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Washington, D.C. (July 2, 2019) – An analysis of Census Bureau data by the Center for Immigration Studies shows that immigrants (legal and illegal) are coming to the United States at significantly older ages than in the past. The average age and the share arriving at or near retirement increased significantly from 2000 to 2017. These findings challenge the argument that immigration makes the country significantly younger. They also have implications for public coffers. Prior research indicates that older immigrants have a more negative fiscal impact than younger immigrants. The nation’s overall immigrant population is also aging rapidly.
“Most people assume that all immigrants come to America young, but that’s never been true and it’s less true now. In 2017, one in eight new immigrants was old enough to move directly into a retirement community. The current legal immigration system allows people to bring in older relatives. If we want more young immigrants, then we would need a very different system,” observed the Center’s Director of Research Steven Camarota, the lead author of the new report.
View the full report: https://cis.org/Report/Immigrants-Are-Coming-America-Older-Ages
Among the findings:
- The average age of newly arrived legal and illegal immigrants has increased from 26 in 2000 to 31 in 2017. The newly arrived are those who have lived in the country for 1.5 years or less.
- Older age groups have seen the largest increases. The share of newly arrived immigrants who are 50 and older nearly doubled, from 8 percent to 15 percent; the share 55 and over more than doubled, from 5 percent to 12 percent; and the share 65 and older roughly tripled, from 2 percent to 6 percent.
- On an annual basis, 276,000 immigrants 50 and older now settle in the country, including 213,000 immigrants 55 and older, and 113,000 who are 65 and older.
- The rise in the age at arrival for immigrants is a broad phenomenon affecting immigrants from most of the primary sending regions and top sending countries.
- Several factors likely explain the rising age of new arrivals, including significant population aging in all of the top immigrant-sending regions of the world, an increase in the number of green cards going to the parents of U.S. citizens, and a decline in new illegal immigration prior to 2017.
Aging of Overall Immigrant Population:
- Looking at all immigrants, the number of working-age (18-64) immigrants increased by 42 percent between 2000 and 2017, but the number over the age of 64 increased by 108 percent.
- The average age of all immigrants increased from 39 years to 45 years between 2000 and 2017. This is more than twice as fast as the average age increase for the nation’s overall population.
- Because the population of immigrants 65 and older has grown so fast, the share of all immigrants who are of retirement age now matches that of the native-born — 16 percent.
- The increase in the age at which immigrants are arriving contributed to rapid aging in the overall immigrant population, though the primary reason immigrants are aging is simply the natural aging of immigrants already in the country.
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