The five largest reported ancestry groups in Virginia are: African (19.6%), German (11.7%), unspecified American (11.4%), English

English American

English Americans are citizens or residents of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England....

 (11.1%), and Irish

Irish American

Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...

 (9.8%). Most of those claiming to be of "American" ancestry are actually of English descent, but have family that has been in the country for so long, in many cases since the early seventeenth century that they choose to identify simply as "American". Many of Virginia's African population are descended from enslaved Africans who worked its tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

, cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

, and hemp

Hemp

Hemp is mostly used as a name for low tetrahydrocannabinol strains of the plant Cannabis sativa, of fiber and/or oilseed varieties. In modern times, hemp has been used for industrial purposes including paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, construction, health food and fuel with modest...

 plantations. Initially, these slaves were imported from west central Africa, primarily Angola

Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...

. During the eighteenth century, however, about half of them were derived from various ethnicities located in the Niger Delta

Niger Delta

The Niger Delta, the delta of the Niger River in Nigeria, is a densely populated region sometimes called the Oil Rivers because it was once a major producer of palm oil...

 region of modern day Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

. They contributed strongly to the development of Southern foodways, music, vernacular architecture, and religion. With continued immigration to Virginia of other European groups and the 19th century sales of tens of thousands of enslaved African Americans from Virginia to the Deep South, the percent of enslaved African Americans fell from once being half of the total population. By 1860 slaves comprised 31% of the state's population of .

In colonial Virginia the majority of free people of color were descended from marriages or relationships of white women (servants or free) and black men (slave, servant or free), reflecting the fluid relationships among working people. Many free black families were well-established and headed by landowners by the Revolution. From 1782 to 1818, a wave of slaveholders inspired by the Revolutionary ideals of equality freed slaves, until the legislature made manumission

Manumission

Manumission is the act of a slave owner freeing his or her slaves. In the United States before the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished most slavery, this often happened upon the death of the owner, under conditions in his will.-Motivations:The...

s more difficult. Some African Americans freed were those whose fathers were white masters, while others were freed for service. By 1860 there were people of color (black or mulatto

Mulatto

Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...

, as classified in the census) in Virginia. Over the decades, many had gathered in the cities of Richmond and Petersburg

Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River and south of the state capital city of Richmond. The city's population was 32,420 as of 2010, predominantly of African-American ethnicity...

 where there were more job opportunities. Others were landowners who had working farms, or found acceptance from neighbors in the frontier areas of Virginia.

The twentieth century Great Migration

Great Migration (African American)

The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970. Some historians differentiate between a Great Migration , numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and a Second Great Migration , in which 5 million or more...

 of blacks from the rural South to the urban North reduced Virginia's black population to about 20%. Today, African-Americans are concentrated in the eastern and southern Tidewater and Piedmont regions where plantation agriculture was the most dominant. The western mountains were settled primarily by people of heavily Scots-Irish ancestry. There are also sizable numbers of people of German descent in the northwestern mountains and Shenandoah Valley.

Because of immigration in the late 20th century and early 21st century, there are rapidly growing populations of Hispanics (particularly Central America

Central America

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

ns) and Asians in the Northern Virginia

Northern Virginia

Northern Virginia consists of several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in a widespread region generally radiating southerly and westward from Washington, D.C...

 suburbs of Washington, DC. As of 2005, 6.1% of Virginians are Hispanic

Hispanic

Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...

 and 5.2% are Asian

Asian people

Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...

. Northern Virginia has the largest Vietnamese

Vietnamese American

A Vietnamese American is an American of Vietnamese descent. They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese and are the fourth-largest Asian American group....

 population on the East Coast, with about 48,000 Vietnamese statewide as of 2007. Their major wave of immigration followed the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

. Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...

 has a sizable Filipino population

Filipino American

Filipino Americans are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipino Americans, often shortened to "Fil-Ams", or "Pinoy",Filipinos in what is now the United States were first documented in the 16th century, with small settlements beginning in the 18th century...

 with about 45,000 in the area, many of whom have ties to the U.S. Navy. Virginia also continues to be home to eight Native American tribes

Native American tribes in Virginia

This page details the history and current status of Indian tribes in the Commonwealth of Virginia.All of the Commonwealth of Virginia used to be Virginia Indian territory, an area estimated to have been occupied by indigenous peoples for more than 12,000 years. Their population has been estimated...

 recognized by the state, though all lack federal recognition status. Most Native American groups are located in the Tidewater region

Tidewater region of Virginia

The Tidewater region of Virginia is the eastern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia formally known as Hampton Roads. The term tidewater may be correctly applied to all portions of any area, including Virginia, where the water level is affected by the tides...

