Illinois' Largest Ethnic Groups

Chicago's status as an industrial powerhouse and a transportation hub in the 1800's made it a magnet for immigrants. This shows in the diversity of ethnic backgrounds in Illinois. German-Americans are the state's largest ethnic group, the background of almost 1 in 5 residents.

Rank	Ethnicity	2010 Illinois Population	As a Percent of Total Illinois Population
	Total Population	12,843,166	100.00%
1	German	2,509,602	19.54%
2	African-American*	1,746,922	13.60%
3	Mexican	1,620,432	12.62%
4	Irish	1,598,702	12.45%
5	Polish	970,053	7.55%
6	Italian	794,985	6.19%
7	English	786,693	6.13%
8	American	613,029	4.77%
9	Swedish	281,076	2.19%
10	French, except Basque	244,045	1.90%
11	Puerto Rican	194,096	1.51%
12	Dutch	190,070	1.48%
13	Asian Indian	186,955	1.46%
14	Norwegian	165,590	1.29%
15	Scottish	142,872	1.11%
16	Czech	133,127	1.04%
17	European	130,534	1.02%
18	Russian	126,227	0.98%
19	Filipino	114,593	0.89%
20	Chinese, except Taiwanese	106,341	0.83%
21	Greek	94,513	0.74%
22	Lithuanian	89,014	0.69%
23	Scotch-Irish	79,490	0.62%
24	Korean	58,160	0.45%
25	Hungarian	50,230	0.39%
26	Ukrainian	49,755	0.39%
27	Danish	46,584	0.36%
28	Welsh	45,902	0.36%
29	Croatian	43,323	0.34%
30	Austrian	39,060	0.30%
31	Slovak	38,999	0.30%
32	African	38,755	0.30%
33	Guatemalan	36,524	0.28%
34	Swiss	35,939	0.28%
35	Belgian	35,483	0.28%
36	French Canadian	35,286	0.27%
37	British	33,086	0.26%
38	Vietnamese	29,763	0.23%
39	Pakistani	29,030	0.23%
40	Romanian	28,373	0.22%
41	Arab	26,199	0.20%
42	Cuban	25,321	0.20%
43	Ecuadorian	24,693	0.19%
44	Colombian	24,060	0.19%
45	Eastern European	21,341	0.17%
46	Serbian	20,878	0.16%
47	Yugoslavian	20,237	0.16%
48	Japanese	18,271	0.14%
49	Bulgarian	16,955	0.13%
50	Czechoslovakian	16,890	0.13%

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.