a combined population of 12,626,200 people, or 65.67% of the state's population. Age In age demographics: 6.5% of New York's population were under 5 years of age, 24.7% under 18, and 12.9% were 65 or older. Females made up 51.8% of the population. New York state has a fluctuating population growth rate, it has experienced some shrinkage in the 1970s and 1980s, but milder growth in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century. Language According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 13.61% of the population aged 5 and older speak Spanish at home, while 2.04% speak Chinese (including Cantonese and Mandarin), 1.65% Italian, and 1.23% Russian. 2020 Census New York State in the 2020 Census had a population of 20,201,249 and the racial makeup was 52.5% Non-Hispanic White, 19.5% Hispanic or Latino, 14.8% black, 9.6% Asian, 0.7% Native American, and 0.1% Pacific Islander. According to 2004 estimates, 20.4% of the population was foreign-born. Among cities in New York State, 36% of New York City's population is foreign-born; this figure of approximately 3 million is a higher total number of foreign-born residents than any other U.S. city. This number is often around 20% in other cities across New York. In the 2000 Census, Italian Americans make up the largest ancestral ethnic group in Staten Island and Long Island, followed by Irish Americans and Polish Americans. Manhattan's leading ethnic ancestry group is Dominicans since the 2000 census, followed by Irish Americans, then Italian Americans and more than 200 ethnicities are counted, plus comparably large numbers of residents with Dutch, Portuguese, Greek, Russian, and Swedish ethnic ancestry. Albany and the Mohawk Valley-Central New York are heavily Irish American and Italian American. In Buffalo and Western New York, German Americans are the largest ethnic group, along with Polish Americans and other Slavic ethnic groups; in the northern tip of the state the largest ethnic background is that of French Canadians. New York State has a higher number of Italian-Americans than any other U.S. state. New York City is also said to be home to two million of Italian descent alone. NYC was once called home to the largest German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Polish and Russian communities outside their representative countries of origin. Confusingly, the term American Jew is used to describe ethnic Jews by some demographers, and religious identity (religious Jews, see: Judaism) of various nationalities and various denominations by others. Regardless,