Virginia Ethnicity

The five largest reported ancestry groups in Virginia are: African (19.6%), German (11.7%), unspecified American (11.4%), English (11.1%), and Irish or Scotch-Irish (9.8%). Most African-American Virginians are descendants of enslaved Africans who worked its tobacco, cotton, and hemp plantations. These men and women were brought from west central Africa, primarily from Angola and Igbo areas of the Niger Delta region. The twentieth century Great Migration of blacks from the rural South to the North reduced Virginia's black population; however, in the past forty years there has been a reverse migration of blacks returning to Virginia and the rest of the South.

The western mountains have many settlements founded by Scotch-Irish immigrants before the Revolution. There are also sizable numbers of people of German descent in the northwestern mountains and Shenandoah Valley. People of English heritage settled throughout the state during the colonial period, and others of British and Irish heritage have migrated there through the decades for work.

Because of more recent immigration in the late 20th century and early 21st century, there are rapidly growing populations of Hispanics, particularly Central Americans, and Asians. As of 2007, 6.3% of Virginians are Hispanic, 5.5% are Asian, and 1.8% are American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. The Hispanic population of the state tripled from 1990 to 2006, with two-thirds of Hispanics living in Northern Virginia. In contrast to Hispanics nationally, those in Virginia have higher median household incomes and educational attainment than the general United States or Virginia population.

Northern Virginia has the largest Vietnamese population on the East Coast, with slightly more than 99,000 Vietnamese residents, whose major wave of immigration followed the Vietnam War. Due to their ties to the U.S. Navy, Hampton Roads has a sizable Filipino population, numbering about 45,000. Virginia also continues to be the home to eight federally recognized Native American tribes, with six other tribes recognized by the state.