Florida's Largest Ethnic Groups

Florida's population is the 4th largest among American states. It's proximity to the Caribbean makes it a popular entry point for West Indian and Latin American immigrants. The warm climate has also made it popular with northern retirees, as seen in the large population of ethnic whites. 

German is the state's largest ethnic group, comprising 11% of the population. Also noteworthy is the large Cuban population, over 1.2 million persons. Florida is the only US state to share a border with Cuba, and immigrants arrive by plane, boat, and even sometimes by raft. The United States has a "wet foot, dry foot" policy for Cuban refugees. Those intercepted by border patrol at sea will be sent back to Cuba unless they can prove doing so would put them at risk of persecution. Those who make it to American soil are put on a fast track to American residency.

Rank	Ethnicity	2010 Florida Population	As a Percent of Total Florida Population
	Total Population	18,843,326	100.00%
1	German	2,091,629	11.10%
2	African-American*	1,937,394	10.28%
3	Irish	1,897,126	10.07%
4	English	1,502,085	7.97%
5	American	1,370,984	7.28%
6	Cuban	1,264,799	6.71%
7	Italian	1,203,737	6.39%
8	Puerto Rican	864,577	4.59%
9	Mexican	617,426	3.28%
10	Polish	489,371	2.60%
11	French, except Basque	469,932	2.49%
12	Haitian	424,101	2.25%
13	Colombian	325,080	1.73%
14	Scottish	296,667	1.57%
15	Jamaican	246,478	1.31%
16	Russian	232,336	1.23%
17	European	226,912	1.20%
18	Dutch	215,923	1.15%
19	Dominican (Dominican Republic)	174,276	0.92%
20	Scotch-Irish	170,880	0.91%
21	Swedish	149,578	0.79%
22	Nicaraguan	147,196	0.78%
23	Honduran	127,497	0.68%
24	Asian Indian	124,926	0.66%
25	Norwegian	122,521	0.65%
26	African	116,946	0.62%
27	Venezuelan	114,939	0.61%
28	Hungarian	111,264	0.59%
29	French Canadian	110,722	0.59%
30	Peruvian	103,593	0.55%
31	Guatemalan	91,648	0.49%
32	Welsh	91,341	0.48%
33	Greek	90,280	0.48%
34	British	90,277	0.48%
35	Filipino	82,287	0.44%
36	Portuguese	77,109	0.41%
37	Chinese, except Taiwanese	70,216	0.37%
38	Canadian	68,961	0.37%
39	Vietnamese	67,256	0.36%
40	Brazilian	67,195	0.36%
41	Ecuadorian	67,000	0.36%
42	Czech	58,261	0.31%
43	Salvadoran	53,865	0.29%
44	Argentinean	52,967	0.28%
45	West Indian	51,953	0.28%
46	Spaniard	51,541	0.27%
47	Austrian	50,138	0.27%
48	Ukrainian	42,778	0.23%
49	Danish	42,144	0.22%
50	Lithuanian	40,113	0.21%

Source: US Census Bureau, 2010 American Community Survey

1 year estimates, tables: B02001, C02005, B02006, C02007, B03001, B03002, B04006

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