Rhode Island's Largest Ethnic Groups

Italian-Americans are the largest ethnic group in Rhode Island, representing 19% of the state's population in 2010.

The state also has a large community of Portuguese speakers: Portuguese is Rhode Island's 5th largest ethnic group, with almost 1 in 10 residents claiming Portuguese heritage. There is also a a large Cape Verdean population, immigrants from a former Portuguese colony off the coast of Africa.

Rank	Ethnicity	2010 Rhode Island Population	As a Percent of Total Rhode Island Population
	Total Population	1,052,886	100.00%
1	Italian	203,337	19.31%
2	Irish	202,662	19.25%
3	English	134,432	12.77%
4	French, except Basque	127,755	12.13%
5	Portuguese	100,644	9.56%
6	German	62,338	5.92%
7	French Canadian	47,512	4.51%
8	Dominican (Dominican Republic)	45,277	4.30%
9	Polish	40,680	3.86%
10	Puerto Rican	32,429	3.08%
11	American	25,776	2.45%
12	Cape Verdean	22,106	2.10%
13	Scottish	21,330	2.03%
14	Swedish	19,416	1.84%
15	Guatemalan	18,522	1.76%
16	African-American*	18,194	1.73%
17	Mexican	10,733	1.02%
18	Russian	9,414	0.89%
19	Greek	7,700	0.73%
20	Chinese, except Taiwanese	7,332	0.70%
21	Colombian	6,824	0.65%
22	Scotch-Irish	6,271	0.60%
23	Armenian	6,264	0.59%
24	Dutch	5,727	0.54%
25	European	4,904	0.47%
26	Canadian	4,060	0.39%
27	Lithuanian	3,846	0.37%
28	Haitian	3,800	0.36%
29	Cambodian	3,765	0.36%
30	Asian Indian	3,713	0.35%
31	Norwegian	3,537	0.34%
32	Ukrainian	3,412	0.32%
33	American Indian and Alaska Native	3,176	0.30%
34	Hungarian	3,094	0.29%
35	British	3,065	0.29%
36	Salvadoran	2,914	0.28%
37	Laotian	2,908	0.28%
38	African	2,880	0.27%
39	Lebanese	2,872	0.27%
40	Korean	2,715	0.26%
41	Welsh	2,531	0.24%
42	Syrian	2,473	0.23%
43	Filipino	2,469	0.23%
44	Austrian	2,062	0.20%
45	Liberian	2,054	0.20%
46	Danish	1,930	0.18%
47	Cuban	1,867	0.18%
48	Ecuadorian	1,698	0.16%
49	Bolivian	1,678	0.16%
50	Pakistani	1,549	0.15%

Source: US Census Bureau, 2010 American Community Survey

1 year estimates, tables: B02001, B02006, B03001, B03002, B04006

* African-American is derived as respondents selecting Black as racial group after removing African and West Indian ethnicities.