Sifter

Once those census people have you cornered, they ask anything and everything, including if that red hair means you’re from Ireland. In 2000, of nearly 60,000 residents of Chico, 91 percent reported being born in the United States, and of those that weren’t, 46.7 percent came from Latin America, 35.7 percent from Asia, 11.2 percent from Europe, 3.5 percent from Northern America, 2.1 percent from Oceania and .7 percent from Africa. As for their heritage, some reported more than one ancestry, so the percentages total more than 100. The list is abbreviated here.

Ancestry # of Chicoans % of population
Arab 302 .5%
Dutch 1,188 2%
English 6,739 11.3%
French* 2,012 3.4%
German 9,842 16.6%
Greek 150 .3%
Irish/Celtic 7,453 12.5%
Italian 3,800 6.4%
Norwegian 1,516 2.6%
Portuguese 918 1.5%
Scottish 1,803 3%
Subsaharan Africa 100 .2%
Swedish 1,491 2.5%
U.S. or American 2,485 4.2%
Other ancestries 17,721 29.8%
* except Basque