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List of Italian-American neighborhoods

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Italian-Americans in the United States can be found in large numbers and densities in states such as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Michigan, Florida, California, Illinois, and Massachusetts. An estimate of 20 million Americans are of Italian or Sicilian descent. New York City has by far the most Italian-Americans in one area though and is still a common destination for Italians coming over to start a new life in America.

There are also communities of Italian Americans in most major industrial cities of early 20th c. US, such as Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts the "North End"; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Providence, Rhode Island; St. Louis, Missouri; Chicago, IL; Cleveland, OH; Buffalo, NY; and Kansas City, Missouri. New Orleans, Louisiana was the first site of immigration of Italians and Sicilians into America in the 19th c., before Italy was a unified nation-state. This was before New York Harbor and Baltimore became the preferred destinations for Italian immigrants.

In sharp contrast to the Northeast, most of the Southern US states (exceptions being the Atlantic coast of Florida, New Orleans, and a fast-growing community in Atlanta) have very few Italian Americans residents. During the labor shortage in the 19th-early 20th centuries, planters in the Deep South did attract some Italian immigrants to work as sharecroppers, but they soon left the extreme anti-Italian discrimination and strict regimen of the plantations for towns or other states. Because of concerns about peonage and anti-Italian lynching, the Italian embassy warned Italian emigrants away from the American South.

In Kansas City, Missouri, the areas known as "North of the River" (and the former areas of "The North End" and "Northeast Kansas City") have flourished with Italian American families, mostly of Sicilian heritage, from 1st to 3rd generation.

New Italian immigrants have been entering California, specifically Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Long Beach, and Fresno but the state has Italian-American residents since the 1850s.

Since the 1950s, like many Americans, Italian Americans have moved to the cheaper, slower paced and rapidly growing Western US. They include Arizona, Colorado, Nevada (esp. Las Vegas), Oregon, Texas (mostly in Houston and Dallas areas) and Washington (esp. Seattle).

Most Italian-American organizations and demographic experts say that they leave to escape the high real estate prices, cold weather and traffic, among other reasons, in the congested Northeast and East Coast in general.

States with the highest number of Italian American communities are New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.

Alabama

Daphne, Alabama Prior to the 1978 annexation of the Lake Forest subdivision, Daphne was a heavily Italian community, and pre-1978 Daphne territory remains Italian, with street names such as Guarisco. The Archdiocese of Mobile considers Christ the King Parish in Daphne as an Italian-American parish

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Southern California

Northern California

Colorado

  • Denver in "Little Italy" in the Cherry Creek section

Connecticut

District of Columbia

Delaware

Florida

Mostly South Florida and the Tampa Bay Area, but also significant populations in Central Florida and the Florida Keys:

Georgia

Illinois

Indiana

Louisiana

Massachusetts

Maryland

Michigan

Minnesota

Missouri

Nevada

New Jersey

New Jersey municipalities with over 25% of the population identifying themselves as of Italian ancestry (in those municipalities where at least 1,000 residents identified their ancestry):[1]

Other places in New Jersey

New York

New York State has the largest population of Italian Americans with 3.1 million people claiming Italian ancestry. The majority of Italian Americans in New York City originated from southern parts of the country, but includes other regions. In the peak of Italian immigration (1910's), NY City and Chicago according to the 1920 census each had 28 neighborhoods and census tracts over 50% being of Italian descent.

New York City

Long Island

Upstate New York

Ohio

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

19% of Rhode Island residents are Italian American, the greatest percentage of any state. 199,180 of Rhode Island's population of 1,048,319 claim Italian ancestry.

Texas

Utah

Washington

West Virginia

Approximately 11% of the combined population of "Mountaineer Country", collectively the north central West Virginia Cities of Clarksburg, Fairmont and Morgantown claim Italian ancestry, mostly from Italian immigrants recruited to work in mining and glass manufacturing. [1]

References

  1. ^ Italian Communities, accessed November 11, 2006
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