California's Largest Ethnic Groups

California is America's largest state by population. Its' economy is the biggest of all states, making it a popular destination for immigrants. There is great diversity in the countries from where its' residents originate. By far, the largest ethnicity is Mexican, owing to California's shared border with Mexico. Over 30% of  residents have Mexican ancestry. The largest European ancestry is German, the heritage of just under 9% of Californians. Chinese-Americans make up the state's largest Asian ethnic group.

Rank	Ethnicity	2010 California Population	As a Percent of Total California Population
	Total Population	37,349,363	100.00%
1	Mexican	11,778,396	31.54%
2	German	3,330,889	8.92%
3	Irish	2,573,023	6.89%
4	English	2,327,331	6.23%
5	African-American*	1,810,075	4.85%
6	Italian	1,501,625	4.02%
7	Chinese, except Taiwanese	1,211,709	3.24%
8	Filipino	1,184,835	3.17%
9	American	857,524	2.30%
10	French, except Basque	728,284	1.95%
11	Salvadoran	655,216	1.75%
12	Vietnamese	602,086	1.61%
13	European	544,363	1.46%
14	Scottish	519,955	1.39%
15	Asian Indian	515,133	1.38%
16	Polish	509,365	1.36%
17	Korean	467,165	1.25%
18	Russian	436,225	1.17%
19	Swedish	435,274	1.17%
20	Dutch	396,794	1.06%
21	Guatemalan	389,082	1.04%
22	Norwegian	383,922	1.03%
23	Portuguese	355,998	0.95%
24	Japanese	278,735	0.75%
25	Armenian	254,696	0.68%
26	Scotch-Irish	247,530	0.66%
27	Iranian	215,372	0.58%
28	Puerto Rican	196,445	0.53%
29	Danish	184,002	0.49%
30	African	183,293	0.49%
31	Welsh	162,550	0.44%
32	British	146,509	0.39%
33	Spaniard	143,927	0.39%
34	Greek	136,493	0.37%
35	Hungarian	132,860	0.36%
36	Swiss	111,798	0.30%
37	Nicaraguan	109,970	0.29%
38	French Canadian	104,962	0.28%
39	Peruvian	100,298	0.27%
40	Ukrainian	99,624	0.27%
41	Cambodian	95,589	0.26%
42	Spanish	95,520	0.26%
43	Cuban	94,334	0.25%
44	Hmong	93,443	0.25%
45	Czech	86,682	0.23%
46	Honduran	86,006	0.23%
47	Canadian	85,113	0.23%
48	Taiwanese	76,361	0.20%
49	Austrian	75,421	0.20%
50	Colombian	69,938	0.19%

Source: US Census Bureau, 2010 American Community Survey

1 year estimates, tables: B02001, B02005, B02006, B02007, B03001, B03002, B04006

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