What share of the US population was born in another country?
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About one in seven people living in the United States was born in another country. The Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey counted 50,234,858 foreign-born residents out of 340,110,990, or 14.8 percent.
That includes everyone who was not a U.S. citizen at birth: naturalized citizens, green card holders, people on temporary visas, refugees, and people in the country without legal status. It does not include people born abroad to American parents, or anyone born in Puerto Rico or another U.S. territory, who are citizens from birth.
Just over half of the foreign-born population has become American citizens. In 2024, 25,837,975 were naturalized, 51.4 percent of the group, and 24,396,883 were not citizens. Those noncitizens were 7.2 percent of all residents.
How the share has grown since 2019
| Year | Foreign-born residents | Share of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 44,932,901 | 13.7% |
| 2021 | 45,270,103 | 13.6% |
| 2022 | 46,182,177 | 13.9% |
| 2023 | 47,831,411 | 14.3% |
| 2024 | 50,234,858 | 14.8% |
The share barely moved from 2019 to 2021, when pandemic border closures slowed arrivals, then rose three years running. The jump from 2023 to 2024 alone was 2.4 million people, the largest one-year increase in the table. Over five years the foreign-born population grew by 5.3 million while the total population grew by 11.9 million, so the foreign-born gain equaled about 45 percent of the country's total growth over that stretch.
The 14.8 percent figure ties the record set in 1890. The long history, from 9.7 percent in 1850 down to 4.7 percent in 1970 and back up, is in our look at 250 years of the foreign-born population.
By state, the share runs from 2 percent to 28 percent
The national average hides enormous variation within each state. California is 27.6 percent foreign-born, more than one in four residents. New Jersey is next at 25.0 percent, then New York at 23.3 percent and Florida at 23.1 percent.
| Highest | Share | Lowest | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 27.6% | West Virginia | 2.1% |
| New Jersey | 25.0% | Montana | 2.1% |
| New York | 23.3% | Mississippi | 2.7% |
| Florida | 23.1% | Wyoming | 3.5% |
| Nevada | 19.9% | South Dakota | 4.1% |
| Massachusetts | 18.7% | Alabama | 4.5% |
| Hawaii | 18.6% | Vermont | 4.5% |
| Texas | 18.4% | Maine | 4.7% |
Texas has more foreign-born residents than any state but California, 5.8 million, though its share is lower because its native-born population is so large. West Virginia and Montana are the least immigrant states, at 2.1 percent each, followed by Mississippi at 2.7 percent. Only 13 states and the District of Columbia are above the national average of 14.8 percent, because a handful of big states pull it up.
Counties where immigrants are the majority
Among counties with at least 100,000 residents, Miami-Dade County, Florida, has the highest share in the country at 54.5 percent, the only large county where the foreign-born are a majority. Queens County, New York, is next at 47.6 percent, then Hudson County, New Jersey, at 42.8 percent and Santa Clara County, California, at 41.5 percent.
At the other end, 1,144 of the country's 3,144 counties are less than 2 percent foreign-born. More than a third of American counties have almost no immigrant residents at all.
City-level figures are in the most foreign-born cities in America, and the full rankings are at states with the highest foreign-born share. Every state, county, and city page on CensusEasy lists its own foreign-born share.
Sources
National and state figures are from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 1-year estimates, table B05002 (place of birth by nativity and citizenship status), for 2019 and 2021 through 2024. The bureau did not release standard 1-year estimates for 2020 because of pandemic data-collection problems. County figures are from the 2020-2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates, which are needed for counties with fewer than 65,000 people, and are not directly comparable to the 1-year numbers. The 1890 comparison comes from the Census Bureau's historical decennial data.
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What percentage of the US population is foreign-born?
14.8 percent in 2024, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. That was 50,234,858 people out of 340,110,990, about one in seven residents, and it matches the historical high of 14.8 percent recorded in 1890.
How many foreign-born Americans are citizens?
Just over half. In 2024, 25.8 million foreign-born residents were naturalized U.S. citizens, 51.4 percent of the group. The other 24.4 million were not citizens, a group that includes green card holders, visa holders, and people without legal status.
Which state has the highest share of immigrants?
California, where 27.6 percent of residents were born in another country. New Jersey follows at 25.0 percent, then New York at 23.3 percent and Florida at 23.1 percent. West Virginia and Montana are lowest at 2.1 percent each.