.

Religion

Religion (2008)
Christian Christianity Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...		76%
	Baptist Baptist Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...	27%
	Roman Catholic Roman Catholicism in the United States The Catholic Church in the United States is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, the Christian Church in full communion with the Pope. With more than 68.5 registered million members, it is the largest single religious denomination in the United States, comprising about 22 percent of the population...	11%
	Methodist Methodism Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...	8%
	Lutheran Lutheranism Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...	2%
	Other Christian	28%
Judaism Judaism Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...		1%
Islam Islam Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...		0.5%
Buddhism Buddhism Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...		1%
Hinduism Hinduism Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...		1%
Unaffiliated Irreligion Irreligion is defined as an absence of religion or an indifference towards religion. Sometimes it may also be defined more narrowly as hostility towards religion. When characterized as hostility to religion, it includes antitheism, anticlericalism and antireligion. When characterized as...		18%

Virginia is predominantly Christian and Protestant

Protestantism

Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

; Baptists are the largest single group with 27% of the population as of 2008. Baptist denominational groups in Virginia include the Baptist General Association of Virginia

Baptist General Association of Virginia

The Baptist General Association of Virginia is an umbrella organization of Baptist churches founded in 1823. The BGAV has been characterized as a moderate association...

, with about 1,400 member churches, which supports both the Southern Baptist Convention

Southern Baptist Convention

The Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States, with over 16 million members...

 and the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is a Christian fellowship of Baptist churches formed in 1991. Theologically moderate, the CBF withdrew from the Southern Baptist Convention over philosophical and theological differences, such as the SBC prohibition of women serving as pastors. The Cooperative...

; and the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia

Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia

The Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia is a fellowship of 547 conservative Southern Baptist churches in Virginia and in surrounding areas. It is supportive of the national Southern Baptist Convention . It was formed in 1993 when conservative Virginia Baptists across the state founded the...

 with more than 500 affiliated churches, which supports the Southern Baptist Convention.

Roman Catholics

Roman Catholicism in the United States

The Catholic Church in the United States is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, the Christian Church in full communion with the Pope. With more than 68.5 registered million members, it is the largest single religious denomination in the United States, comprising about 22 percent of the population...

 are the second-largest religious group, and the group which grew the most in the 1990s. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington

Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the southern United States. The Diocese of Arlington comprises 68 located in the 21 northern-most counties within the Commonwealth of Virginia, including the Northern Virginia counties of Arlington, Clarke,...

 includes most of Northern Virginia's Catholic churches, while the Diocese of Richmond

Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond is an ecclesiastical and episcopal see or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Its current territory was created by Pope Paul VI and encompasses all of central and southern Virginia, Hampton Roads, and the eastern shore...

 covers the rest. The Virginia Conference is the regional body

Annual Conference

An Annual Conference in the United Methodist Church is a regional body that governs much of the life of the "Connectional Church." Annual conferences are composed primarily of the clergy members and a lay member or members from each charge . Each conference is a geographical division...

 of the United Methodist Church

United Methodist Church

The United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...

. The Virginia Synod

Virginia Synod

The Virginia Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is the geographical synod consisting of the entire state of Virginia, except for several counties and cities in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Synod....

 is responsible for the congregations of the Lutheran Church

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is a mainline Protestant denomination headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA officially came into existence on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three churches. As of December 31, 2009, it had 4,543,037 baptized members, with 2,527,941 of them...

. The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia

Episcopal Diocese of Virginia

The Diocese of Virginia is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America encompassing 38 counties in the northern and central parts of the state of Virginia. The diocese was organized in 1785 and is one of the Episcopal Church's nine original dioceses. However, the diocese has...

