The majority trace their roots to the Republic of Turkey, however, there are also significant ethnic Turkish communities in the US which descend from the island of Cyprus, the Balkans, North Africa, the Levant and other areas of the former Ottoman Empire.

[4] Only a short time before reaching Roanoke, Drake's fleet of some thirty ships had liberated these Muslims from Spanish colonial forces in the Caribbean where they had been condemned to hard labor as galley slaves.

[5] Historical records indicate that Drake had promised to return the liberated galley slaves, and the English government did ultimately repatriate about 100 of them to the Ottoman realms.

[11] The largest number of ethnic Turks appear to have entered the United States prior to World War I, roughly between 1900 and 1914, when American immigration policies were quite liberal.

Many of these Turks came from Harput, Akçadağ, Antep and Macedonia and embarked for the United States from Beirut, Mersin, İzmir, Trabzon and Salonica.

[12] Nonetheless, a large number of Turks from the Balkan provinces of Albania, Kosovo, Western Thrace, and Bulgaria emigrated and settled in the United States;[10] they were listed as "Albanians", "Bulgarians" and "Serbians" according to their country of origin, even though many of them were ethnically Turkish and identified themselves as such.

[12] Unlike the other Ottoman ethnic groups living in the United States, many early Turkish migrants returned to their homeland.

[7] The general profile of Turkish men and women immigrating to the United States depicted someone young, college-educated with a good knowledge of English, and with a career in medicine, engineering, or another profession in science or the arts.

[15] Since the 1980s, the flow of Turkish immigrants to the United States has included an increasing number of students and professionals as well as migrants who provide unskilled and semi-skilled labor.

[16] The unskilled or semi-skilled immigrants usually work in restaurants, gas stations, hair salons, construction sites, and grocery stores, although some of them have obtained American citizenship or green cards and have opened their own ethnic businesses.

[1] In addition, the Turks of South Carolina, an Anglicized isolated community identifying as Turkish in Sumter County for over 200 years, numbered around 500 in the mid-20th century.

The largest concentrations of Turkish Americans are found scattered throughout New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, and other suburban areas.

[28] According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2000, Americans of Turkish origin mostly live in the State of New York followed by California, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Virginia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.

[43] The Association also publishes a biweekly newspaper, "The Turkish Times", and regularly informs its members on developments requiring community action.

[44] Thus, this became a turning point for the changing nature of Turkish American associations from those that organized cultural events to those with a more political agenda coincided with the hostile efforts of other ethnic groups, namely the Greek and Armenian lobby.

[45] Turkish Americans have also expressed concerns about the Greek lobby in the United States undermining the typically good Turkish-American relations.

Within academia, Feza Gürsey was a professor of physics at Yale University and won the prestigious Oppenheimer Prize and Wigner Medal.

[53] Two prominent Turkish-American economists include Daron Acemoğlu at MIT, who writes on democracy and national development, and Dani Rodrik at Harvard Kennedy School, an expert on globalization.

Haggin was an attorney, rancher, investor, art collector, and a major owner and breeder in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing.

[67] Billionaire Melih Abdulhayoglu (worth $1.8B in 2019[68]) is the founder and CEO of Comodo Group, an Internet security company he founded in the United Kingdom in 1998 and relocated to the US in 2004.

[69] Alongside her husband, Fatih Ozmen (also worth $1.2B in 2020[70]), they are the co-owners of Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) which is a privately held aerospace and national security contractor specializing in aircraft modification and integration, space components and systems, and related technology products for cybersecurity and eHealth.

[69] In particular, SNC's Dream Chaser spaceplane has been "tapped by NASA to ferry food, water, supplies and scientific experiments to the International Space Station.

[80] Meanwhile, the nutrition author, Daphne Oz, was a co-host on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) daytime talk show The Chew (2011–17).

[84] Other notable musicians include the songwriter Oak Felder who was nominated for a 2015 Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for writing Usher's single "Good Kisser",[85][86] he also produced two songs on the Alicia Keys album Girl on Fire which won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album;[87] the violinist and conductor Selim Giray is an associate professor of Violin, Viola and Chamber Music at Pittsburg State University; the composer Kamran Ince was awarded the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize; the composer Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol was nominated for a Grammy in 2014; and the composer Pinar Toprak has won two International Film Music Critics Association Awards for The Lightkeepers (2009) and The Wind Gods (2013).

Several notable Turkish American musicians have established their careers outside the United States; for example, the fusion jazz drummer Atilla Engin was active in Denmark; the singer, guitarist and songwriter Deniz Tek was a founding member of the Australian rock group Radio Birdman; and the singer Özlem Tekin has released most of her songs in Turkey.

Typically, Turkish Americans have voted Republican due to the party's support for Turkey regarding various foreign policy issues, such as the Cyprus conflict.

[88] Turkish American lobbying groups have donated money to politicians of both parties over the years who they felt best represented Turkish American interests, such as helping Texas Republican and former Turkey Caucus co-chair Pete Sessions return to the U.S. House in 2021 after suffering a defeat in 2018, or helping California Democrat Farrah Khan win an election to mayor of Irvine, California, in 2020.

On September 6, 2024, Turkish-American human rights activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi was shot in the head by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sniper during a protest against illegal Israeli settlements in Beita, Nablus, in the West Bank.

On January 16, 2013, Ersal Ozdemir founded Indy Eleven which is an American professional soccer team based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

A two-time Pro Bowl selection as an offensive tackle with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he was the first Turk to play in the National Football League (NFL).