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Tags: census | immigrant | population | growth

Immigrant Population Has Doubled Since 1990

By    |   Saturday, 20 December 2014 02:48 PM EST

The immigrant population has nearly doubled in the United States since 1990, Census Bureau reports reveal, and if trends continue, 93 percent of the nation's working age population will be from immigrants and their U.S.-born children by the year 2050, an analysis of the census data shows.

In 1990, about 7.9 percent of the population of the United States was born elsewhere, a Pew Charitable Trusts report released this week explains, totalling 19.7 million people. Nearly three of every four immigrants at that time lived in either California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, or Texas.

In such gateway states, there were a large number of counties with increases in foreign-born populations. In Florida, the immigrant population went from 1.5 million in 1990 to 3.4 million in 2012.

But by the 2010 census, approximately 40 million immigrants were in the country, making up over 13 percent of the nation's overall population. However, the numbers of immigrants living in the six leading states dropped to 65 percent, but other states, such as North Carolina, Nevada, Colorado, and Washington saw higher immigrant populations.

In North Carolina, the numbers of immigrants grew from 105,000 in 1990 to 651,000 in 2012. Washington saw its foreign-born population go up even more, from 290,000 to 803,000 in the same time period, with the Seattle area marking the most growth. Colorado's immigrant population also went up, from 129,000 to 441,000 in that time period.

A Center for Immigration Studies report in September showed that the fastest growing immigrant populations are from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

Between 2010 and 2013, that report indicated, there was a 13 percent growth of immigrants from the Middle East totaling 208,000; a 16 percent increase from South Asia for a total of 373,000; and a boost of 13 percent from sub-Saharan Africa equivalent to 177,000 people.

Native and foreign-born populations both grew during the period between 1990 and 2012, this week's Pew report said, but in some areas, native-born population decreased and the influx of immigrants slowed and in some cases even reversed population losses.

According to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Pew report said, immigration has slowed population loss both on the state level and in metropolitan areas in the Midwest.

The census report also showed that native-born population has gone down in the middle part of the United States as more foreigners come in, and immigrants are no longer mainly using the traditional gateway states such as Texas pr California to enter the country.

Immigration is also pushing population growth in other areas, such as the Sun Belt, the Pacific Northwest and the western mountain states.

The information is relevant, notes Pew, because immigrants can not only offset population declines, but compensates for the rising median age of the United States' population.

Pew noted the ratio of seniors, age 65 and older, to working age people aged 25-64 is rising, but immigrants add to the number of working age adults, as about half of those admitted to the country between 2003 and 2012 were between 20 to 40 years old, and only five percent were older than 65.

However, the center reported that while the numbers of immigrants are rising, they have a disproportionate share of the labor force, as they make up 13 percent of the overall population but just have about 16 percent of the labor force.

Sandy Fitzgerald

Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics. 

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The immigrant population has nearly doubled in the United States since 1990, Census Bureau reports reveal, and if trends continue, 93 percent of the nation's working age population will be from immigrants and their U.S.-born children by the year 2050, an analysis of the...
census, immigrant, population, growth
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2014-48-20
Saturday, 20 December 2014 02:48 PM
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