Why is German the largest self-reported ancestry in the United States and not English if the US was a British colony?

Question

Why isn’t it English by far?

In: Other

Answer 1

Recency bias and the fact that the data is self-reported.

People are more likely to know the origin of ancestors who immigrated more recently. An American with German ancestors who arrived in the 1880s and English ancestors who arrived in the 1600s is more likely to know about the German ancestors.

Also the more recent ancestors will typically be less mixed. That German grandmother who immigrated is just German. The other grandmother who isn’t an immigrant is part English, part Scottish, part Dutch, part French…so which one to choose? It’s easier to claim that solid one quarter German than to clam a mish mash of who knows what.