Total population | |
---|---|
(2,102,160 (2014 US Community Survey) |
|
Regions with significant populations | |
Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Houston, Dallas, New York City, Long Island, Greater Boston, Miami, Northern Virginia, Chicago, Atlanta, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Northwest Arkansas, | |
Languages | |
Lencan languages, Mayan languages, Pipil, Cacaopera, Spanish, English | |
Religion | |
Christianity (mostly Catholic, significantly Protestant) |
(2,102,160 (2014 US Community Survey)
0.64% of the U.S. population (2014) 12.14% of the U.S. population (2014)
Salvadoran Americans (Spanish: salvadoreño-americanos, norteamericanos de origen salvadoreño or estadounidenses de origen salvadoreño) are Americans of full or partial Salvadoran descent. As of 2010, there are 1,648,968 Salvadoran Americans in the United States, the fourth-largest Hispanic community by nation of ancestry. Recent estimates put the Salvadoran population as high as 2 million, as of 2013. Salvadorans are the largest group of Central Americans of the Central American Isthmus community in the U.S. Among the Hispanic groups, Salvadorans are also the largest group of Spanish speakers in the United States who use voseo.
Salvadoran is the accepted and used term for naming people of Salvadoran ancestry. However both Salvadorian and Salvadorean are equally the most widely used terms in daily life by English speaking Salvadoran citizens living in the U.S and other English speaking countries. Salvadorian and Salvadorean in their respectable spelling and pronunciation can be seen in most restaurant and other El Salvador related signs in the U.S and else where in the world. This is because the sounds "ia" and "ea", in Salvadorian and Salvadorean sound more closely to the "ñ" sound in the Spanish term Salvadoreño.
The first Salvadorians that came to the United States before the war began arrived mostly to San Francisco, where they worked as shipyard employees in the early twentieth century. These were mostly working class Salvadorans, as Salvadorans from the middle and upper classes came to the U.S. for education or residence in the early 1900s, usually in the East Coast. Salvadorans that came during this period were mostly economic migrants, as El Salvador was affected by economic turmoil during the Great Depression and slow growth after World War II ended. In the 1960s and early 1970s, most of the immigrants were women; and found work being housekeepers or in childcare.
Documented Salvadorans in the United States 1930-1970