Turks in the USA: Census Counts, States and Consulates

Table of Contents

Two photographs side by side: a glass skyscraper in Manhattan with a red Turkish flag hanging down its side and the Chrysler Building behind it, and a pale wall with a red crescent and star above a glass plate that reads TÜRKEVİ TURKISH HOUSE — Photos, Wikimedia Commons: left, «Turkish House and Chrysler Building» by joiseyshowaa, 20.09.2021, CC BY-SA 2.0, file page; right, «Turkish House November 2024» by Kidfly182, 29.11.2024, CC BY 4.0, file page. Cropped and combined here, shared under CC BY-SA 2.0. The sign reads «Türkevi, Turkish House».

The American Community Survey, the U.S. Census Bureau’s yearly sample survey, estimated that 255,247 (± 8,821) people reported Turkish ancestry and that 158,315 (± 6,078) people living in the USA were born in Türkiye, with the answers of 2020 to 2024 pooled. The figure after ± is the margin of error, which the Census Bureau prints at a 90 percent confidence level. The two counts answer different questions. Below: the counts state by state, the census dates since 1850, and the addresses of the Turkish embassy and consulates general.

In short · checked 31.10.2026

Two counts, two questions.

255,247 reported Turkish ancestry (± 8,821) in the American Community Survey 5-year estimates for 2020–2024 (table B04006). The 2025 1-year estimate is 253,499 (± 15,539).
158,315 were born in Türkiye (± 6,078) in the same survey (table B05006). The 2025 1-year estimate is 177,202 (± 13,125).
New York, California and New Jersey have the largest ancestry estimates: 35,881 (± 3,100), 32,687 (± 3,085) and 26,134 (± 2,677).
Türkiye has an embassy in Washington, D.C., six consulates general (New York, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami) and a Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.

Tool · American Community Survey 5-year, 2020–2024 · checked 31.10.2026

Where in the USA?

One patch for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The thicker the stitching, the larger the estimate the Census Bureau printed. Press a patch for its figure and margin of error, switch between the two counts, and copy a line to quote.

plain cloth: margin as large as the estimate
under 200
200 to 999
1,000 to 4,999
5,000 to 19,999
20,000 and more

Under the quilt runs one thread with a knot for each 1-year survey from 2021 to 2025 and a gold knot for the 5-year figure. Press a knot for the national estimate of that survey. Each 1-year knot is a separate one-year sample; read two knots with their margins in view.

2021 230,997 ± 14,513
2022 239,667 ± 12,615
2023 252,256 ± 13,412
2024 286,379 ± 16,591
2025 253,499 ± 15,539
5-year 255,247 ± 8,821

