PPIC Reports on Immigrants in California
The Public Policy Institute of California has released two studies with some fascinating data about immigrants in California, the state with the largest immigrant population in the nation. Here are the two reports:
California is home to nearly 11 million immigrants—about a quarter of the state’s population.
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California has more immigrants than any other state. California is home to almost 11 million immigrants—about a quarter of the foreign-born population nationwide. In 2017, the most current year of data, 27% of California’s population was foreign born, more than double the percentage in the rest of the country. Foreign-born residents represented at least one-third of the population in five California counties: Santa Clara (39%), San Francisco (36%), San Mateo (35%), Los Angeles (34%), and Alameda (33%). Half of California children have at least one immigrant parent.
Immigrants and Education in California
California increasingly depends on immigrants to meet demand for highly educated workers, particularly in the tech and health sectors.
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Recent immigrants are more likely than US-born Californians to be college graduates. Educational attainment among newly arrived adult immigrants has increased markedly since 1990. In 2017, 52% of working-age immigrants (age 25–64) who had lived in the US for five years or less had bachelor’s or graduate degrees, up 30 percentage points from 22% in 1990. In contrast, the share of college graduates among US-born Californians was 37% in 2017, up 10 points from 27% in 1990. Among newly arrived, working-age immigrants, only 17% had not graduated from high school in 2017, compared with nearly half (47%) in 1990.
KJ