Armenian Populations In Us Cities

[rostom]

Does anyone know where to find information on Armenian population numbers in largely populated US cities? I'm mainly interested in Glendale, Fresno, and Watertown.

 

I've done some research and the US Census data does NOT take ethnicity into account. So that is a dead end. It would probably have to be an Armenian organization, an author, researcher, or newspaper doing its own research. Anyone know of any credible published numbers out there?

 

Thanks

rostom

Edited June 14, 2005 by rostom

[kakachik77]

Hi Rostom,

 

sorry I have not been able to get back to you, have not had time yet.

 

Glendale has about 80,000 Armenians. It's the third largest Armenian populated city after Moscow and Los Angeles.

 

For additional information, it's best to contact the Armenian churches.

[ED]

Kakachik, also among populous cities are, Tehran, Paris, Beirut and Tbilisi, but in a greater sense…..Moscow and Los Angeles, Paris are the top 3, I think Beirut is 4th

[ED]

I'm sorry Rostom its Kakachiks foult for bringing out Mascow I see the topic now, its US cities

[Sip]

Glendale only has 80k? That sounds pretty low.

 

Edit: Nevermind. I just checked online and with a total populatoin of about 200K, I guess 80K makes sense. It just seems so much more probably due to Burbank, Hollywood (north, south, east, west, etc), Passadena, LaCrascenta, etc when you add them in.

Edited June 16, 2005 by Sip

[Dave]

There used to be around 250 000 Armenians in Lebanon (or more), mostly centered in Bourj Hammoud. Now, there are around 150 000 Armenians in Lebanon, mostly in Beirut.

 

But that wasn't the question... I think the population of American Armenians is 1.5 million.

Edited June 16, 2005 by Dave

[DominO123]

There used to be around 250 000 Armenians in Lebanon (or more), mostly centered in Bourj Hammoud. Now, there are around 150 000 Armenians in Lebanon, mostly in Beirut.

 

But that wasn't the question... I think the population of American Armenians is 1.5 million.

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A million would be a more accurate number.(American Armenians)

[Azat]

Last census counted close to 101 Armenians in the city of Glendale

[kakachik77]

Last census counted close to 101 Armenians in the city of Glendale

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es ur en sagh hayere gnatsel scared:

[rostom]

Ok after some more research I finally found a reliable source which lists Armenian populations by city. Ironically it is the US Census which in my original post I had said does not cover ethnicity.....apparently it does. So I thought I'd post my findings if anyone else was interested.

 

Here is the link the link to the Glendale census data for 'ancestry' information as they refer to it: http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTab...=false&-_sse=on

 

 

To summarize:

 

Glendale --> 54,000 (sounds about right compared to other not-so-official sources I have come across)

Watertown --> 2,700 (this seems a lot lower than other not-so-official sources I have found)

Fresno --> 6,000 (any comments?)

 

rostom

[MosJan]

Glendale --> 54,000???

man only in MAple Park in Glendale we have over 50k Armenians playing Blot & Nardi

[armjan]

Glendale --> 54,000???

man only in MAple Park in Glendale  we  have over  50k Armenians playing Blot & Nardi

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quick shout out to all the people who have fought @ Maple Park

[hytga]

United States or American

 

3,742

 

1.9

lol. who made this poll?

 

ethnic american

 

btw this census is not right. There are 300k armenians in US? I don't think so.

Edited July 5, 2005 by hytga

[phantom22]

Armenian numbers are usually undercounted. Not all Armenians are Loosavorchagan. Armenian Protestant and Armenian Catholic churches are rarely considered. Many Armenians go to non-Armenian churches and many others are the product of Armenian-odar marriages.

[archakhper]

Well Rostom, I have a list from "USA Armenian LIFE" Magazine. The list is entitled "Armenian Worldwide Population Today" But keep reading cause there's other info too.

 

For the US USA Armenian LIFE has the following:

 

US 1,400,000

Chicago ?

Colorado* 1,000

Detroit* 60,000

Florida (state)* 25,000

Boca-Raton, FL* 2,400

Orlando, FL* 850

Tampa, FL* 1200

Fresno* (county) 50,000

Hawaii ?

Kansas* 480

LA* 1,000,000

Massachussetts* 120,000

Boston* 60,000

Miami* 1,000

New-York 100,000

Philadelphia, PA* 10,000

Phoenix, AZ* 2,500

Raleigh, NC 500

Richmond, VA 1,200

San Francisco* 40,000

Sacramento ?

Seattle* 2,000

Washington DC* 10,000

Watertown, MA* 10,000

US Virgin Islands ?

