Immigrants make up over 20% of the population in four states: California, New Jersey, New York, Florida, according to a federal Census Bureau report released Tuesday. But compared to 2008, the top 10 states where immigrants live remain largely unchanged, with California, Texas and Florida leading states in immigrant population.
The numbers of immigrants in California, New Jersey, New York, and Florida grew between 2008-2012, when the last census was taken, and 2022. California, Florida, New Jersey and Texas had the largest increases in their number of immigrant populations, with Florida and Texas each gaining more than 850,000 foreign-born people, the report notes.
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In Texas, Harris County had the largest increase, followed by Miami-Dade County in Florida, and King County in Washington.
The majority of states have a small percentage of immigrants — between 1.8% and 10% of people. Still, immigrant populations in almost all states in the U.S. were larger in 2022 than in 2010. New Mexico was the only state which saw a drop in its immigrant population between those years.
A significant factor in states with the highest shares of immigrants — such as California, New Jersey, New York, and Florida — is that they are also more populous states. Still, some smaller states like Nevada and Hawaii did see between a 15% and about a 19.9% increase in foreign-born population.
Only two of the largest states with the largest number of immigrant populations in 2010 — Florida and Texas — experienced large growth from 2010 to 2022, as their immigrant population increased by at least 20%. In contrast, the immigrant populations in New York and California increased by less than 10%.
The states that experienced the largest growth rate are Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, and West Virginia, whose immigrant populations grew by 40% or more — largely because those states had small immigrant populations to begin with.
Overall, the U.S. immigrant population increased by 15.6% between 2010 and 2022.
In both 2010 and 2022, Latin America was the region immigrants came to the U.S. from the most. But where in Latin America they’re coming from has shifted over the course of a decade. The number of immigrants from South America and Central America increased by 2.1 million, while the count of those born in Mexico decreased by about 1 million, the report states.
The shares of immigrants from Asia and Africa increased between 2010 and 2022. The Asian-born population rose from 28% to 31% of the immigrant population, while the African-born share grew from 4% to 6%, states the report.
Nearly 33% of the country’s immigrants came to the United States in 2010 or later. Among African-born immigrants, 48% entered the United States during this period, more than any other region of birth group. In contrast, the majority of Latin American born individuals entered the United States before 2010.
The U.S. Census Bureau report explores how immigrants have dispersed across the United States by comparing the foreign-born population during a 10 year period: the five-year period in 2018-2022 and the five year period in 2008-2012. You can read the full report here.
