17 16 23 23 24 30
Barbadian 17 30 42 58 30 33
Trinidadian and Tobagonian 16 7 9 8 16 19
Spanish American 15 0 12 16 22 111
Cape Verdean 9 7 15 18 20 12
Carpatho Rusyn 4 3 4 0 0 0
Bermudan 3 8 11 18 15 17

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 .

Link To or Reference This Page

We spent a lot of time downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!

  • "Iowa Ancestry and Population Demographic Data". NameCensus.com. Accessed on March 19, 2024. https://namecensus.com/ancestry/state/iowa/.

  • "Iowa Ancestry and Population Demographic Data". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/ancestry/state/iowa/. Accessed 19 March, 2024

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