Can you assume that Americans are basically distant cousins of the British?

Question:

Can you assume that Americans are basically distant cousins of the British?

Although Americans have interwened with other ethnics and nationalities much more than Canadians or Australians, are majority of the Americans related to the British?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: You question deserves a qualified yes, even though more Americans list themselves on the 2000 Census as German-American than either English-American (8.7%), Scots-American (1.7%), or Scots-Irish American (1.5%):

------German (15.2%)

------Irish (10.8%*)

------English (8.7%)

------Polish (3.2%)

------French (3.0%)

------Scottish (1.7%)

------Dutch (1.7%)

------Scots-Irish [Protestant Ulster Irish ] (1.5%)

------Swedish (1.4%)

------Russian (0.9%)

------French Canadian (0.8%)

The actual percentage of "British-Americans" is actually a little more complicated, however. First of all, a sizeable number of Caucasians (7.2%) wrote down "American" when asked to reveal their ethnicity--most of whom lived in the American South or in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, or West Virginia: According to the Census Bureau (by way of Wikipedia), "People of American ancestry are generally assumed to be of predominantly English, Scottish, or Welsh stock." Utah and Southeastern Idaho as well as New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, on the other hand, have the largest percentage of self-identifying English-Americans.

Since ethnic categories are reported by citizens themselves, they aren't always that reliable. For example, the Census Bureau (and Wikipedia) also note that "actual estimates of the Scots Irish population by ancestry place it at 15 to 18 percent of the total population."

Of course, by the time the Census Bureau figures everyone whose ancestors came from the British Isles into the equation, excluding those of Irish [Roman-Catholic descent], then conservatively, at least 25 percent of all Americans view themselves as of primarily British ancestry:

15.0% Scots Irish (estimate)
8.7% English
1.7% Scottish
------
25.4% of British origin

African Americans, many of whom have some British ancestry, make up 12.3 percent of the population (African Americans are an estimated 17 percent European). Hispanic-Americans and Asian Americans make up 12.5 and 5 percent of the population, respectively. Native Americans make up 1.0 percent of Americans.

All of whom, speak (some more imperfectly than others), or try to speak, English. In addition to studying American literature in eleventh grade, for example, most high school students end their formal public education with a year's survey of British literature. Along the way, they will also have studied approximately three or four Shakespearean plays. Furthermore, the U. S. Constitution is based on earlier British documents.

Would you believe adopted cousins?

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*A large percentage of those who checked Irish are actually of Scots Irish descent if they live in the American South.