, Southern Virginia

Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia

-General information:Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America located in the southeast area of Virginia. It is in Province III...

, and Southwestern Virginia

Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia

Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America located in the southwest area of Virginia. It is in Province III . The diocese includes 56 parishes in the southwestern corner of Virginia, including the cities of Lynchburg and...

 support the various Episcopal churches

Episcopal Church (United States)

The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...

. In November 2006, 15 conservative Episcopal churches voted to split from the Diocese of Virginia over its ordination of openly gay bishops

Gay bishops

The existence of homosexual bishops in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and other traditions is a matter of historical record, though never, until recently, considered licit by any of the main Christian denominations. Homosexual activity was engaged in secretly. When it was made public, official...

 and clergy; these churches continue to claim affiliation with the larger Anglican Communion

Anglican Communion

The Anglican Communion is an international association of national and regional Anglican churches in full communion with the Church of England and specifically with its principal primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury...

 through other bodies outside the United States

Anglican realignment

The term Anglican realignment refers to a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada...

. Though Virginia law allows parishioners to determine their church's affiliation, the diocese claims the secessionist churches' properties. The resulting property law case is a test for Episcopal churches nationwide.

Presbyterians

Presbyterianism

Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...

, Pentecostals

Pentecostalism

Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...

, Congregationalists

Congregational church

Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

, and Episcopalians each composed 1–3% of the population as of 2001. Among other religions, adherents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints constitute 1.1% of the population, with 188 congregations in Virginia

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Virginia

As of year-end 2007, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reported 83,225 members in 19 stakes, 183 Congregations , and 2 missions in Virginia.-History:A brief history can be found at -Membership History:-Stakes:...

 as of 2008. Fairfax Station

Fairfax Station, Virginia

Fairfax Station is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, ZIP code 22039. The population as of the 2010 Census was 12,030. As a suburb of Washington, DC, it is a bedroom community for many who work in the federal government.-Averages:...

 is home to the Ekoji Buddhist Temple

Ekoji Buddhist Temple

is a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Temple of the Nishi-Hongwanji Tradition in Fairfax Station, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. It is a member of the Buddhist Churches of America, the oldest Buddhist organization in the mainland United States....

, of the Jodo Shinshu

Jodo Shinshu

, also known as Shin Buddhism, is a school of Pure Land Buddhism. It was founded by the former Tendai Japanese monk Shinran. Today, Shin Buddhism is considered the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan.-Shinran :...

 school, and the Hindu Durga

Durga

For the 1985 Hindi Film of Rajesh Khanna see DurgaaIn Hinduism, Durga ; ; meaning "the inaccessible" or "the invincible"; , durga) or Maa Durga "one who can redeem in situations of utmost distress" is a form of Devi, the supremely radiant goddess, depicted as having eighteen arms, riding a lion...

 Temple. While a small population in terms of the state overall, organized Jewish sites date to 1789 with Congregation Beth Ahabah. Muslims are a rapidly growing religious group throughout the state through immigration. Megachurch

Megachurch

A megachurch is a church having 2,000 or more in average weekend attendance. The Hartford Institute's database lists more than 1,300 such Protestant churches in the United States. According to that data, approximately 50 churches on the list have attendance ranging from 10,000 to 47,000...

es in the state include Thomas Road Baptist Church

Thomas Road Baptist Church

Thomas Road Baptist Church is a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia. It currently claims 24,000 members and is headed by Jonathan Falwell.-History:Started in 1956 by a group of 35, including Jerry Falwell, Thomas Road now claims over 24,200 members...

, Immanuel Bible Church

Immanuel Bible Church

Immanuel Bible Church is a non-denominational megachurch located in Springfield, Virginia, approximately 2 miles inside of the Capital Beltway at 6911 Braddock Road, approximately 10 miles south of Washington, DC.-History:...

, and McLean Bible Church

McLean Bible Church

McLean Bible Church is a non-denominational, evangelical Christian megachurch with multiple locations in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Lon Solomon, a Jewish convert to Christianity, has been MBC's senior pastor since 1980. Solomon also serves on the board of directors of Jews for Jesus and...

.