US Historical Immigration Trends

The Migration Policy Institute has compiled a wealth of information about the historical trends of immigration to the United States. Charts and downloadable graphs map immigration patterns over the past decades, detailing characteristics of the US immigrant population that allow for greater analysis of migration flows and a historical context of immigration in the country. The data — drawn from the 2010 American Community Survey — include immigrants’ countries and regions of birth, immigrants in the US labor force, children in immigrant families by state and age groups, and immigrants’ age and sex distribution.

The top ten countries of immigration in 2010:

As expected, Mexico continues to hold the lead with the largest foreign-born population in the United States (29 percent of the nation’s 40 million immigrants).

Far behind Mexico is China (which includes Hong Kong) at 5 percent, followed by India and the Philippines (4 percent each); Vietnam, El Salvador, Cuba, and Korea (3 percent each); and the Dominican Republic and Guatemala (2 percent each).

In 2000, Germany and Canada were in the top ten, with the Philippines slightly edging out China as the country with the second-highest percentage of the 31.1 million immigrants.

KJ