Cleveland

People

In 1990, the population of the city of Cleveland was 505,616 (47 percent male, 53 percent female). The total population of the Cleveland Metropolitan Statistical Area is 2.9 million, making it the fourteenth-largest metropolitan area in the United States.

Cleveland has a rich ethnic mix, with a population representing 60 ethnic groups from all continents. The city has the largest mix of Eastern Europeans of any city in the United States and has the largest concentrations of Slovaks

(Slovakia), Slovenes (Slovenia), and Hungarians (Hungary). There are also large German, Irish, Polish, Italian, Czech, Croat, Russian, Puerto Rican, and Ukrainian communities. In recent years, Asians have also settled in the area, primarily Asian Indians, Filipinos, Koreans, and Chinese.

More than 60 languages are spoken in Cleveland. In 1994, languages other than English spoken at home (by percentage of households) included Spanish or Spanish Creole (24.1 percent), German (11.7 percent), Italian (9.8 percent), Polish (7.9 percent), South Slavic (7.8 percent), other Slavic (seven percent), French or French Creole (6.4 percent), Hungarian (6.1 percent), Arabic (3.4 percent), Greek (2.7 percent), Chinese (2.3 percent), Indic (2.3 percent), Korean (1.2 percent), and Japanese (one percent).

An estimated 40 percent of the metropolitan area's regular worshippers attend Catholic churches. The following denominations have significant membership among Clevelanders: Catholic (Roman and Eastern Orthodox), 534,785 members; Southern Baptist, 117,282; American Baptist, 28,176; United Methodist, 33,607; United Church of Christ, 21,146; and Jewish, 50,500. There are also significant numbers of other Protestant denominations, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus.