In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.  Before ever reaching the Americas, on his first voyage he landed in the Bahamas.

With Columbus Day approaching, Social Explorer is taking a look at Bahamians in the US.

In 1880, the Census reported that there were 9,484 West Indians living in the U.S. (0.02 percent of the total population). 

Today, according to the 2010 American Community Survey, there are 2,375,201 West Indians in the U.S. (people who claimed West Indian as their first reported ancestry).  

This data on ancestry is broken down further by country, and 38,704 of these West Indians are from the Bahamas.  Adding the number of people who reported West Indian as a second ancestry, a total of 48,043 people in the U.S. are West Indian. 

To see where the ancestors of the first people to interact with Columbus in the region of the Americas, check out this interactive  map of the West Indian population.

West Indians in the U.S.

(2005-09 American Community Survey, census tract level)

Users of the free edition can take a look at map of 2000 data.