Editing Albany, New York (section)

===City of immigrants===
{{US Census population
| 1790 = 3498
| 1800 = 5349
| 1810 = 10762
| 1820 = 12630
| 1830 = 24209
| 1840 = 33721
| 1850 = 50763
| 1860 = 62367
| 1870 = 69422
| 1880 = 90758
| 1890 = 94923
| 1900 = 94151
| 1910 = 100253
| 1920 = 113344
| 1930 = 127412
| 1940 = 130577
| 1950 = 134995
| 1960 = 129726
| 1970 = 115781
| 1980 = 101727
| 1990 = 101082
| 2000 = 95658
| 2010 = 97856
| 2020 = 99224
| estyear = 2023
| estimate = 101228
| footnote = Sources: 1790–1950,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/23761117v1ch08.pdf|pages=32–8 (64 in PDF file)|title=1950 Census of Population; Volume 1: Characteristics of the Population|access-date = September 6, 2010|year=1950|publisher=United States Census Bureau}}</ref><br />1960–1980,<ref>{{cite book|title=1980 Census of Population; Volume 1: Characteristics of the Population|page=34-10|access-date=September 6, 2010|year=1980|publisher=United States Census Bureau|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PpUXAAAAYAAJ&q=roessleville%201980%20census&pg=SA34-PA10}}</ref> 1990–2000<ref name="GR2">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=January 31, 2008|title=U.S. Census website }}</ref><br>
2010–2020<ref>{{cite web|title=QuickFacts; Albany, New York; Population, Census, 2020 & 2010|url=https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/albanycitynewyork/POP010220|publisher=United States Census Bureau|access-date=August 23, 2021}}</ref>
}}

[[File:Race and ethnicity 2020 Albany, NY.png|thumb|Map of racial distribution in Albany, 2020 U.S. census. Each dot is one person: {{legend inline|outline=white|white|text=⬤|textcolor=rgb(115, 178, 255)|White}} {{legend inline|outline=white|white|text=⬤|textcolor=rgb(159, 212, 0)|Black}} {{legend inline|outline=white|white|text=⬤|textcolor=rgb(255, 0, 0)|Asian}} {{legend inline|outline=white|white|text=⬤|textcolor=rgb(255, 170, 0)|Hispanic}} {{legend inline|outline=white|white|text=⬤|textcolor=rgb(140, 81, 181)|Multiracial}} {{legend inline|outline=white|white|text=⬤|textcolor=rgb(153, 102, 51)|Native American/Other}}]]

Historically, Albany's population has been mixed. First dominated by Mohican and Mohawk, then Dutch and Germans, it was overtaken by the British in the early 19th century. Irish immigrants soon outnumbered most other ethnicities by the mid-19th century, and were followed by Italians and [[Polish people|Poles]]. In the mid-to-late 20th century, the African-American population increased with thousands of people from the rural South, as part of the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]]. As historian (and Albany Assemblyman) [[John McEneny]] puts it,
{{blockquote|Dutch and Yankee, German and Irish, Polish and Italian, black and Chinese—over the centuries Albany's heritage has reflected a succession of immigrant nationalities. Its streets have echoed with a dozen languages, its neighborhoods adapting to the distinctive life-style and changing economic fortunes of each new group.<ref name=mceneny102>McEneny (2006), p. 102</ref>}}

Until after the Revolution, Albany's population consisted mostly of ethnic Dutch descendants. Settlers migrating from New England tipped the balance toward British ethnicity in the early 19th century.<ref name="mceneny103">McEneny (2006), p. 103</ref> Jobs on the turnpikes, canals, and railroads attracted floods of [[Irish American|Irish immigrants]] in the early 19th century, especially in the 1840s during the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]], solidifying the city's Irish base. [[Michael N. Nolan|Michael Nolan]] became Albany's first [[Irish Catholic]] mayor in 1878,<ref>{{cite web|title=Michael N. Nolan|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=N000126|publisher=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|accessdate=February 18, 2023}}</ref> two years before Boston.<ref name="mceneny104">McEneny (2006), p. 104</ref> [[Polish American|Polish]] and [[Italian American|Italian]] immigrants began arriving in Albany in the wave of immigration in the latter part of the 19th century. Their numbers were smaller than in many other eastern cities mainly because most had found manufacturing jobs at [[General Electric]] in Schenectady.<ref name="mceneny107">McEneny (2006), p. 107</ref> The Jewish community had been established early, with [[Sephardic Jewish]] members as part of the Beverwijck community. Its population rose during the late 19th century, when many [[Ashkenazi Jews]] immigrated from eastern Europe.<ref name="mceneny107" /> In that period, there was also an influx of [[Chinese American|Chinese]] and east Asian immigrants, who settled in the downtown section of the city. Many of their descendants have since moved to suburban areas.<ref name="mceneny108">McEneny (2006), p. 108</ref> Asian immigration all but halted after the [[Immigration Act of 1924]].<ref name="mceneny111">McEneny (2006), p. 111</ref>

Albany saw its last large immigration pattern as part of the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] when many African Americans moved there from the [[American South]] before and after [[World War I]] to fill industrial positions and find other opportunities. In the early years, African-Americans lived together with Italians, Jews, and other immigrants in the South End, where housing was older and less expensive.<ref>[https://www.questia.com/library/p18/afro-americans-in-new-york-life-and-history/i2464161/vol-32-no-1-january Lemak, Jennifer A. "Albany, New York and the Great Migration"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180310073941/https://www.questia.com/library/p18/afro-americans-in-new-york-life-and-history/i2464161/vol-32-no-1-january |date=March 10, 2018 }}, ''Afro – Americans in New York Life and History'', Vol. 32, Iss. 1, (Jan 2008): 47–74</ref> The black community has grown as a proportion of the population since then; African Americans made up three percent of the city's population in 1950, six percent in 1960, 12 percent in 1970, and 30 percent in 2010. The change in proportion is related mostly to middle-class white families moving to the suburbs and black families remaining within city limits during the same time period.<ref name="mceneny111"/><ref name="GR2" />

Since 2007, the number of [[Myanmar|Burmese]] refugees to Albany has increased. The Burmese refugee community consists mostly of people of [[Karen people|Karen]] ethnicity. An estimated 5,000 Burmese refugees reside in Albany {{as of|2015|January|lc=y}}.<ref>{{cite news |last=McKibben |first=Matthew |title=Albany's Karen community celebrates New Year |url=http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2015/jan/12/karen-new-year/?print |newspaper=[[The Daily Gazette]] |date=January 12, 2015 |access-date=November 23, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Grondahl |first=Paul |title=They nail the American Dream |url=http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/They-nail-the-American-Dream-4340962.php |newspaper=[[Times Union (Albany)]] |date=March 9, 2013 |access-date=November 23, 2015}}</ref>