Lebanese American
| Total population | |
|---|---|
|
504,499 (born) 489,702 (Ancestry) |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Michigan, California, New York, Florida, Ohio, Massachusetts, Texas, Louisiana,Illinois, Pennsylvania, Arizona, New Jersey, Washington | |
| Languages | |
| American English, Arabic, Armenian, French | |
| Religion | |
| Majority: Christianity (Maronite Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Melkite Catholic) Minorities: Muslim (Shia / Sunni), Druze, Protestantism, and Judaism. |
|
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Lebanese people · Syrian Americans · Palestinian Americans · Arab Americans · |
Lebanese Americans (Arabic: أمريكيون لبنانيون) are Americans of Lebanese descent. This includes both those who are native to the United States as well as Lebanese immigrants to America.
Lebanese Americans comprise 0.79% of the American population as of the American Community Survey estimations for year 2007, and 32.4% of all Americans who originate from the Middle East. Lebanese Americans have historically excelled in business, academia, arts and entertainment and have had a significant participation in American politics and social and political activism. Lebanese Americans are one of the most successful groups in the United States, and are part of a diaspora often speaking many languages including French, Arabic, Portuguese, Italian and English, for historical reasons. Lebanese Americans are more religiously diverse than many other ethnic groups, because Lebanon has seen a mingling of many religions including Maronite Catholicism, Greek Orthodoxy, and Sunni and Shia Islam. And there was a diaspora to many different countries around the world. There are more Lebanese outside of Lebanon today than within. Lebanese-Americans have also tended to be more Republican than other immigrant groups.
The first known Lebanese immigrant to the United States was Antonios Bishallany, a Maronite Christian, who arrived in Boston Harbor in 1854. He died in Brooklyn, New York in 1856 on his 29th birthday. Large scale Lebanese immigration began in the late 19th century. They settled mainly in Brooklyn and Boston, Massachusetts. While they were marked as Syrians, the vast majority of them were Christians from Mount Lebanon. Upon entering America, many of them worked as peddlers. This wave continued through the 1920s. During the first wave, an estimated 100,000 Lebanese had immigrated to America. Many immigrants settled in Northern New Jersey, in towns such as Bloomfield, Paterson, Newark, and Orange. Some immigrants set out west, with Detroit, Michigan and Peoria, Illinois, gaining a large number of all Lebanese immigrants. Others bought farms in states such as Texas, South Dakota and Iowa. Large numbers came via the United Kingdom including a large number on the ill-fated liner RMS Titanic.
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