Ukrainian Americans (Ukrainian: Українські американці, romanized: Ukrainski amerykantsi) 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.[1] 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;[4] and Indianapolis with 19,000.[5][6] In 2018, the number of Ukrainian Americans surpassed 1 million.[7]
Large-scale Ukrainian immigration to America did not begin until the 1880s.[9] 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.[10] The Ukrainian National Association (Ukrainian: Український народний союз), known before 1914 as the Ruthenian National Union (Ukrainian: Руський Народний Союз) was founded in Shamokin, Pennsylvania on February 22, 1894.
Between 1920 and 1939 about 40,000 more Ukrainians arrived, mostly from Western Ukraine.[11] After World War II, about 85,000 Ukrainian displaced persons emigrated to the United States from Europe.[12]
The largest wave of Ukrainians came in the early 1990s, after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. Some[quantify] 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.[13]
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.[17]
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.
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.[2]
The U.S. states with the largest Ukrainian populations are as follows:
Kuropas, Myron B.; Shust, Maria; Pevna, Chrystyna (1984). To Preserve A Heritage: The Story of the Ukrainian Immigration in the United States. New York: The Ukrainian Museum. 84-050811.
Fedunkiw, Marianne P. "Ukrainian Americans." in Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 4, Gale, 2014), pp. 459–474. online