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.

Fewer immigrants are Anglicizing their names

Common practice in the 19th and 20th centuries was for immigrants arriving in America to Anglicize their names. The idea was that immigrants would change their original name to a more Anglicized version to facilitate assimilation into American culture. For example, the German "Schmidt" morphed into the Anglo "Smith". In other cases, changes occurred when immigration agents shortened or transliterated names from foreign alphabets, notably from Cyrillic and Greek.

This is no more the case. Fewer than one in six immigrants applied to change their names on naturalization forms according to the US government. There's even less Anglicizing of stage names in Hollywood. The Swiss surname of Renée Zellweger and the Armenian surname of the Kardashian sisters have served their careers well. Compare that to a generation ago when these actresses might have been encouraged to give up their family names for something more Anglo.

It shows an America that's increasingly tolerant. One that does not expect people to sever ties with their ethnicity in exchange for for success. You could even say that embracing one's heritage makes a person's narrative more compelling, compared to those who downplay their heritage in an attempt to fit in.

Russian Radio in New York

Corporate take overs and consolidations have made the New York radio dial pretty dull in the last few years. That's why it's so refreshing to find Danu Radio.

Formerly known as "Radio Pozitiv", Danu Radio is a Russian language radio station broadcasting out of Brooklyn that air music and talk shows.  While the music is Russian language, there's an international sensibility to programs like the dance music show that transcends any language barriers.

The talk shows function as an important outlet for the Russian immigrant community.

Programs include a morning show, listener call in programs like Почти дома, an Armenian language program titled Армянское Радио, and a talk show featuring Seva Kaplan, known as the founding father of Russian radio in the US. Danu Radio's website compares Kaplan to the outspokenness of shock jock Howard Stern, although that description is hard to validate as there are so few Russian speaking Howard Stern fans available to judge.