Demographics of the United States in the context of "African American"

The most commonly used language in the United States is English (specifically American English), which is the national language. While the U.S. Congress has never passed a law to make English the country's official language, a March 2025 executive order declared it to be. In addition, 32 U.S. states out of 50 and all five U.S. territories have laws that recognize English as an official language, with three states and most territories having adopted English plus one or more other official languages. Overall, 430 languages are spoken or signed by the population, of which 177 are indigenous to the U.S. or its territories, and accommodations for non-English-language speakers are sometimes made under various federal, state, and local laws.

The majority of the U.S. population (77%) speaks only English at home as of 2024, according to the American Community Survey (ACS) of the U.S. Census Bureau. The second most common language by far is Spanish, spoken by 13.9% of the population, followed by Chinese, spoken by around 1% of the population. Other languages spoken by over a million residents are Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic, French, Korean, and Russian. Only 8.4% of U.S. residents report that they speak English less than "very well".

Hispanic and Latino Americans are Americans who have a Hispanic or Latin American background, culture, or family origin. This demographic group includes all Americans who identify as Hispanic or Latino, regardless of race. According to annual estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, as of July 1, 2024, the Hispanic and Latino population was estimated at 68,086,153, representing approximately 20% of the total U.S. population, making them the second-largest group in the country after the non-Hispanic White population.

"Origin" can be viewed as the ancestry, nationality group, lineage or country of birth of the person, parents or ancestors before their arrival into the United States of America. People who identify as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race, because similarly to what occurred during the colonization and post-independence of the United States, Latin American countries have had populations made up of multiracial and monoracial descendants of settlers from the metropole of a European colonial empire (in the case of Latin American countries, Spanish and Portuguese settlers, unlike the Thirteen Colonies that will form the United States, which received settlers from the United Kingdom). In addition, there are also monoracial and multiracial descendants of Indigenous peoples of the Americas (Native Americans), descendants of African slaves brought to Latin America in the colonial era, and post-independence immigrants from Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia.

African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group who, as defined by the United States census, consists of Americans who have ancestry from "any of the Black racial groups of Africa". African Americans constitute the second largest racial and ethnic group in the U.S. after White Americans. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States. According to annual estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, as of July 1, 2024, the Black population was estimated at 42,951,595, representing approximately 12.63% of the total U.S. population.

African-American history began in the 16th century, when African slave traders sold African artisans, farmers, and warriors to European slave traders, who transported them across the Atlantic to the Western Hemisphere. They were sold as slaves to European colonists and put to work on plantations, particularly in the southern colonies. A few were able to achieve freedom through manumission or escape, and founded independent communities before and during the American Revolution. After the United States was founded in 1783, most Black people continued to be enslaved, primarily concentrated in the American South, with four million enslaved people only liberated with the Civil War in 1865.

Asian Americans are Americans with ancestry from the continent of Asia (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of those immigrants). According to annual estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, as of July 1, 2024, the Asian population was estimated at 22,080,844, representing approximately 6.49% of the total U.S. population, making them the fastest growing and fourth largest racial and ethnic group in the United States after African Americans, Hispanic and Latino Americans and non-Hispanic White Americans.

Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous peoples of the continent of Asia, the usage of the term "Asian" by the United States Census Bureau denotes a racial category that includes people with origins or ancestry from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia. It excludes people with ethnic origins from West Asia, who were historically classified as "white" and will be categorized as Middle Eastern Americans starting from the 2030 census. Central Asian ancestries (including Afghan, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, and Uzbek) were previously not included in any racial category but have been designated as "Asian" as of 2024.

The Population Estimates Program (PEP) is a program of the U.S. Census Bureau that publishes annual population estimates and estimates of birth, death, and international migration rates for people in the United States. In addition to publishing those aggregate estimates for the entire country, the program also publishes those yearly estimates by age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin at the national, state, county and city and town level. By doing so, the Population Estimates Program provides up-to-date information on how the size and distribution of the US population has changed each year since the most recent 10-year US Census.

The estimates produced by the Population Estimates Program are used in determining how federal funds should be allocated throughout the United States. The annual population estimates are also used as controls for the American Community Survey and the U.S. Current Population Survey, which in turn measure diverse demographic data on social, economic and housing characteristics of people in the United States.

An Okie is a person identified with the state of Oklahoma, or their descendants. This connection may be residential, historical or cultural. For most Okies, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Oklahoman. While not an official demographic used or recognized by the United States Census Bureau, Okies, due to various factors, have developed their own distinct culture within larger social groupings both akin to and separate from Midwestern and Southern influences. Included are their own dialect, music, and Indigenous-derived folklore.

In California, the term came to refer to very poor migrants from Oklahoma coming to look for employment. The Dust Bowl and the "Okie" migration of the 1930s brought in over a million migrants, many headed to the farm labor jobs in the Central Valley. A study in the 1990s indicated that about 3.75 million Californians were descendants of this population. By 1950, four million individuals, or one quarter of all persons born in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, or Missouri, lived outside the region, primarily in the West.

Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States, after English. Approximately 45 million people aged five or older speak Spanish at home, representing about 14% of the U.S. population. Broader estimates place the total number of Spanish speakers—including native speakers, heritage speakers, and second-language speakers—at around 59 million, or roughly 18% of the population. The North American Academy of the Spanish Language (Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española) serves as the official institution dedicated to the promotion and regulation of the Spanish language in the United States.

In the United States, the number of Hispanophones exceeds the combined total of speakers of French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Hawaiian, the Indo-Aryan languages, the various varieties of Chinese, Arabic and the Native American languages. The U.S. also has the second largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, after Mexico. According to the 2024 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, 44.9 million people aged five or older speak Spanish at home — more than twice as many as in 1990. Spanish is also the most studied language in the United States after English, with approximately 8 million students enrolled in Spanish courses at various educational levels. The use and importance of Spanish in the United States has increased significantly as Hispanics are one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the country. While the proportion of Hispanics who use Spanish in major urban areas has declined, the absolute number of Spanish speakers nationwide, as well as the use of Spanish at home, continues to grow annually.