[2] According to the 2020 United States census, over 3.5 million people self-identified as being Middle Eastern and North African ethnic origin.
Since 1968, these immigrants have arrived from such countries as Iran, Iraq, Israel, occupied Palestinian territories, Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon.
In 2012, prompted in part by post-9/11 discrimination, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee petitioned the Department of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency to designate the MENA populations as a minority/disadvantaged community.
The expert groups felt that the earlier "White" designation no longer accurately represents MENA identity, so they successfully lobbied for a distinct categorization.
In their definitions of Middle Eastern Americans, United States Census Bureau and the National Health Interview Survey include peoples (diasporic or otherwise) from present-day Iran, Israel, Turkey, and Armenia.
[42] Independent organizations provide improved estimates of the total populations of races and ethnicities in the US using the raw data from the US census and other surveys.