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Coptic Americans are American citizens of Coptic descent or persons of Coptic descent residing in the United States of America. According to the American Coptic Association, there are approximately 450,000 Copts in the United States since many ethnic Copts listed themselves in the 2011 U.S. Census mistakenly as either Egyptians, Sudanese, Libyans or Americans and by this way reducing the ethnic Coptic population in the United States to not be even included within the 2011 U.S. Census. Estimates for the number of ethnic Copts in the US range from 700,000 to more than 1 million.
Immigration history
The immigration of the Copts to the United States of America started as early as the late 1940s. After 1952, the rate of Coptic immigration from Egypt to the United States increased. The first Coptic church in the United States is St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church, which was established in the late 1960s in Jersey City.
There are many Coptic Orthodox churches and congregations in the United States. Estimated numbers of adherents, based on church membership, was between 350,000 and 420,000. Based on the estimates of certain Coptic organizations, the number was between 700,000 and one million [7] [8] [9] [10] in the year 2002. Currently, there are over 200 parishes in the United States that serve the expanding Coptic Orthodox population. The church has a large population when compared to other smaller Christian bodies, yet is one of the least known Christian churches and the least known large Orthodox bodies.