Where the Nation’s Foreign-Born Live Has Changed Over Time

Paul Jacobs for the U.S. Census Burauu in a brief report looks at this trends in where the foreign-born live in the United States.  

By 2016, 13.5 percent of the U.S. population was foreign-born, a level that rivaled historic highs. But what has changed considerably over time is who the foreign-born are and where they have dispersed across the country, according to U.S. Census Bureau research.

The share who were foreign-born declined across all regions in the decades after the 1920 Census. Policies restricting the inflow and permanent settlement of the foreign-born as well as the Great Depression were major factors.

After the 1965 Immigration Act made entry into the United States more accessible, the number of foreign-born in the United States has risen, driven by newcomers from Latin America and Asia. As a result, the percentage of foreign-born residents has increased in all four U.S. regions (Northeast, South, Midwest, West).

Until 1980, the percentage of residents in the South who were born in another country was well below that of other regions and the national average. By 2016, the percentage of residents in the South who were foreign-born was higher than in the Midwest.

Throughout all years, the West has had either the highest or the second-highest percentage of residents hailing from another country.

The share of all foreign-born living in the United States was historically concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest regions. Until 1940, over 80 percent of all foreign-born in the United States resided in either of the two regions.

The foreign-born population eventually followed the rest of the U.S. population, expanding to the South and West. By 2016, more than two-thirds of the foreign-born resided in the South or West.

The share of foreign-born living in the South has risen over time, while the share of foreign-born living in the West increased for decades until peaking in 1990.

KJ