American Community Survey 5-year, 2020–2024, tables B04006 and B05006, U.S. Census Bureau, checked 31.10.2026. The shares are worked out from the printed estimates.
State	Reported Turkish ancestry	Margin (±)	Share	Born in Türkiye	Margin (±)	Share
Alabama	1,487	492	0.58 %	687	294	0.43 %
Alaska	204	170	0.08 %	54	55	0.03 %
Arizona	3,576	802	1.4 %	1,633	432	1.0 %
Arkansas	327	167	0.13 %	213	112	0.13 %
California	32,687	3,085	12.8 %	23,716	2,076	15.0 %
Colorado	2,856	537	1.1 %	1,387	369	0.88 %
Connecticut	4,394	1,091	1.7 %	2,128	426	1.3 %
Delaware	1,977	623	0.77 %	1,123	428	0.71 %
District of Columbia	1,445	360	0.57 %	522	197	0.33 %
Florida	19,345	2,156	7.6 %	12,269	1,662	7.7 %
Georgia	7,382	1,293	2.9 %	4,481	1,047	2.8 %
Hawaii	286	145	0.11 %	238	154	0.15 %
Idaho	737	523	0.29 %	110	112	0.07 %
Illinois	8,814	1,129	3.5 %	5,061	701	3.2 %
Indiana	1,707	456	0.67 %	900	356	0.57 %
Iowa	542	177	0.21 %	415	176	0.26 %
Kansas	710	204	0.28 %	448	157	0.28 %
Kentucky	1,129	315	0.44 %	369	165	0.23 %
Louisiana	1,429	390	0.56 %	736	266	0.46 %
Maine	422	178	0.17 %	85	53	0.05 %
Maryland	7,359	1,159	2.9 %	4,290	732	2.7 %
Massachusetts	8,745	1,114	3.4 %	5,617	687	3.5 %
Michigan	3,198	694	1.3 %	1,709	401	1.1 %
Minnesota	1,969	386	0.77 %	1,127	365	0.71 %
Mississippi	217	134	0.09 %	117	87	0.07 %
Missouri	2,481	558	0.97 %	1,298	342	0.82 %
Montana	309	144	0.12 %	213	114	0.13 %
Nebraska	450	203	0.18 %	219	134	0.14 %
Nevada	1,583	406	0.62 %	800	282	0.51 %
New Hampshire	894	321	0.35 %	548	235	0.35 %
New Jersey	26,134	2,677	10.2 %	17,655	1,789	11.2 %
New Mexico	583	220	0.23 %	376	143	0.24 %
New York	35,881	3,100	14.1 %	22,443	1,978	14.2 %
North Carolina	5,478	906	2.1 %	2,841	686	1.8 %
North Dakota	98	101	0.04 %	84	102	0.05 %
Ohio	6,024	1,103	2.4 %	2,896	658	1.8 %
Oklahoma	1,064	319	0.42 %	533	208	0.34 %
Oregon	2,275	586	0.89 %	1,202	423	0.76 %
Pennsylvania	9,607	1,300	3.8 %	5,438	877	3.4 %
Rhode Island	773	330	0.30 %	872	382	0.55 %
South Carolina	2,069	616	0.81 %	903	363	0.57 %
South Dakota	135	93	0.05 %	28	25	0.02 %
Tennessee	1,454	360	0.57 %	899	250	0.57 %
Texas	19,561	1,942	7.7 %	15,513	2,023	9.8 %
Utah	915	339	0.36 %	529	288	0.33 %
Vermont	281	169	0.11 %	233	233	0.15 %
Virginia	12,272	1,542	4.8 %	8,717	1,187	5.5 %
Washington	9,488	2,265	3.7 %	3,481	691	2.2 %
West Virginia	329	167	0.13 %	117	94	0.07 %
Wisconsin	2,080	547	0.81 %	976	360	0.62 %
Wyoming	85	68	0.03 %	66	66	0.04 %
United States	255,247	8,821	100 %	158,315	6,078	100 %

The five size classes are this page’s own, not the Census Bureau’s. Nothing you press is stored or sent.

Two counts: two questions

The American Community Survey asks about ancestry and about place of birth in separate questions, so one survey gives two counts of the same community. A 1-year estimate pools 12 months of answers and exists only for areas of 65,000 people or more. A 5-year estimate pools 60 months for every area, which is why the quilt uses it (Census Bureau, “Using 1-Year or 5-Year American Community Survey Data”).

U.S. Census Bureau · American Community Survey 5-year, 2020–2024 · checked 31.10.2026

255,247 reported Turkish ancestry.

The margin of error is ± 8,821 (table B04006, line “Turkish”).

158,315 people living in the USA were born in Türkiye, ± 6,078 (table B05006, line “Turkey”). The 2025 1-year survey gives 253,499 (± 15,539) and 177,202 (± 13,125).

Each margin of error is printed at a 90 percent confidence level (ACS General Handbook, chapter 7).

Ancestry

The question is “What is your ancestry or ethnic origin?”

What the count holds

The survey leaves two write-in lines, and the Census Bureau codes up to two answers per person (the first two, if more are given). “People Reporting Ancestry” counts everyone who reported an ancestry, whether the only one or one of several.

Place of birth

The count asks where a person was born.

What the count holds

The Census Bureau calls people foreign-born if they were not U.S. citizens at birth: naturalized citizens, permanent residents, temporary migrants such as students, humanitarian migrants and “unauthorized migrants”, the Bureau’s own term. It collects data from all foreign-born who take part, regardless of legal status.

Generation

The first generation is foreign-born. What of the next?

What the Census Bureau says

The second generation has at least one foreign-born parent; the third generation and higher have two native-born parents. The native-born are citizens at birth, including people born abroad to a citizen parent.

