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Quick Immigration Statistics: United States
There are approximately 44.7 million immigrants in the United States.
The Immigrant Learning Center has compiled a list of quick United States immigration statistics and facts to answer your most pressing questions about the current immigration landscape in the U.S.
If you don’t see what you need here, our Immigration Research Library contains more than 1,300 studies from reputable sources, and new reports are added as they become available. If you’re looking for more detailed data or want to examine specific immigrant populations, you can request a free, personalized fact sheet through the Immigration Data on Demand service from our partner, the Institute for Immigration Research at George Mason University. To learn more about the immigrants of our home state of Massachusetts, visit our Quick Immigration Statistics: Massachusetts page. If you have questions or suggestions about our Quick U.S. Immigration Stats, feel free to contact us at public.education@ilctr.org.
What is the migration status of immigrants in the United States?
The majority of U.S. immigrants (73%) have authorization.
Source:
Almost half (47.2%) of all immigrants have become United States citizens.
Source: Institute of Immigration Research analysis of the American Community Survey (ACS) 2012-2016 5-year sample data from Integrated Public Use Microdata Sample (IPUMS-USA) file
Source: Institute of Immigration Research analysis of the American Community Survey (ACS) 2012-2016 5-year sample data from Integrated Public Use Microdata Sample
How do immigrants impact the United States workforce?
Immigrants have a higher workforce participation rate.*
Source: Institute of Immigration Research analysis of the American Community Survey (ACS) 2012-2016 5-year sample data from Integrated Public Use Microdata Sample
* The workforce participation rate is calculated by dividing the number of people working and those actively seeking work by the number of non-institutionalized, working-age (16-65) civilians.
Immigrants, particularly refugees, have higher self-employment rates than U.S.-born.
One quarter (25%) of new U.S. businesses are founded by immigrants.
Source: Institute of Immigration Research analysis of the American Community Survey (ACS) 2012-2016 5-year sample data from Integrated Public Use Microdata Sample
Source: Immigrant Entrepreneurship, National Bureau of Economic Research, July 2016
Learn more about the accomplishments of immigrant business founders, including entrepreneurs like Andrew Carnegie, Elon Musk, and many more, in The ILC’s Immigrant Entrepreneur Hall of Fame.