Foreign-Born Population in US Grew 15 Percent in 12 Years: Census Bureau

The foreign-born population in the United States grew by 15.6 percent from 2010 to 2022, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau released Tuesday.

Native-born is defined by the Census Bureau as anyone who is born in the U.S. or its territories to a U.S. citizen parent or parents, while foreign-born is defined as people who were not U.S. citizens at birth, including naturalized citizens, refugees, asylees, and unauthorized migrants.

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In 2022, the foreign-born population was estimated to be 46.2 million, or 13.9 percent of the total U.S. population — up from around 40 million, or 12.9 percent of the nation’s total population, in 2010.

The U.S. Census Bureau report found that the geographic distribution of the nation’s foreign-born population is heavily concentrated in four states: California, New Jersey, New York and Florida — with the foreign-born constituting more than 20 percent of the total population in those states.

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Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota and West Virginia each saw their foreign-born populations grow by 40 percent or more from 2010 to 2022.

A total of 42 states experienced an increase in foreign-born population by 10 percent or more over the same period.

The report also found that the age of the foreign-born population went up more than the native population in the 12-year period.

From 2010 to 2022, the median age of the foreign-born population increased from 41.4 to 46.7 years old, while that of the native population increased by just one year from 35.9 to 36.9 years old.

In Maine, the number of foreign-born people increased from 46,000 in 2010 to 56,000 in 2022.

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While the report found that about half of the nation’s foreign-born population was from Latin America in 2022, during the 12-year period the share of Asian-born population as a share of the total foreign-born population increased from 28.2 percent to 31.1 percent, while the African-born share grew from 4 to 6 percent.

The full U.S. Census Bureau report can be found here.