Scottish Americans or Scots Americans (Scottish Gaelic: Ameireaganaich Albannach; ) are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland. Scottish Americans are closely related to Scotch-Irish Americans, descendants of Ulster Scots, and communities emphasize and celebrate a common heritage. The majority of Scotch-Irish Americans originally came from Lowland Scotland and Northern England before migrating to the province of Ulster in Ireland (see Plantation of Ulster) and thence, beginning about five generations later, to North America in large numbers during the eighteenth century. Today, the number of Scottish Americans is believed to be around 25 million, and celebrations of ‘Scottishness’ can be seen through major Tartan Day parades and Burns Night celebrations. Significant emigration from Scotland to America began in the 1700s, accelerating after the Jacobite rising of 1745, the steady degradation of clan structures, and the Highland Clearances. Even higher rates of emigration occurred after these times of social upheaval. In the 1920s, Scotland experienced a reduction in total population of 0.8%, totally absorbing the natural population increase of 7.2%: the U.S. and Canada were the most common destinations of these emigrants. A common misconception is that most Scottish Americans are descended from Highlanders fleeing persecution or clearance. Instead, by far the commonest Scottish immigrant was an economic migrant from the Lowlands, attracted by the opportunities in North America. Numbers The table shows the ethnic Scottish population in the British colonies from 1700 to 1775. In 1700 the total population of the colonies was 250,888, of whom 223,071 (89%) were white and 3.0% were ethnically Scottish. 1790 population of Scottish and Scotch-Irish origin by state Census The number of Americans of Scottish descent today is estimated to be 20 to 25 million (up to 8.3% of the total U.S. population), and Scotch-Irish 27 to 30 million (up to 10% of the total U.S. population), the subgroups overlapping and not always distinguishable because of their shared ancestral surnames and heritage. The majority of Scotch-Irish Americans originally came from Lowland Scotland and Northern England before migrating to the province of Ulster in Ireland (see Plantation of Ulster) and thence, beginning about five generations later, to North America in large numbers during the eighteenth century. In the 2000 census, 4.8 million Americans self-reported Scottish ancestry, 1.7% of the total U.S. population. Over 4.3 million self-reported Scotch-Irish ancestry, for a total of 9.2 million Americans self-reporting some kind of Scottish descent. Self-reported numbers