The report released today is based on Census 2000. More recent information on ancestry for selected geographies is available from the 2002 American Community Survey (ACS) tabulations at <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/>.

     The report, Ancestry: 2000, [PDF] includes ancestry data for groups with 100,000 or more people at the national level, as well as changes since 1990. In addition to national-level results, the report lists the five largest ancestries at the regional and state levels and the single largest ancestry in the 10 largest U.S. cities. A thematic map provides a representation of the largest ancestry groups across all counties.

     The data contained in the report are based on responses from a sample of households who received the census long form. Nationally, about 1-in-6 households were included in the sample in Census 2000. The data are subject to sampling and nonsampling errors.

     The Census Bureau cautions the public not to confuse these Census 2000 sample estimates with estimates from the ACS. At times, estimates from these sources may differ because of different program goals, survey concepts, data processing and estimation methods. For further information, see <http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/sf3.pdf> for Census 2000 sample data and <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/> for ACS data.

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