Tennessee Ancestry and Population Demographic Data

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

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

Tennessee Ancestry Data

Ancestry 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
White 5,059,894 5,096,733 5,131,786 5,166,231 5,205,132 5,196,680
African American 1,091,070 1,100,577 1,107,392 1,117,489 1,124,473 1,128,806
American 1,022,547 975,191 928,466 879,953 834,439 771,925
Hispanic or Latino 320,090 327,345 340,063 352,402 364,174 377,162
English 308,152 294,763 276,024 264,516 257,600 300,680
Irish 255,408 243,364 232,314 222,799 208,512 213,331
German 214,313 210,237 204,578 196,110 185,606 186,940
Mexican 205,957 210,364 217,104 217,557 222,154 227,090
Asian 102,027 105,368 110,605 112,915 117,600 122,897
Some Other Race 96,739 90,065 88,745 90,666 92,655 103,760
Scotch-Irish 85,500 84,947 83,384 79,403 78,964 75,722
Subsaharan African 61,047 62,644 63,938 66,113 67,897 66,468
Scottish 59,093 59,629 58,476 58,164 56,206 57,635
European 58,722 68,383 80,180 93,870 111,470 120,298
Italian 51,861 50,667 50,066 51,591 49,338 52,194
African 43,871 45,562 45,607 47,533 49,083 45,967
French 26,728 26,630 26,168 25,286 23,639 21,973
Total Arab 26,182 27,572 29,274 31,217 30,824 31,799
Puerto Rican 26,105 27,979 28,832 32,054 32,134 33,547
Asian Indian 25,668 27,289 28,740 28,631 30,240 34,394
Polish 21,802 22,002 22,670 22,140 22,571 23,045
Guatemalan 18,241 17,060 16,892 17,929 22,193 23,430
Dutch 16,449 16,500 15,436 15,445 15,210 13,641
Chinese 16,339 16,420 18,658 18,881 20,199 20,713
British 15,836 16,003 17,225 20,423 23,568 22,561
American Indian 12,714 13,501 12,447 12,212 12,716 11,204
Salvadoran 11,552 10,202 12,269 14,383 15,266 14,904
Norwegian 11,436 11,156 11,128 11,566 10,666 10,386
Cuban 11,257 11,253 11,372 11,509 12,044 12,039
Honduran 10,970 12,334 13,667 16,306 16,903 16,994
Korean 10,507 11,159 10,913 10,583 10,974 11,286
Filipino 10,323 10,918 11,982 12,562 12,348 12,359
Welsh 9,945 10,272 10,028 10,285 9,863 10,316
Swedish 9,208 8,901 7,868 7,600 6,821 7,319
French Canadian 8,563 7,964 8,007 7,181 7,078 6,868
Egyptian 7,623 8,006 8,620 10,056 10,770 10,631
All other Hispanic or Latino 7,526 7,315 7,949 9,531 10,476 12,530
Russian 7,354 6,923 6,575 6,942 6,925 6,776
Laotian 7,190 7,126 6,700 6,594 6,970 6,991
West Indian (except Hispanic groups) 6,632 7,572 7,331 7,152 7,479 8,874
Arab 5,906 5,410 5,308 4,833 3,702 3,893
Other Arab 5,242 6,263 7,401 8,679 8,763 9,207
Colombian 5,136 5,477 5,912 5,419 5,469 5,636
Japanese 4,313 4,870 5,219 5,528 5,158 5,040
Canadian 4,264 4,081 3,894 3,803 3,965 2,964
Ethiopian 4,179 3,478 3,795 4,481 5,270 4,020
Spaniard 4,168 4,414 4,446 5,122 4,352 4,190
Greek 4,068 4,140 4,375 4,629 4,479 4,045
Hungarian 3,713 3,576 3,479 3,439 3,345 3,519
Ukrainian 3,701 3,220 3,478 3,887 4,212 4,393
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 3,323 3,299 3,784 3,806 3,771 3,959
Nigerian 3,101 3,046 3,189 3,202 3,567 4,513
Iranian 3,097 3,156 2,970 3,247 3,021 3,246
Swiss 2,982 2,897 2,902 2,679 2,878 3,098
Romanian 2,894 2,837 3,367 3,665 4,274 3,603
Dominican 2,610 2,892 3,352 3,569 3,854 3,931
Pakistani 2,564 2,831 2,629 2,338 2,410 3,062
Somali 2,520 2,441 3,072 2,945 2,305 2,228
Jamaican 2,449 2,589 2,346 2,309 2,466 2,696
Czech 2,429 2,398 2,315 2,360 2,562 2,467
Iraqi 2,366 2,521 3,063 3,138 3,501 3,159
Other Subsaharan African 2,366 2,673 2,775 2,245 2,476 4,425
Peruvian 2,276 2,619 2,782 2,883 2,984 3,858
Danish 2,267 2,442 2,240 2,089 2,005 2,005
Northern European 2,231 2,357 2,756 3,409 4,613 4,817
Lebanese 2,196 2,155 1,879 1,950 1,742 2,095
Eastern European 2,166 2,805 3,500 4,235 5,443 6,159
Pennsylvania German 2,132 2,157 2,267 2,087 1,416 591
Haitian 2,116 2,305 2,135 2,201 2,057 2,693
Panamanian 2,092 2,519 2,279 2,235 2,006 2,811
