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Middle Eastern Population in United States
Middle Eastern Americans are Americans of Middle Eastern background. This includes people whose background is from the various Middle Eastern and West Asian ethnic groups, such as the Kurds and Assyrians, as well as immigrants from modern-day countries of the Arab world, Iran, Israel, Turkey, and sometimes Armenia.
The Middle East is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Syria, and Iraq. The modern definition of “Asian American” now excludes people with West Asian backgrounds. Middle Eastern Americans are the sub-group of White* people as The U.S. Census Bureau.
As per US Census 2020, an estimated 3 million Middle Eastern origin resided in the United States.
also read about Arab Population in the United States
*The US census defines “White” people to be those “having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
Middle Eastern Population by Nation of Origin
The population of Middle Eastern Americans includes both Arabs and non-Arabs. In their definitions of Middle Eastern Americans, the United States Census Bureau, and the National Health Interview Survey include people from present-day Iran, Israel, Turkey, and Armenia.
The largest subgroup is by far the Lebanese Americans, with 508,210, followed by Iranian Americans with 476,242, and Armenian Americans with 460,254.
Let’s have a look at Middle Eastern Americans by Origin
| # | Nation of Origin | Ethnicity | Pop. 2020 |
| 1 | Lebanese | Arab | 508,210 |
| 2 | Iranian | Non Arab | 476,242 |
| 3 | Armenian | Non Arab | 460,254 |
| 4 | Arabs | Arab | 264,230 |
| 5 | Turkish | Non Arab | 223,260 |
| 6 | Syrian | Arab | 185,008 |
| 7 | Iraqi | Arab | 153,964 |
| 8 | Israeli | Non Arab | 144,860 |
| 9 | Palestinian | Arab | 137,434 |
| 10 | Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac | Non Arab | 100,649 |
also read about the White Americans in the United States
Top U.S states by the Middle East population
Middle Eastern and North African immigrants have primarily settled in California (20%), Michigan (11%), and New York (10%).
As per the United States Census Bureau, the four counties with the most MENA immigrants were Los Angeles County, California; Wayne County, Michigan (Detroit), Cook County, Illinois (Chicago), and Kings County, New York (Brooklyn); these four counties collectively “accounted for about 19 percent of the total MENA immigrant population in the United States.”
also read about North Africans in the United States
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