Albanian Americans

Albanian Americans (Albanian: shqiptaro-amerikanët) are Americans of full or partial Albanian ancestry and heritage in the United States. They trace their ancestry to the territories with a large Albanian population in the Balkans and southern Europe, including Albania, Italy, Serbia, North Macedonia and Montenegro. They are adherents of different religions and are predominantly Muslims and Christians, while some are irreligious.

In 2024, there were 224,000 counted people of Albanian descent living in the United States, mostly in the Northeast and the Great Lakes region. This is a major increase since 1990, when there were only 47,710 Albanians in the U.S. The figure includes all people affiliated with the United States who claim Albanian ancestry, both those born in the country and naturalized citizens, as well as those with dual citizenship who affiliate themselves with both cultures.

People of Albanian descent are often concentrated in the Greater Philadelphia, Greater Boston, Metro Detroit, Chicagoland, New York City, and Waterbury, Connecticut areas. About three-quarters of the Albanian American population lives in the aforementioned Eastern U.S. states (52,000 in New York State, 30,000 in Michigan, 21,000 in Massachusetts, 16,000 in Florida, 15,000 in Illinois, 15,000 in New Jersey, and 12,000 in Connecticut).

There are also smaller, yet sizable communities within the Midwest such as Greater Cleveland, and Kenosha and Milwaukee, and as well as smaller East Coast communities like that of in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area that encompasses Northern Virginia and Maryland. Tampa and Jacksonville, Florida also have sizeable Albanian communities. West of the Mississippi River, there are smaller ethnic Albanian communities in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Phoenix, and San Diego areas.