What each count leaves out

A child born in the USA to a parent born in Türkiye is native-born, so the child is not in the place-of-birth count; whether the child is in the ancestry count depends on what is written down. A person born in another country is counted under that country, whatever their origin. Ancestry is what a person writes in the survey, not a record kept by an office.

U.S. Census Bureau, FAQ About Ancestry and FAQ About Foreign-Born · checked 31.10.2026 · ancestry · foreign-born

A modern office building with a tall blue glass front on the left, a long glass wing behind it and a pierced metal screen along its lower floors, under a clear blue sky — Photo: U.S. Census Bureau, March 2007, public domain as a work of the U.S. federal government, Wikimedia Commons, file page. Partial view of the Census Bureau’s headquarters building in Suitland, Maryland, cropped.

Where: the states

The quilt shows the 5-year estimate for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the federal district that holds the capital. The five largest ancestry estimates together make up 52.3 % of the 255,247 (worked out from the printed figures).

New York: 35,881 (± 3,100) reported Turkish ancestry, 14.1 % of the national estimate · 22,443 (± 1,978) born in Türkiye
California: 32,687 (± 3,085) reported Turkish ancestry, 12.8 % of the national estimate · 23,716 (± 2,076) born in Türkiye
New Jersey: 26,134 (± 2,677) reported Turkish ancestry, 10.2 % of the national estimate · 17,655 (± 1,789) born in Türkiye
Texas: 19,561 (± 1,942) reported Turkish ancestry, 7.7 % of the national estimate · 15,513 (± 2,023) born in Türkiye
Florida: 19,345 (± 2,156) reported Turkish ancestry, 7.6 % of the national estimate · 12,269 (± 1,662) born in Türkiye
Virginia: 12,272 (± 1,542) reported Turkish ancestry, 4.8 % of the national estimate · 8,717 (± 1,187) born in Türkiye

Read the order loosely: the margins of New York (± 3,100) and California (± 3,085) overlap, so the two estimates are within each other’s margins. The born-in-Türkiye estimate is largest in California, 23,716 (± 2,076), followed by New York, 22,443 (± 1,978).

A margin as large as the estimate

Every state has a printed estimate, but a few have a margin of error as large as the estimate itself. For ancestry that is North Dakota, 98 (± 101). For place of birth it is Idaho (110 ± 112), North Dakota (84 ± 102), Vermont (233 ± 233), Wyoming (66 ± 66) and Alaska (54 ± 55). The quilt leaves those patches as plain cloth.

American Community Survey 5-year, 2020–2024, tables B04006 and B05006 · checked 31.10.2026 · files in the Census Bureau’s summary-file folder

Since when: dated counts

A census is a count of the whole population, taken every ten years. The Census Bureau’s Working Paper 81 (Gibson and Jung, 2006) gathers its tables on the foreign-born from 1850 to 2000. Its tables list people by the place where they said they were born. The 1960 to 2000 figures are sample data, and the table for 1850 to 1930 has one row for “Turkey in Europe” and one for “Turkey in Asia”.

1850106 people born in “Turkey in Europe”. The table gives no figure for “Turkey in Asia” before 1910.
1870302 in “Turkey in Europe”.
18901,839 in “Turkey in Europe”.
19009,910 in “Turkey in Europe”.
191032,230 in “Turkey in Europe” and 59,729 in “Turkey in Asia”: 91,959 with the two rows added (worked out).
19205,284 and 11,019: 16,303 with the two rows added (worked out).
19302,257 and 46,654: 48,911 with the two rows added (worked out).
196052,228 born in “Turkey” (the table’s row; sample data); from here the table has one row, “Turkey”.
198051,915 born in “Turkey” (the table’s row; sample data).
200078,378 born in “Turkey” (the table’s row; sample data), out of 31,107,889 foreign-born people in the whole country.
2020–2024158,315 born in Türkiye (± 6,078), American Community Survey 5-year, table B05006.

Black-and-white photograph of the long front of a large brick building with two towers and a pale decorated roofline, seen from a paved terrace — Photo: Edwin Levick, between 1902 and 1913 (file date «1902/1913»), University of Colorado Boulder Libraries via the Digital Public Library of America and Wikimedia Commons; marked «No Copyright – United States» by the holding library, file page. The immigration station on Ellis Island. The National Park Service describes Ellis Island as an immigration station and hospital from 1892 to 1954.

What a place-of-birth row records

Working Paper 81 says that data on country of birth “are based generally on the political boundaries of foreign countries existing at the date of the specified decennial census”. The tables say “country or area of birth” because the areas of birth listed “have not always reflected the United States’ diplomatic relations at the date of each census”. A row records where people said they were born, under the boundaries of that census year.

U.S. Census Bureau, Working Paper 81 (internet release 02.02.2006), text for Tables 3 and 4 · checked 31.10.2026 · paper · Table 3 · Table 4

One city’s own record: the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History of Case Western Reserve University lists the census counts of people born in “Turkey” who lived in Cleveland: 2 in 1870, 41 in 1900, 748 in 1910, 661 in 1920 and 468 in 1930. It notes that the federal census does not record ethnicity, and estimates that 80.5 percent of the early Turks in the USA went back, one of the highest return rates of all immigrant groups. Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, “Turks in Cleveland”, checked 31.10.2026.

Dates between the two states · Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State

11.02.1830: A U.S. negotiating team presents its credentials to the Ottoman Minister of Foreign Affairs and negotiates a treaty of navigation and commerce: the first formal act of recognition between the two states.
13.09.1831: Diplomatic relations and the American Legation at Constantinople (Istanbul) are established. A legation is a diplomatic office ranked below an embassy.
18.06.1906: The American Legation is raised to an embassy.
20.04.1917: Turkey severs diplomatic relations with the United States.
17.02.1927: The two states re-establish relations after an exchange of notes in Angora (Ankara).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Türkiye dates the first contacts between the Ottoman Empire and the USA to the end of the 18th century, through maritime trade around the Turkish Mediterranean ports, and gives the same date, 17.02.1927, for the exchange of notes. Office of the Historian · Ministry of Foreign Affairs · checked 31.10.2026.

Türkevi, the embassy and the consulates general

Türkiye’s missions in the USA are the embassy (büyükelçilik) in Washington, D.C., six consulates general (başkonsolosluk, a larger consular office with a district of several states) in New York, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami, and a Permanent Mission (Daimi Temsilcilik) to the United Nations in New York. A consulate (konsolosluk) is a consular office that serves citizens in a district. The embassy’s page says consular services are shared among the embassy and the consulates general according to states, and each mission’s Contact page lists the states it serves.

The front of a Manhattan building covered by a pierced white metal screen, with a glass tower rising behind it and tree branches at the left — Photo: Can Kamiloğlu (Voice of America), 16.09.2021, public domain, Wikimedia Commons, file page. The file is titled «Turkish House, 2021» and describes it as Turkish House in New York City.

Türkevi, New York

The name: Türkevi (Turkish House) is the name on the entrance sign shown in the cover photo.
The place: The Directorate of Communications of Türkiye places the New Türkevi Building in New York across the UN Headquarters.
The date: Its news item of 20.09.2021 sets the inauguration for Monday, 20 September 2021.

The Republic of Türkiye Directorate of Communications, news item of 20.09.2021 · checked 31.10.2026 · page

A red-brick building with a tiled roof behind an iron fence, a red flag on a pole and trees beside it — Photo: Gyrofrog, 07.05.2005, Wikimedia Commons, CC SA 1.0, file page. The file describes the Embassy of Turkey at 2525 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.

The embassy in Washington, D.C.

Address: 2525 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20008
The chancery: It has stood on Embassy Row, on Massachusetts Avenue, since 1999.
Its consular section: It serves the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.
Honorary consuls: The embassy’s page also names honorary consuls in several other cities.
Appointments: Consular applications need an appointment, made on the ministry’s consular e-service.

T.C. Dışişleri Bakanlığı (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Embassy in Washington, D.C. · checked 31.10.2026 · About · Contact

Consulate General

New York

821 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017. It serves New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Contact page · checked 31.10.2026 · contact

Consulate General

Boston

31 Saint James Avenue, Suite 840, Boston, MA 02116. It serves Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and Connecticut.