Ukrainian Americans are Americans who are of Ukrainian ancestry. According to U.S. census estimates, in 2021 there were 1,017,586 Americans of Ukrainian descent representing 0.3% of the American population. The Ukrainian population of the United States is thus the second largest outside the former Eastern Bloc; only Canada has a larger Ukrainian community under this definition. According to the 2000 U.S. census, the metropolitan areas with the largest numbers of Ukrainian Americans are: New York City with 160,000; Philadelphia with 60,000; Chicago with 46,000; Detroit with 45,000; Los Angeles with 36,000; Cleveland with 26,000; Sacramento with 20,000; and Indianapolis with 19,000. In 2018, the number of Ukrainian Americans surpassed 1 million.

History

Large-scale Ukrainian immigration to America did not begin until the 1880s. In 1870-1914 the majority of Ukrainian immigrants came from Austro-Hungary (Galicia and other regions). They were described as Ruthenians, Rusyns, or “Russniaks.” Many arrived in New York City and Pennsylvania. In 1899 estimates of the number of Ukrainians in the USA ranged from 200,000 to 500,000. The Ukrainian National Association, known before 1914 as the Ruthenian National Union was founded in Shamokin, Pennsylvania on February 22, 1894. Between 1920 and 1939 about 40,000 more Ukrainians arrived, mostly from Western Ukraine. After World War II, about 85,000 Ukrainian displaced persons emigrated to the United States from Europe. From 1955 to 1965, St. Andrew Memorial Church in South Bound Brook, New Jersey, was constructed as a memorial honoring victims of the Holodomor of 1932–1933. The largest wave of Ukrainians came in the early 1990s, after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. Some of those emigrating from Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union were Jewish or Protestant. Many Ukrainians of the newest immigration wave settled in large cities and regional centers, forming ethnic enclaves. In addition, many Ukrainian Americans arrived by way of Canada, which has a larger Ukrainian presence. On September 11, 2001, 11 Ukrainian Americans perished at the World Trade Center in New York City during the acts of mass terrorism committed on that day. All of their names were listed and commemorated by Ukrinform, the National News Agency of Ukraine, during the nineteenth anniversary of the attacks in 2020. Ukrainian Americans living in Northern New Jersey and the remainder of the Northeastern United States have long been politically vocal about Ukrainian affairs, often traveling to Washington, D.C., to express their concerns. In Bloomingdale (near Chicago) on September 21, 2015, Filaret, the Ukrainian Orthodox Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus'-Ukraine, consecrated the first North American monument to the Revolution of Dignity's "Heavenly Hundred". In February 2022, the Pastor Right Reverend Mitred Archpriest Philip Weiner, the leader of St. Josaphat's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Rochester, New York, said that there were more than 40,000 Ukrainians in the Rochester Metropolitan Area, which would make it one of the largest Ukrainian American communities in the country. There are a large number of Ukrainian Protestants in the Sacramento metropolitan area who have organized support to those affected by the invasion of Ukraine through their local congregations. It is estimated that during 2022-2023, around 300,000 Ukrainians have sought asylum in the United States through various means, making the U.S. the fifth-largest destination for refugees of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and also making Ukrainians one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the United States that don't originate from the American continent.

Demographics

As of the 2000 U.S. Census, there were 892,922 Americans of full or partial Ukrainian descent. The New York City Metropolitan Area contains by far the largest Ukrainian community in the United States, due to historically receiving the highest number of Ukrainian immigrants. The U.S. states with the largest Ukrainian populations are as follows: The total number of people born in Ukraine is more than 275,155 residents.

Ukrainian-born population

Ukrainian-born population in the U.S. since 2010:

U.S. communities with high percentages of people of Ukrainian ancestry

The top 20 U.S. communities with the highest percentage of people claiming Ukrainian ancestry are:

U.S. communities with the highest percentage of residents born in Ukraine

Top 20 U.S. communities with the highest percentage of residents born in Ukraine are:

Notable people

Sources