私は米国人です vs 私はアメリカ人です


They both mean `I am an American` but which is preferable in everyday speech
and in writing, and why? Is the former more formal than the latter?




Today people never say `米国人` in everyday speech and even in written form most
people express American as `アメリカ人`.

The obvious exception is on a newspaper. Writers there still express it as
`米国人`, for possibly two reasons:

  1. `米国` is shorter than `アメリカ`.

  2. Kanji is more suited than Katakana to vertical writing, which is still used in newspapers.

I also want to note that this tends to be applied to `英国`/`イギリス` as well.
Also, Kanji is often used to express each country (e.g. `仏`, `独`, or `伊` to
express `フランス`, `ドイツ`, or `イタリア`) even on the web news just because those are
shorter.




Today people never say `米国人` in everyday speech and even in written form most
people express American as `アメリカ人`.

The obvious exception is on a newspaper. Writers there still express it as
`米国人`, for possibly two reasons:

  1. `米国` is shorter than `アメリカ`.

  2. Kanji is more suited than Katakana to vertical writing, which is still used in newspapers.

I also want to note that this tends to be applied to `英国`/`イギリス` as well.
Also, Kanji is often used to express each country (e.g. `仏`, `独`, or `伊` to
express `フランス`, `ドイツ`, or `イタリア`) even on the web news just because those are
shorter.