 

*numbers based on visitors information

 

Wow, that list took longer to type than I thought. Okay, I'm not sure exactly what the asterisk means--the explanation is not very good. Also, I don't know how much stock I'd put in this list for a few reasons.

 

1. It adds up to almost 1.5 million although it states overall number at 1.4 million.

2. It has numbers for Boca Raton Florida but not Glendale California

3. Elsewhere in the same list it has Turkey's Armenian population at 2,080,000 with the same asterisk and the addition of "(note)". I suppose the note appeared somewhere else in the paper that I don't have.

 

Well, other than this list:

 

I know that the Armenian population of Las Vegas is steadily growing. In fact the Glendale Youth Chapter of the Armenian Church had an article on it in one of their recent newsletters. So you might be able to contact them and get some info.

 

Also, a lot of up and coming communities (read, business opportunities, trying desparately to be the next big and booming city) are marketting to Armenians in the LA area. This includes places with names like Silver Saddle, some are outside of CA and some are in state but all are pretty far from LA.

 

The City of Glendale, however, in their 2002 Quality of Life Report states the following:

 

"The largest portion of the community (63.3%) is categorized as "White" (this includes people of Middle-Eastern descent). The Latino/Hispanic population comprises the second-largest group with (19.7%). The third-largest group (16.2%) is comprised of Asian/Pacific Islanders."

 

As you can see the various departments of the City of Glendale are not known for their academic prowess and general competence. Since we are neither "White", nor Middle-Eastern (which is of course a geographical term, which doesn't even apply to us in its proper usage). Also, "Latino" is a non-sensical term and "Hispanic" has no real value to anyone interested in real study of culture, nationality, ethnicity, genetics etc.

 

Basically, they're morons. But the most accurate figures I've heard are between 50,000 - 80,000.

 

Oh, and another thing, official numbers should be adjusted--I'm not sure by how much, but I'd say +/- 1% to 15%--due to unreported residents, and multiple families living in a single unit.

 

Also, just to be really particular, La Crescenta is actually part of Glendale, Sip.

 

Whoa, that was a lot more than I expected to write. Anyway, because of a lot of Armenians moving around within America, a phenomenon many observers are noticing more and more, I doubt that you'll be able to get any terribly accurate numbers right now.

 

You know, we're always hard to pin down.

[armjan]

US 1,400,000

Chicago ?

Colorado* 1,000

Detroit* 60,000

Florida (state)* 25,000

Boca-Raton, FL* 2,400

Orlando, FL* 850

Tampa, FL* 1200

Fresno* (county) 50,000

Hawaii ?

Kansas* 480

LA* 1,000,000

Massachussetts* 120,000

Boston* 60,000

Miami* 1,000

New-York 100,000

Philadelphia, PA* 10,000

Phoenix, AZ* 2,500

Raleigh, NC 500

Richmond, VA 1,200

San Francisco* 40,000

Sacramento ?

Seattle* 2,000

Washington DC* 10,000

Watertown, MA* 10,000

US Virgin Islands ?

how many armenians in armenia?

[Dave]

3. Elsewhere in the same list it has Turkey's Armenian population at 2,080,000 with the same asterisk and the addition of "(note)". I suppose the note appeared somewhere else in the paper that I don't have.

 

I guess that number includes the Hamshentsi (Hemsinli) Armenians, the Kurdified/Turkified Armenians, and of course, the "Bolsahyes" (around 50 000).

[archakhper]

how many armenians in armenia?

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I found the following text at: http://cacianalyst.org/view_article.php?articleid=36 which of course will have its own agenda. But this 3 year old article makes a lot of good points. I bolded what I thought was significant

 

BACKGROUND: On February 15, 2002, the National Statistics Service of Armenia held a press conference announcing that there were 3,020,768 people in Armenia. The preliminary census data, collected from October 10-19, 2001, indicated that 950,000 Armenians have emigrated since the Soviet collapse in 1991. According to the United Nation's International Organization for Migration (IOM), Armenia has the highest rate of population outflow in the former Soviet Union. Nonetheless, the fact that the official population remained over 3 million came as a relief to many, considering the speculation that the number might have fallen below 2 million.

Emigration has been a way of life for Armenians who have left their ancestral homeland in the Southern Caucasus and Eastern Anatolia for locations around the world for centuries. The Diaspora grew dramatically after World War I. Those that survived the massacres and deportations in Eastern Anatolia created communities throughout the world that still serve as population magnets. However, the biggest incentive for leaving Armenia in the past decade has been the economy. When the Soviet Union collapsed, so did Armenia's command economy and its people's living standards. Armenians took advantage of the most tangible new freedom in their lives - the right to emigrate. Most went to Russia, where there was no need for a visa or learning a new language. Many went west, to Europe or North America. Emigrating Armenians were soon followed by family members who sold their apartments at fire sale prices, leading to a collapse in the local real estate market.

