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People
of Italian heritage identify more strongly with their roots than
any other group of European ancestry, according to the U.S. Census
Bureau. They also are the only European group whose number increased
in the ten years since the 1990 census. The Bureau revealed that
the number of people claiming Italian heritage rose seven percent
since 1990 while those claiming German, Irish, English and Polish
descent dropped nearly 19 percent collectively. In the 2000 census,
15.7 million people reported they were of Italian descent compared
to 14.7 million in 1990. The number of people who claim descent
from other European nations, however, dropped from 128 million in
1990 to 108 million. Italian Americans constitute the fourth largest
European ancestry group in American after the Germans (43 million),
Irish (31 million), and English (25 million).
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