Coptic Americans


Coptic Americans are American citizens of Coptic descent or persons of Coptic descent residing in the United States of America. As of 2018, there were some 500,000 Copts living in the United States.

Immigration history

The immigration of the Copts to the United States 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.
As of 2013, researchers estimated that there were about 350,000 Copts who settled in the United States before the Egyptian revolution of 2011, with up to 100,000 additional Copts who settled in the U.S. after the revolution, fleeing instability and violence in Egypt. Many came to the U.S. on grants of asylum. The new post-2011 migrants to the United States included both educated middle-class Copts and poorer, more rural Copts. As of 2018, it was estimated that a half-million Copts lived in the United States.
The historic centers of Coptic American life have been in New York, New Jersey, and Southern California.
In the 1990s, there were more than 50 Coptic congregations in the United States; by 2018, there were more than 250 Coptic congregations in the United States.

Notable people

This is a list of notable Coptic Americans, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants.