Where Do the Most Italian Americans Live?

About 16,176,874 people in the United States report Italian ancestry on the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. That figure covers everyone who names Italy when asked where their family came from, not just recent immigrants or Italian citizens. It's a self-reported number, and the people behind it cluster in a way few other ancestry groups do: heavily in the Northeast, and above all in and around New York.

Largest Italian populations by metro area

Largest Italian populations by city

The New York metro area holds 2,134,440 residents of Italian ancestry. No other metro comes close. That single region accounts for roughly one in eight Italian Americans nationwide, and it's more than the next two metros combined. When people talk about Italian American culture as an East Coast, greater-New-York phenomenon, the raw counts back them up.

The Northeastern core

After New York, the ranking stays in the old industrial Northeast. Philadelphia reports 756,068 people of Italian ancestry, and Boston follows with 583,055. Both cities drew large Italian immigrant populations in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and those neighborhoods (South Philadelphia, Boston's North End) still anchor the numbers today.

Pittsburgh, the old steel and manufacturing hub, ranks fifth at 366,556. It's a reminder that Italian immigration wasn't only about port cities. The mills and mines of western Pennsylvania pulled in workers who stayed, and their descendants keep Pittsburgh near the top of the list a century later.

Two big non-Northeastern metros break into the ranking. Chicago sits fourth with 567,787, and Los Angeles reports 361,152. Chicago's total reflects the same industrial pull that shaped Pittsburgh; Los Angeles reflects the long westward drift of American families over the twentieth century.

Florida and the retiree effect

Miami reports 300,110 people of Italian ancestry, and Washington follows at 254,488. Miami's presence on this list has less to do with historic immigration than with retirement. Northeastern Italian American families have moved south in large numbers, and Florida's totals rise accordingly. You can see the same pattern at the state level, where Florida reports 1,258,527 residents of Italian ancestry despite never being a major landing point for Italian immigrants.

The states: New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey

State totals tell the concentration story cleanly. New York leads with 2,163,906 people of Italian ancestry, followed by Pennsylvania at 1,381,650 and California at 1,337,799. New Jersey reports 1,279,010, and Massachusetts reports 783,820.

Three of the top four are the New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania core, the historic heart of Italian settlement. California's high rank comes from sheer population size and decades of migration west, and Florida's from retirement. New Jersey deserves a note of its own: with 1,279,010 people of Italian ancestry in a state far smaller than New York or California, it has one of the densest Italian American populations anywhere in the country.

The cities themselves

Metro numbers include suburbs; city numbers strip them away. Within city limits, New York City reports 480,124 people of Italian ancestry, far more than any other city. Philadelphia follows at 105,550 and Los Angeles at 105,067, with Chicago close behind at 101,116.

Then the list turns Sun Belt. Phoenix reports 61,501 and San Diego 59,605, both cities that grew fast in the postwar decades and absorbed transplants from older Italian American strongholds. Boston reports 48,804 within its tight city limits, and Columbus, Ohio rounds out the list at 41,734.

The gap between New York City's 480,124 and Philadelphia's 105,550 is the same pattern you see at the metro level. One place dominates, and everywhere else competes for the positions behind it.

What the pattern shows

Italian ancestry in the United States is a story of one immigrant wave that landed mostly in Northeastern cities, put down roots, and then slowly spread west and south while keeping its center of gravity where it started. New York still dominates. Pennsylvania and New Jersey still hold enormous totals. Florida climbs on retirees, and the Sun Belt cities climb on general migration. The 16.2 million figure is national, but its geography is anything but even.

To see the full picture, browse the complete largest Italian population metros, largest Italian population cities, and largest Italian population states. You can also line up any two places side by side using the compare tool.

Sources

U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey. Rankings: largest Italian population metros, largest Italian population cities, largest Italian population states.