E.g., 04/28/2024
E.g., 04/28/2024
U.S. Data

U.S. Data

Immigration_History

More than 43 million people living in the United States—whether as naturalized citizen, legal permanent resident, temporary resident, or unauthorized immigrant—were born in another country, representing 13 percent of the U.S. population. Immigration has ebbed and flowed throughout U.S. history, peaking at nearly 15 percent of the population in 1890 and plummeting to 5 percent in 1970. The data-rich research offered here traces the U.S. immigrant population by size, educational and workforce characteristics, English language proficiency, and more.

For information on U.S. immigrants by state, check out the State Immigration Data Profiles tool. And for detailed profiles on unauthorized immigrants nationally and by state, visit this tool.

Recent Activity

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Policy Briefs
May 2007
By  Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Jeanne Batalova and Julia Gelatt
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Fact Sheets
May 2007
By  Julia Gelatt

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The majority of South American born counted in the 2000 census were from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. MPI's David Dixon and Julia Gelatt look at the social and economic profiles of the foreign born from this region.

Over half of all Central American foreign born in the United States are from El Salvador and Guatemala. MPI's Megan Davy examines the numbers as well as events and policies that have shaped Central American migration.

The Asian born accounted for more than a quarter of the total U.S. foreign-born population in 2000. MPI's David Dixon looks at the social and economic profiles of the foreign born from Eastern, Southeastern South Central and Western Asia.

About five million students with limited proficiency in English were enrolled in U.S. public schools in the 2003-2004 school year. MPI's Jeanne Batalova examines their characteristics.

MPI's David Dixon looks at the social and economic profiles of the foreign born from Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Africa.

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Recent Activity

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In 2006, about 271,000 foreign born of Pakistani origin were residing in the United States. MPI's Jeanne Batalova and Uriah Ferruccio examine the geographic distribution and socioeconomic characteristics of this population.

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In 2006, nearly 15.2 million naturalized citizens were eligible to vote in the United States. MPI's Claire Bergeron and Jeanne Batalova examine naturalization trends.
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In 2006, the U.S. admitted more than 41,000 refugees for resettlement and granted asylum to more than 26,000 people. MPI's Kelly O'Donnell and Jeanne Batalova take a detailed look at refugee and asylum statistics in the United States.

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Nearly 1.3 million individuals became lawful permanent residents of the United States in 2006. MPI's Gretchen Reinemeyer and Jeanne Batalova look at the latest statistics on legal immigration.

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Of the 15.36 million union members in 2006, 12 percent were foreign born. MPI's Chuncui Velma Fan and Jeanne Batalova examine the data on immigrants and labor unions from 1996 to 2006.

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Over half of the foreign born in the United States in 2005 arrived in 1990 or later. MPI's Jeanne Batalova and Aaron Terrazas look at the countries of origin, education levels, occupations, and other characteristics of newer immigrants.

Policy Briefs
May 2007

This report offers a series of original charts that depict the characteristics of recent immigrants who are representative of those likely to be affected by the proposed merit-based points system for selecting permanent immigrants to the United States.

Fact Sheets
May 2007

While official measures of annual permanent immigration levels simply account for those who obtain lawful permanent resident status in a particular year, this report offers a more complex approximation by including estimates of certain forms of temporary immigration and unauthorized immigration in the calculus.

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