The Armenian government was not eager to undertake a census, which it delayed for years citing budgetary reasons. Privately, however, there were also fears that foreign governments would be less likely to provide aid to a country with a small population. There were also intangible psychological implications. Armenia is still in an unresolved state of conflict with Azerbaijan. While Azerbaijan has its own emigration problems, its population stands at a far more robust 8 million. Perhaps most importantly, Armenia's falling population stood as an indicator of the lack of faith its citizens placed in its government. Rather than stay and work toward improving their homeland, Armenians were giving up on it. Emigration stood as a terrible signal to adversaries as well as potential foreign investors. Ultimately, the international community pressured the Armenian government into holding the census and agreed to cover most of the costs.

 

I think that last statement which I bolded, italicized and underlined is the most telling of our people throughout history, unfortunately.

 

I also found some cool older data at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/amtoc.html

 

Population Characteristics

 

The origins of the Armenian people are obscure. According to ancient Armenian writers, their people descend from Noah's son Japheth. A branch of the Indo-Europeans, the Armenians are linked ethnically to the Phrygians, who migrated from Thrace in southeastern Europe into Asia Minor late in the second millennium B.C., and to the residents of the kingdom of Urartu, with whom the Armenians came into contact around 800 B.C. after arriving in Asia Minor from the West. Although ethnologists disagree about the precise timing and elements of this ethnic combination (and even about the origin of the term Armenian), it is generally agreed that the modern Armenians have been a distinct ethnic group centered in eastern Anatolia since at least 600 B.C.

 

In the nineteenth century, the Armenians were the most urban of the Transcaucasian peoples, but they were also the most dispersed. A merchant middle class was the most powerful social group among the Armenians, although the church and secular intellectuals also provided leadership. Armenians pioneered exploitation of the oil deposits in and around Baku, and the economic growth of the ancient Georgian capital, Tbilisi, was largely an enterprise of Armenian merchants and small industrialists.

 

The massacres and displacements that occurred between 1895 and 1915 removed nearly all the Armenian population in the Turkish part of historical Armenia. In 1965 the Soviet Union estimated that 3.2 million Armenians lived in all its republics. The Turkish census the same year showed only 33,000 Armenians in Turkey, most of them concentrated in the far west in Istanbul. In 1988 Armenia's population declined by 176,000, reversing a trend over the previous decade of average population growth of 1.5 percent per year. According to the 1989 census, the population of Armenia was about 3,288,000, an increase of 8 percent from the 1979 census figure. An official estimate in 1991 put the population at 3,354,000, an increase of 2 percent since 1989. In 1989 Armenians were the eighth largest nationality in the former Soviet Union, totaling 4,627,000. At that time, only about twothirds of the Armenians in the Soviet Union lived in Armenia. Some 11.5 percent lived in Russia, 9.4 percent in Georgia, 8.4 percent in Azerbaijan, and the remaining 4 percent in the other republics. In recent years, Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, and the Central Asian republics have settled in Armenia, compounding an already severe housing shortage. The number of Armenians living in other countries, primarily France, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and the United States, has been estimated at between 3 million and 9 million.

 

In 1991 Armenia's population density, 112.6 persons per square kilometer, was second only to that of Moldavia (now Moldova) among the Soviet republics. About 68 percent of the population lives in urban areas and 32 percent in rural areas. In 1990 Armenia's capital, Erevan, had a population of 1.2 million, or about 37 percent of the population of the republic; the second largest city, Gyumri, had 123,000 residents. The twelfth largest city in the former Soviet Union, Erevan is the second largest in the Caucasus region, after Tbilisi.

 

In 1979 Armenian families residing in Armenia averaged 4.5 persons, including an average of 4.3 for urban families and 4.8 average for rural families. This average was larger than those of the Baltic, Georgian, Moldavian, and predominantly Slavic republics of the Soviet Union but less than the family averages of the Soviet Muslim republics. In 1989 average life expectancy was 71.9 years (69.0 years for males and 74.7 years for females). The birth rate was 21.6 live births per 1,000 population; the death rate was 6.0 per 1,000.

 

Data as of March 1994

[Zartonk]

Thanks for this last post, arch.

 

Where do the Armenians of Artsakh fall? The 8 million in Azerbaijan?

 

(And it'll be very odd news if the ciudad de Los Angeles does home more Armenians than Glendale..)

