October 10, 2024 Dear John, With immigration a topic of significant conversation, it is useful to share key insights about the immigrant population in the United States. We are out today with a short explainer that offers top statistics on the foreign-born population in the United States, including its size, origins, places of U.S. settlement, and pathways of arrival. The United States is the world’s top immigrant destination, with more than three-quarters of the nearly 48 million immigrants in the country as of 2023 here legally as naturalized citizens, green-card holders, refugee and asylees, and individuals on long-term temporary visas. The explainer, Who Are Immigrants in the United States?, shares a number of data points, including: - The foreign-born share of the U.S. population, which stood at 14.3 percent in 2023, is near the historical high of 14.8 percent recorded in 1890.
- Immigrants and their U.S.-born children account for 27 percent of the total U.S. civilian population.
- The national origins of immigrants have significantly diversified. While Mexico remains the largest single source country, immigration from South America, Africa, and Asia has grown rapidly since 2010. Even as the overall immigrant population in the United States grew by 20 percent between 2010 and 2023, immigration from Africa increased by 74 percent and from South America by 61 percent.
These demographic shifts have important implications for the U.S. workforce, education systems, and communities. We hope these insights prove useful in your work. For data snapshots of individual immigrant groups in the United States, check out our library of spotlights on particular populations by country of origin, region, or other characteristic. Also, check out our recent explainer on noncitizens and voting. We will be issuing explainers on other topics of public interest, including next week on immigrants’ eligibility for federal public benefits. We invite you to read them and share them with your networks. |
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