As you can see from the chart, the number of individuals claiming German, 
Irish, English, and Polish ancestry has slipped significantly, while those 
who claim Italian ancestry has gone the opposite way, and increased by +7% 
since the last census report in 1990. (RAA: Which is contrary to ALL 
"accepted" wisdom)

Then he asks THE questions that need to be asked:

    *  Why would the Italians INCREASE, while all other major Europeans 
groups, (German, Irish, and English) DECREASE drastically?

    *  What can be done to get these "newby Italians" involved within the 
organized  Italian American Community...(RAA: such as it is )?
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MORE PEOPLE IDENTIFY THEMSELVES AS JUST 'AMERICAN'

USA TODAY
June 5, 202
By Haya El Nasser and Paul Overberg 

More Americans are forsaking their European ancestries and calling themselves 
simply "American." The number of people who claim German, Irish, English or 
most other European descents dropped sharply since 1990, according to Census 
data released Tuesday. In 2000, people reported 38.8 million fewer European 
ancestries, an 18.6% drop. 
 
But 7.6 million more told Census that at least one of their ancestries is 
"United States or American." That's up 58%. 

Ancestries logged by recent immigrants from Asia and Spanish-speaking 
countries increased 28% to 91.6 million. They fall under an "other 
ancestries" category that will be detailed by the Census Bureau later this 
summer.

The European ancestry numbers mark the beginning of a new chapter in American 
assimilation. "Ancestry in the U.S. changes over time," says William Frey, a 
demographer at the Milken Institute in Santa Monica, Calif. "We're going to 
see these European ancestries fade into the background. ... We're all 
Americans now."

Fewer Americans pick European ancestries   
   
            Times               Change 
            Selected            from 
            (millions)           1990 

German      43              -26% 
Irish           31              -21% 
English       25              -25% 
Italian        16              +7% 
Polish          9              -4% 

Source: Census Bureau
 
The Census form allowed people to list up to two ancestries. 
In 2000, 287.3 million ancestries were reported by 281.4 million Americans.

Demographers attribute the ebb in European identification to two key factors:

**Millions of older immigrants died in the 1990s. 
**More intermarriage among European descendants. Some Americans of a 
half-dozen ancestries may not feel strong allegiance to any, says Campbell 
Gibson, a demographer with the Census Bureau.
 
Gibson is Scotch-Irish and English. His wife is Asian Indian, Irish and 
German. "My two kids reported 'American,' " he says. "There was never a 
question in their minds."

In the Irish stronghold of Boston, the Irish share of ancestries dropped from 
20.8% in 1990 to 15.8% in 2000. In Louisiana, French and French Canadian 
ancestries went from 22.7% to 16.2%.

The decline "has to be simply a function of being in the country longer," 
former Census director Martha Farnsworth Riche says.

"In this day and age, it means much less to say you're Dutch or German," Frey 
says. "The country has now focused on a new set of minorities."