[kakachik77]

another look at Armenia's demographic factors from Council of Europe website

 

http://www.coe.int/t/e/social_cohesion/pop...e.asp#TopOfPage

[archakhper]

Thanks for this last post, arch.

 

Where do the Armenians of Artsakh fall? The 8 million in Azerbaijan?

 

(And it'll be very odd news if the ciudad de Los Angeles does home more Armenians than Glendale..)

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No problem Zartonk, as for the Armenians of Artsakh, it would be very interesting to find out where they fall in those numbers...I'll try to look it up when I have some more time.

 

As far as the City of Angels goes, there is a problem. Many times, actually most often, people confuse the City of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles. Most Armenian sources that I have seen fail to make this important distinction, as the County of Los Angeles includes the City of Glendale. So that 1,000,000 number in the USAARMENIANLIFE list almost definitely is meant to represent Los Angeles County not Los Angeles City. (I forgot to mention that)

 

The rest of LA county put together, most definitely has more Armenians than Glendale, but it is HIGHLY doubtful that LA City can have numbers rivaling Glendale.

[Zartonk]

As far as the City of Angels goes, there is a problem. Many times, actually most often, people confuse the City of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles. Most Armenian sources that I have seen fail to make this important distinction, as the County of Los Angeles includes the City of Glendale. So that 1,000,000 number in the USAARMENIANLIFE list almost definitely is meant to represent Los Angeles County not Los Angeles City. (I forgot to mention that)

 

The rest of LA county put together, most definitely has more Armenians than Glendale, but it is HIGHLY doubtful that LA City can have numbers rivaling Glendale.

 

 

That was my exact same confusion, now I get it..! . Thank you.

Edited July 29, 2005 by Zartonk

[gamavor]

Rostom correctly pointed out that the census records only background data of foreign born and/or nationals of the respective country. Officially in USA there are 375,000 Armenian-Americans. That is: born in Armenia or possessing Armenian citizenship along with their American status.

 

Those like me:) or for that matter ethnic Armenians immigrating from other countries are not recorded, or if they are, they are in the respective country column.

 

The number of people of Armenian ancestry in USA (new comers and American-Armenians) is around 2,000,000. Armenian Protestants and Catholics included.

[archakhper]

Rostom correctly pointed out that the census records only background data of foreign born and/or nationals of the respective country. Officially in USA there are 375,000 Armenian-Americans. That is: born in Armenia or possessing Armenian citizenship along with their American status.

 

Those like me:) or for that matter ethnic Armenians immigrating from other countries are not recorded, or if they are, they are in the respective country column.

 

The number of people of Armenian ancestry in USA (new comers and American-Armenians) is around 2,000,000. Armenian Protestants and Catholics included.

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Gamavor, where do you get that number? 2,000,000?

[gamavor]

Gamavor, where do you get that number? 2,000,000?

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Wild guess?! OK, let my clarify. 2,000,000 is the number of people in USA made out of Armenian genetic material.

 

The first significant Armenian settlements in USA are recorded around 1880's, in Massachusetts, New England. The very first pioneer Armenians that 'discovered' America came even earlier.

 

At the beginning there was a 60,000 strong Armenian community in and around Boston area - Springfield, Watertown and Boston city. Mostly, Armenians were engaged as blue color workers in the Steel industry in the region. After the massacres of the bloody sultan Abdul Hamid, a new wave of Armenians arrived in the same area, totaling the number to 150,000. The Boston (and suburbs) Armenian community grew to 300,000 after 1915 and beyond. The first Armenian Church in USA was built in the late 1880' if I'm not mistaken.

 

Fresno, CA I think is one of the oldest Armenian communities in USA, formed approximately at the same time. In the course of 100 years the community grew mainly by influx of Armenians from the Middle East - Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, Iraq as well as Armenians from Russia and Eastern Europe.

 

There were few major immigration waves. During the WWI, after WWII, in the late 1960's, 70's and 80'. The last one being after the collapse of USSR and Artsakh war.

 

More info is available in AGBU archives, Armenian Apostolic Church, and most importantly Elise Island which was main entry port until 1930 I think.

 

To me the best ‘Armenian’ city in USA is Watertown. I absolutely loved it. As if you are in Armenia in 2020. My host told me that at the beginning the first Armenian settlers didn’t allow non-Armenians in the city. It was 99.99 % Armenian. An exception was made to two Greek families and one Jewish. Nowadays of course everything is changed and Armenians are hardly 30% of the population. However, you can see street names like “Artsakh”, and lots of businesses and city officials with Armenian surnames.

 

Now back to the 2,000,000. As I said, those are people made of Armenian genetic material. All in all, people with Armenian consciousness in USA are not more than a million.

Edited July 31, 2005 by gamavor