Migration from Central Europe to the US 1820-1957

Today, German is the most common ethnic identity claimed by citizens of the United States. Between 1820 and 1957 over 6.6 million Germans migrated to the United States, particularly in the mid to late 19th century. The amount of migrants from other Central European countries to the US, primarily from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was over 4.4 million between these years. This was mostly due to the weakening economy, political instability and social inequality of Austria-Hungary during this time, before the outbreak of the First World War caused migration from the region to drop from almost 280,000 in 1914, to below 20,000 in 1915. Approximately 440,000 Polish people were documented as having arrived in the US between 1820 and 1957, however this is much lower than the actual number of ethnic Poles who migrated in this time period, as Poland did not have officially recognized borders until 1918 and its citizens were often recorded with other nationalities.