Ukrainian Americans

Ukrainian Americans (Ukrainian: Українські американці; translit. Ukrayins'ki amerikantsi) are Americans who are of Ukrainian ancestry. According to U.S. census estimates, in 2006 there were 961,113 Americans of Ukrainian descent representing 0.33% of the American population. The Ukrainian population of the United States is thus the second largest outside the former Soviet Union; only Canada has a larger Ukrainian community. According to the 2000 U.S. census, the metropolitan areas with the largest numbers of Ukrainian Americans are: New York City with 160,000; Philadelphia with 60,000; Chicago with 46,000; Los Angeles with 34,000; Detroit with 33,000; Cleveland with 26,000; and Indianapolis with 19,000.

History

The first Ukrainian immigrant to America, Ivan Bohdan, sailed with John Smith to the Jamestown colony in 1607. Bohdan met captain Smith during the time when the latter had fought the Turks, was captured, and escaped captivity by fleeing through Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, and other countries. Large scale Ukrainian immigration to America did not begin, however, until the 1880s.