L.A's new mayor reflects the city's melting pot

Los Angeles has a new mayor elect: Eric Garcetti. Big city politics are often ethnic politics. And just like the city he will run, Garcetti's background is appropriately mixed. He'll be the first Jewish person elected mayor in the city’s history. His father’s family are Mexicans of Italian descent, hence the Italian last name. His mother is of Russian- Jewish descent. Garcetti is currently a Los Angeles City Council member, and takes the Mayor's office on July 1.

California's largest ancestry groups

German-Americans are the largest ancestry group in California. In 2010, almost 9% of residents claimed German heritage. Here is a list of the 50 largest ancestral groups in the state:

Rank	Ancestry	California Estimated Population	Percentage of Total Population
	Total:	37,349,363	100.0%
1	German	3,330,889	8.9%
2	Irish	2,573,023	6.9%
3	English	2,327,331	6.2%
4	Italian	1,501,625	4.0%
5	American	857,524	2.3%
6	French (except Basque)	728,284	1.9%
7	European	544,363	1.5%
8	Scottish	519,955	1.4%
9	Polish	509,365	1.4%
10	Russian	436,225	1.2%
11	Swedish	435,274	1.2%
12	Dutch	396,794	1.1%
13	Norwegian	383,922	1.0%
14	Portuguese	355,998	1.0%
15	Armenian	254,696	0.7%
16	Scotch-Irish	247,530	0.7%
17	Iranian	215,372	0.6%
18	Danish	184,002	0.5%
19	African	183,293	0.5%
20	Welsh	162,550	0.4%
21	British	146,509	0.4%
22	Greek	136,493	0.4%
23	Hungarian	132,860	0.4%
24	Swiss	111,798	0.3%
25	French Canadian	104,962	0.3%
26	Ukrainian	99,624	0.3%
27	Czech	86,682	0.2%
28	Canadian	85,113	0.2%
29	Austrian	75,421	0.2%
30	Scandinavian	65,772	0.2%
31	Romanian	62,711	0.2%
32	Eastern European	62,420	0.2%
33	Lebanese	58,372	0.2%
34	Northern European	54,747	0.1%
35	Lithuanian	50,900	0.1%
36	Finnish	48,163	0.1%
37	Other Arab	45,337	0.1%
38	Croatian	45,033	0.1%
39	Arab	43,828	0.1%
40	Egyptian	39,436	0.1%
41	Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac	39,318	0.1%
42	Afghan	36,038	0.1%
43	Yugoslavian	33,314	0.1%
44	Brazilian	31,447	0.1%
45	Jamaican	29,442	0.1%
46	Ethiopian	27,706	0.1%
47	Iraqi	26,311	0.1%
48	Turkish	24,575	0.1%
49	Belgian	24,489	0.1%
50	Czechoslovakian	24,253	0.1%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 American Community Survey

B04006 People Reporting Ancestry, 1 year estimates