Scandinavian 2,045 2,483 2,881 3,261 3,957 4,907
Portuguese 2,015 1,883 2,015 2,017 1,964 1,890
Spanish 1,994 1,970 2,379 2,299 2,431 3,869
Cambodian 1,939 1,782 1,770 1,945 1,798 1,664
Venezuelan 1,934 1,704 2,078 3,142 3,630 3,815
Lithuanian 1,832 1,709 1,643 1,668 1,525 1,361
Argentinean 1,675 2,097 1,658 1,683 1,681 1,726
Thai 1,613 1,616 1,719 2,096 2,614 2,741
Other Asian, not specified 1,583 1,819 2,351 2,099 2,413 2,466
Nepalese 1,574 1,765 1,808 1,933 1,979 1,791
Two or more Asian 1,530 1,373 1,275 1,594 1,449 1,830
Sudanese 1,461 1,064 1,183 1,295 1,317 1,583
Austrian 1,428 1,400 1,237 1,243 1,131 1,247
Yugoslavian 1,397 1,321 1,033 1,002 1,197 1,258
Nicaraguan 1,362 1,470 1,530 1,312 1,156 1,239
Chilean 1,347 1,341 1,339 1,142 1,027 1,123
Slovak 1,275 1,404 1,443 1,392 1,472 1,286
Finnish 1,265 1,234 1,301 1,247 1,317 1,721
Costa Rican 1,219 1,366 1,515 1,530 1,397 1,052
Ecuadorian 1,155 1,288 1,327 1,347 1,484 1,676
Palestinian 1,091 1,165 952 696 882 1,376
Bangladeshi 1,087 603 324 318 430 534
Czechoslovakian 1,047 1,017 930 849 790 871
Belgian 988 916 1,030 844 712 607
Brazilian 962 942 1,076 1,115 978 1,278
Liberian 930 1,521 1,188 1,501 818 587
Armenian 904 958 621 574 663 872
Croatian 888 859 694 721 844 719
Burmese 886 1,463 2,064 2,499 2,716 2,625
Turkish 877 834 883 755 803 746
Ghanaian 860 712 943 720 869 999
Jordanian 820 1,055 1,067 1,003 685 638
Taiwanese 800 801 917 861 905 1,076
Other Central American 773 678 403 479 299 254
Serbian 698 683 636 427 490 737
West Indian 675 920 735 754 733 725
South African 620 642 699 662 489 513
Cajun 609 608 589 578 452 368
Albanian 599 593 498 439 635 622
Moroccan 511 484 474 497 370 310
Kenyan 509 667 661 677 667 584
Australian 474 477 477 437 560 597
Syrian 427 513 510 365 409 490
Bhutanese 426 409 61 204 215 142
Guyanese 414 495 384 406 262 142
Israeli 392 448 333 276 364 250
Celtic 382 441 408 334 409 552
Trinidadian and Tobagonian 345 359 463 423 477 451
Bolivian 328 404 428 463 575 501
Bulgarian 300 257 345 394 609 591
Malaysian 297 269 430 405 492 351
Indonesian 296 317 484 535 683 692
Dutch West Indian 294 380 395 284 327 245
Slavic 287 321 323 303 379 614
Afghan 279 390 310 364 241 184
Hmong 262 539 544 523 601 714
Alaska Native tribes 250 285 437 361 384 181
Latvian 243 262 231 165 152 373
Sri Lankan 240 240 193 362 353 341
Slovene 235 231 262 212 281 312
Bahamian 215 447 524 566 611 599
German Russian 213 211 222 174 195 200
Senegalese 210 287 343 424 558 480
British West Indian 205 241 334 236 370 772
Belizean 196 169 206 226 284 414
Ugandan 194 162 187 80 146 181
Maltese 188 166 155 165 122 65
Other South American 170 234 225 201 154 345
New Zealander 156 172 167 87 162 155
Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac 147 117 101 43 52 59
Zimbabwean 146 225 155 157 139 116
Uruguayan 142 140 125 128 213 302
Basque 128 138 130 120 159 203
Estonian 87 85 79 61 69 65
Icelander 83 92 70 109 131 142
Paraguayan 82 129 81 63 92 155
Sierra Leonean 80 152 126 116 84 62
Barbadian 58 90 115 106 87 119
Luxembourger 57 60 37 38 29 39
Macedonian 52 48 105 88 187 150
United States Virgin Islander 38 35 36 11 32 135
Bermudan 32 28 33 29 35 25
Spanish American 19 96 119 116 200 145
Mongolian 14 10 41 50 127 117
Other Asian, specified 12 23 15 10 19 265
Other West Indian 9 9 9 7 0 0
Okinawan 7 7 0 0 58 39

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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  • "Tennessee Ancestry and Population Demographic Data". NameCensus.com. Accessed on May 31, 2023. https://namecensus.com/ancestry/state/tennessee/.

  • "Tennessee Ancestry and Population Demographic Data". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/ancestry/state/tennessee/. Accessed 31 May, 2023

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