Immigration Patterns across Selected U.S. States

U.S. immigration data offer interesting insights into many important topics, such as how immigration levels have evolved over time, which countries immigrants come from, and what level of education immigrants attain. However, looking at the U.S. as a whole does not present a full picture of immigration patterns specific to various parts of the country. Accordingly, this blog post focuses on immigration at the level of selected states to provide a state-to-state comparison as well as a state-to-U.S. comparison.

We begin by ranking U.S. states and Washington, D.C., by the proportion of immigrants among their respective populations in 2022 (the most recent year in our dataset), which helps us identify the states with the highest immigrant shares.The terms “immigrant” and “foreign born” are used interchangeably. Next, we narrow the focus of our analysis to the five states with the highest immigrant shares and trace the evolution of those immigrant shares since 1990. We then identify the nations contributing the largest shares of immigrants to these selected states. Finally, we discuss certain educational characteristics among the immigrant populations of the selected states and see how they compare with those of the states’ U.S.-born populations.

States Ordered by the Proportion of Foreign Born in Their Populations

The figure below lists U.S. states and Washington, D.C., in declining order of immigrant share in 2022. Only 13 states and Washington, D.C., exceeded the 14.9% immigrant share of the U.S. as a whole, suggesting quite an uneven distribution of immigrants across states. As one might expect, some more prosperous states like California, New Jersey and New York feature high on the list.

Share of Foreign Born in U.S. States and Washington, D.C., 2022

SOURCES: American Community Survey and authors’ calculations.

Immigrant Shares over Time in the Selected States

The following figure charts immigrant shares for the U.S. and for the top five states in our first figure—California, New Jersey, New York, Florida and Nevada (i.e., the selected states“Selected states” refers to California, New Jersey, New York, Florida and Nevada—the five states with the highest shares of immigrants among their populations in 2022—for the rest of this blog post.)—since 1990. The 1990s show sharply rising immigrant shares in most of the selected states. The period between 2000 and the 2007-09 Great Recession shows a continuation of this growth, albeit at a somewhat slower pace for some of the states. In the post-Great Recession period, we can observe an interesting divergence between the western U.S. states of California and Nevada on the one hand and the eastern U.S. states of New Jersey, New York and Florida on the other. Immigrant shares in the western states were fairly flat from 2009 to 2022, while immigrant shares in the eastern states exhibited continuing growth, although New York’s growth was modest.

Share of Foreign Born in the U.S. and Selected U.S. States, 1990-2022

SOURCES: American Community Survey and authors’ calculations.

NOTES: Shaded areas indicate years that experienced recession. Recessions based on monthly data are shown at an annual frequency for consistency with American Community Survey data. Data for 1991 to 1999 are not available.

Origin Nations of Immigrants in the Selected States

The table below presents the top five origin nations of immigrants to the U.S. and the selected states. Similar to the nation as a whole, Mexico was the largest nation of origin for immigrants to the western states of California and Nevada. In contrast, New Jersey and New York, which are distant from the Southwest border, have India and the Dominican Republic, respectively, as their top origin nations. Many Asian nations feature in this matrix of top origin nations, emphasizing the role of factors that may complement (or compensate for) geographical proximity.

Educational Attainment of Immigrants in the Selected States

The next two figures illustrate the shares of the foreign-born population age 22 and older and the U.S.-born population age 22 and older, respectively, at different levels of educational attainment for the U.S. and the selected states. In 2022, the percentage of U.S. born with at least a high school diploma was much larger than the percentage of immigrants with at least a high school diploma in the U.S. and all five selected states. Interestingly, however, the percentage of immigrants in the U.S. with graduate degrees slightly exceeded the percentage of U.S. born with that level of education. Among the selected states, New Jersey’s foreign-born population had the highest percentage of people with graduate degrees.

Educational Attainment of Foreign Born (Age 22+) in the U.S. and Selected U.S. States, 2022

Educational Attainment of U.S. Born (Age 22+) in the U.S. and Selected U.S. States, 2022

SOURCES FOR THE TWO FIGURES: American Community Survey and authors’ calculations.

Summary of Immigration Patterns

In this blog post, we highlighted some differences in immigration patterns across selected U.S. states. Immigrant shares have risen more strongly in recent years in the eastern selected states than they have in the western selected states. Immigrants come to the U.S. and our selected states from a variety of near and distant nations, with Mexico being the dominant nation of origin for the U.S. and the western selected states. Immigrants varied greatly in terms of their educational attainment, both across the selected states and when compared with the U.S.-born population. These differences are most starkly exemplified by the fact that at the national level, immigrant shares exceeded the shares of U.S. born at both the highest and the lowest levels of educational attainment.

Notes

1. The terms “immigrant” and “foreign born” are used interchangeably.
2. “Selected states” refers to California, New Jersey, New York, Florida and Nevada—the five states with the highest shares of immigrants among their populations in 2022—for the rest of this blog post.