A Ukrainian American is a citizen of the United States with ancestors from Ukraine. There have been Ukrainian people living in North America since the early 1600s. There are about one million Ukrainian Americans and many live in the North East and the West of the United States, in states like New York, Pennsylvania, California, New Jersey, Illinois and Washington.
Numbers
The number of Ukrainians in the United States is 354,832. There are 408,504 people who identify as Ukrainian. Many of them were born in the United States. Only about 20% are actual immigrants. About a third of people of Ukrainian origin speak Ukrainian. Almost 143 thousand (15%) use it in everyday life.
States with the largest number of people using the Ukrainian language in the family (2006—2008):
New York — 22,462
California — 17,350
Washington, DC — 17,175
Illinois — 12,043
Pennsylvania — 10,188
New Jersey — 10,078
Ohio — 9,112
Oregon — 5,261
Florida — 5 141
Michigan — 4,523
Connecticut — 3,190
Massachusetts — 2,963
Georgia — 2,464
North Carolina — 1 996
Wisconsin — 1,771
Maryland — 1,683
Minnesota — 1,674
South Carolina — 1,126
Texas — 1,157
Virginia — 1,056
Colorado — 1,046
Tennessee — 1,046
Famous Ukrainian Americans
Igor Sikorsky (d. 1972), designer of helicopters and airplanes
Joe Schuster (d. 1992), one of the authors of comics about Superman
Anna Politkovskaya (d. 2006), journalist, writer. Nicholas Oresko (d. 2013), war hero Richard Levins (d. 2016), scientist (ecologist) Steve Ditko (d. 2018) comic book writer Jackie Stallone (d. 2020), astrologer Igor Vovkovinskiy (d. 2021), once the tallest living American Dustin Hoffman (b. 1937), actor Bob Dylan (b. 1941) singer-songwriter, poet Barbra Streisand (b. 1942), singer George Dzundza (b. 1945), actor Semion Mogilevich (b. 1946) – alleged criminal Steven Spielberg (b. 1946) movie director, producer, screenwriter Sylvester Stallone (b. 1946) actor, director, screenwriter, producer Steven Tyler (b. 1948), singer in Aerosmith, songwriter David Copperfield (b. 1956), illusionist/magician Michael Bolton (b. 1953), singer and songwriter Sergiy Vilkomir (b. 1956), computer scientist N.Gregory Mankiw (b. 1958), economist David Duchovny (b. 1960), movie actor Wayne Gretzky (b. 1961), US-Canadian ice hockey player Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962), novelist, journalist Michael Smerconish (b. 1962), CNN host Ulana Suprun (b. 1963), former acting Ukrainian Minister of Healthcare Lenny Kravitz (b. 1964), singer, instrumentalist Milla Jovovich (b. 1975), movie actress Jan Koum (1976), founder of WhatsApp Vladimir Kozlov (b. 1979), wrestler Olga Kurylenko (b. 1979), French film actress Mila Kunis (b. 1983), movie actress Kendra Wilkinson (b. 1985), TV personality Chris Zylka (b. 1985), actor Traci Lords – actress born Nora Kuzma; her father was of Ukrainian ancestry Vera Farmiga – actress Taissa Farmiga – actress Erika Eleniak – actress, father is of Ukrainian descent Matt Czuchry – actor Walter Matthau – actor Leonard Nimoy – actor Jack Palance – actor Natalie Wood – actress Ruth Bader Ginsburg – United States Supreme Court Justice Leonard Bernstein – composer and conductor who was one of Hollywoods 10 blacklisted, of Jewish descent Jackie Evancho – classical crossover singer Bill Evans – jazz musician and composer G-Eazy – songwriter-rapper Stan Getz - jazz saxophonist and band leader, popularizer of cool and bossa nova sub-genres Vladimir Horowitz, pianist Melanie Safka – folk singer, performed at Woodstock Nicole Scherzinger – singer, songwriter and television music competition judge; of Ukrainian descent on her mother's side Eliot Engel - New York Congressman Gary Johnson – former Governor of New Mexico Chuck Schumer - senior US senator from New York Victoria Spartz – Indiana State Senator Paul Wellstone – former US Senator from Minnesota Theodosius Dobzhansky – geneticist and evolutionary biologist Milton Friedman – economist George Gamow – astrophysicist; first suggested hydrogen fusion as source of solar energy Simon Ramo – physicist; Russian–Ukrainian Albert Bandura, Canadian-American psychologist