With a foreign-born population of more than 44 million, the U.S. has the largest number of immigrants in the world. In fact, research from the Pew Research Center shows that the U.S. immigrant population accounts for one-fifth of the world’s migrants. While U.S. immigrants come from almost every country in the world, Mexico is the most common country of origin for the foreign-born population.
From the period of 1850 to 2020, when the most recent data is available, the foreign-born population share hit a high of 14.8% in 1900. From 1920 to 1980, the share of immigrants fell, dropping to a low of 4.7% in 1980. Until recently, the immigrant share of the population had been climbing and was at a near historic high in 2019 before the pandemic. The share of immigrants dropped slightly in 2020 to 13.5%, down from the 13.7% it had stood at for the last several years.
Accounting for 24.8% of the foreign-born population, Mexico claims the largest number of U.S. immigrants. The Chinese and Indian immigrant populations are also large, making up a collective 12.2% of the foreign-born population. Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data shows that about one million immigrants arrive in the U.S. each year, and the most common region for new immigrants is now Asia, which recently surpassed Hispanic countries.
While immigrants live in every U.S. state, some parts of the country have larger foreign-born populations than others. Over one-fourth of California’s population is foreign-born—mostly coming from Mexico—making California the top state for immigrants. New Jersey and New York also have large immigrant populations, with 22.7% and 22.4% of their populations being immigrants, respectively. Alternatively, Montana and West Virginia have very small immigrant populations, accounting for just 2.2% and 1.6% of their populations, respectively.
To determine the U.S. states with the largest immigrant populations, researchers at BackgroundChecks.org analyzed the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The researchers ranked states according to the foreign-born population share. Researchers also calculated the most common country of origin, the total foreign-born population, and the total population.
The analysis found that immigrants account for 10.2% of the Georgia population, compared to 13.5% nationally. Here is a summary of the data for Georgia:
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Foreign-born population share: 10.2%
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Most common country of origin: Mexico
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Total foreign-born population: 1,068,027
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Total population: 10,516,579
For reference, here are the statistics for the entire United States:
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Foreign-born population share: 13.5%
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Most common country of origin: Mexico
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Total foreign-born population: 44,125,628
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Total population: 326,569,308
For more information, a detailed methodology, and complete results, you can find the original report on BackgroundChecks.org’s website: https://backgroundchecks.org/cities-largest-immigrant-population.html
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