Pew Research Center

FOR RELEASE SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

2016, Foreign-Born Population in the United States Statistical Portrait

Statistical portrait of the foreign-born population in the United States

BY Jynnah Radford and Abby Budiman

FOR MEDIA OR OTHER INQUIRIES:

Communications Department
202.419.4372
www.pewresearch.org

RECOMMENDED CITATION

Pew Research Center, September 2018, "2016, Foreign-Born Population in the United States Statistical Portrait"

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2016, Foreign-Born Population in the United States Statistical Portrait

Statistical portrait of the foreign-born population in the United States

*Visit the most recent data on U.S. immigrants.

Characteristics of the U.S. foreign-born population: 2016

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There were a record 43.7 million immigrants living in the U.S. in 2016, making up 13.5% of the nation’s population. This represents a more than fourfold increase since 1960, when only 9.7 million immigrants lived in the U.S., accounting for just 5.4% of the total U.S. population. Click on the expand buttons below the summary tables to see detailed tables for each.

To find more context on the figures below, visit the blog posts “Key findings about U.S. immigrants” and “Education levels of U.S. immigrants are on the rise,” and for a downloadable version of the tables below, see the PDF and the Excel workbook. For a profile of the Hispanic population in the United States, click here.

[portrait images=”https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_1_Population-by-nativity-and-citizenship.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_2_Foreign-born-by-birth-region.png, https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/11/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_5_Country-of-Birth.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_6_Foreign-born-by-birth-region-and-years-in-US.png” headline=”Population, region of birth, nativity and years in the U.S.”]

Population (#) 43,681,654
Born in Mexico 26.5%
Citizen 48.7%

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[portrait images=”https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_3_Population-by-nativity-race-ethnicity.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_4_Racial-self-identification-by-nativity.png” headline=”Race”]

White alone, not Hispanic 18.1%

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[portrait images=”https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_7_Language-by-age-nativity-and-birth-region.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_8_Language-by-years-in-US-and-age.png” headline=”Language use”]

Speaking English at least very well (ages 5 and older) 51.0%

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[portrait images=”https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_9_Age-by-sex-nativity-and-birth-region.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_10_Generations-and-age-by-nativity-and-birth-region.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_11_Nativity-by-sex-and-age.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_12_Age-and-gender-for-nativity.png” headline=”Age and gender”]

Median age (in years) 44
Female 51.5%

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[portrait images=”https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_13_Marital-status-by-nativity-and-birth-region.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_14_Fertility-by-nativity-and-birth-region.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_15_Fertility-by-marital-status-nativity-birth-region.png” headline=”Marital status and fertility”]

Married (ages 18 and older) 60.3%
Women ages 15-44 giving birth in past year 7.4%

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High school graduate or less 51.3%
Two-year degree/Some college 18.7%
Bachelor’s degree or more 30.0%

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[portrait images=”https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_20_Employment-status-by-nativity-and-birth-region.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_21_Occupation-by-nativity.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_22_Occupation-by-birth-region.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_23_Detailed-occupation-by-nativity.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_24_Detailed-occupation-by-birth-region.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_25-Industry-by-nativity.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_26_Industry-by-birth-region.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_27_Detailed-industry-by-nativity.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_28_Detailed-industry-by-birth-region.png” headline=”Work (ages 16 and older)”]

In labor force (among civilian population) 66.1%

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[portrait images=”https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_29_Persons-by-personal-earnings-nativity-birth-region.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_30_Median-personal-earnings-by-nativity-birth-region.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_31_Full-time-workers-by-earnings-nativity-birth-region.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_32_Median-personal-earnings-full-time-by-nativity-birth-region.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_33_Households-by-income-nativity-birth-region.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_34_Median-household-income-by-nativity-birth-region.png” headline=”Earnings and income (ages 16 and older)”]

Median annual personal earnings (in 2016 dollars, among those with earnings) $30,000
Median annual household income (in 2016 dollars) $53,200

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[portrait images=”https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_35_Poverty-by-age-nativity-birth-region.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_36_Persons-without-health-insurance-by-age-nativity-citizenship.png, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/PH_2016-Foreign-Born-Statistical-Portraits_Current-Data_37_Type-of-health-insurance-by-nativity-citizenship.png” headline=”Poverty and health insurance”]

Living in poverty 19.7%
Uninsured 20.4%

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In family households 82.3%

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West 34.5%
California 24.5%
South 33.0%
Texas 10.8%
Florida 9.7%
Northeast 21.4%
New York 10.4%
New Jersey 4.6%
Midwest 11.1%

[/portrait]

Source: Pew Research Center tabulations of 2016 American Community Survey (1% IPUMS).
“Statistical Portrait of the Foreign-Born Population in the United States, 2016”