Nearly One in Seven U.S. Residents Are Now Immigrants

Washington, D.C. (September 14, 2018) – A report by the Center for Immigration Studies analyzes new data from the 2017 American Community Survey (ACS), released by the Census Bureau Thursday, showing the nation’s immigrant population (legal and illegal) has reached 44.5 million – the highest number in U.S. history. Growth was led by immigrants from Latin American countries other than Mexico, as well as Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The number from Mexico, Europe and Canada either remained flat or declined since 2010. The Census Bureau refers to immigrants as the foreign-born population. 

“America continues to experience the largest wave of mass immigration in our history. The decline in Mexican immigrants has been entirely offset by immigration from the rest of the world. By 2027, the immigrant share will hit its highest level in U.S. history, and continue to rise,” said Steven Camarota, the Center's director of research and co-author of the report.

Read the Report: https://cis.org/Report/Record-445-Million-Immigrants-2017

Key findings:

• As a share of the U.S. population, immigrants (legal and illegal) comprised 13.7 percent or nearly one out of seven U.S. residents in 2017, the highest percentage since 1910.
• The number of immigrants hit a record 44.5 million in 2017, an increase of nearly 800,000 since 2016, 4.6 million since 2010, and 13.4 million since 2000.
• There were also 17.1 million U.S.-born minor children of immigrants in 2017, for a total of 61.6 million immigrants and their young children in the country — accounting for one in five U.S. residents.
• Between 2010 and 2017, 9.5 million new immigrants settled in the United States. New arrivals are offset by roughly 300,000 immigrants who return home each year and natural mortality of about 300,000 annually. As a result, the immigrant population grew 4.6 million from 2010 to 2017.
• The 9.5 million new arrivals since 2010 roughly equals the entire immigrant population in 1970.