This vintage world map shows the wide dispersion of 100 million Germans around the world. Of course most, 83 million, lived in Germany…at that time a much larger country than the Germany of today… but the remaining 17 million were widely spread out all over the globe… in the U.S. (9 million), Brazil (620,000), Canada (300,000), Asia (150,000), Argentina (130,000), Australia (50,0000), Chile (27,000)….and spread around in Asia (150,000) and in Africa (70,000).
Items of note:
9 % of all Germans worldwide lived in the United States…on the map each dot represents 10,000 people.
The second largest group of Germans outside of Europe lived in Brazil.
In Europe many Germans lived outside the borders of their home country, widely dispersed…as far as the Volga River in Russia.
Also, this map reminds us that before WWI, Germany had colonies and the map clearly shows where these colonies were located and how many Germans remained living in southern Africa.
Keep in mind that this 1930 map is pre-WWII…after the war 17 million Germans were forced to resettle in the new smaller Germany and many of those gradually scattered around the globe, adding to the expatriate numbers on this map.
An update from the year 2000 US census:
German Americans now number about 50 million people, making them the largest self-reported ancestry group in the US…more than English Americans (26 million), more than Irish Americans (33 million), and more than African Americans (42 million).
Distribution of German Americans according to the 2000 Census… California, Texas and Pennsylvania have the largest numbers of people with German heritage…Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota have the highest proportion of German Americans, more than one-third of all residents are of German heritage.
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