Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Polish American
Polish-American refers to American citizens of Polish descent. The most notable of the Polish-American communities are in Chicago, Illinois and its surrounding suburbs, the Almanac of American Politics 2004 says that "Even today, in Archer Heights [a neighborhood of Chicago], you can scarcely go a block without hearing someone speaking Polish". Many who claim Polish on the census are actually Jewish, but pick Polish since their ancestors were born there for many generations.
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Polish Americans by state totals
According to the United States 2000 Census, American states with the largest numbers of Poles and Americans of Polish ancestry are:
- 01 New York (986,141)
- 02 Illinois (932,996)
- 03 Michigan (854,844)
- 04 Pennsylvania (824,146)
- 05 New Jersey (576,473)
- 06 Wisconsin (497,726)
- 07 California (491,325)
- 08 Ohio (433,016)
- 09 Florida (429,691)
- 10 Massachusetts (323,210)
- 11 Connecticut (284,272)
- 12 Minnesota (240,405)
- 13 Texas (228,309)
- 14 Maryland (184,364)
- 15 Indiana (183,989)
- 16 Arizona (126,665)
- 17 Virginia (124,647)
- 18 Colorado (101,190)
- 19 Missouri (90,448)
- 20 Georgia (82,765)
...
- 49 Hawaii (10,770)
- 50 Wyoming (9,929)
- 51 District of Columbia (7,910)
Polish Americans by percentage of the total population
- 01 Wisconsin 9.3 %
- 02 Michigan 8.6 %
- 03 Connecticut 8.3 %
- 04 Illinois 7.5 %
- 05 Pennsylvania 6.7 %
...
- 49 Alabama 0.5 %
- 50 Mississippi 0.4 %
- 51 Louisiana 0.4 %
Polish communities as part of Urban America
The city with the highest amount of Poles is Chicago (nearly a million people are of Polish descent), thus it is sometimes said that Chicago is the second largest "Polish" city in the world, as Warsaw, Polish capital, is the only city with more Polish residents. Chicago has three major Polish neigborhoods. New York Metropolitan area (includes NY, part of NJ and Conn.) is second with over 300,000 Polish American in its metropolitan area.
Other cities with major Polish communities include Buffalo, a city that once had a vibrant Polish neighborhood but it's now completely integrated, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Columbus, Boston, Baltimore, Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Pittsburgh. Despite the lack of new Polish immigration, some cities are emerging with strong Polish American communities, Milwaukee (which already had a major Polish population) and Denver where richer Polish-Americans tend to move from Chicago had a major increase in the Polish population in the last 10 years. There is also a tendency to move to Florida among Poles from Chicago and New York.
Famous Polish-Americans
See also
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