US Immigrant Population Hits Record 43.7 Million

The immigrant population in the United States has risen to a record 43.7 million, according to a report released on Monday by the Center for Immigration Studies.

The figure, which is as of July 2016 and includes both legal and illegal immigrants, shows an increase of half a million since 2015, 3.8 million since 2010, and 12.6 million since 2000.

Other key findings from the report show:

• Immigrants comprise 13.5 percent of the U.S. population, the highest percentage in more than 100 years and double the percentage as part of the overall population in 1980.
• In addition to immigrants, there were 16.6 million U.S.-born minor children with an immigrant parent in 2016, for a total of 60.4 million immigrants and their children nationwide, making up nearly 20 percent of the overall population.
• Between 2010 and 2016, 8.1 million new immigrants arrived in the U.S. Subtracting the approximately 300,000 immigrants who return home each year and the death of about another 300,000 among the existing foreign-born population annually, the growth in the immigrant population was 3.8 million since 2010.
• Although Mexican immigrants were by far the largest foreign-born population in the country in 2016, the overall Mexican-born population has not grown in the last six years due to return migration and natural mortality among the existing population.
• The largest increases in immigrants from particular regions from 2015 to 2016 were the Caribbean at 120,522 and the Middle East at 109,113.
• From 2010 to 2016 the largest numerical increases were immigrants from India at 654,202, China at 550,022 and the Dominican Republic at 206,134. The largest increases in percentage terms for immigrants living in the U.S. during that period were those from Saudi Arabia at 122 percent, Nepal at 86 percent and Afghanistan at 74 percent.
• The states with the largest numerical increases in the number of immigrants from 2010 to 2016 were Texas at 587,889, Florida at 578,468 and California at 527,234. The states registering the highest percentage of increases during that time period were North Dakota at 48 percent, West Virginia at 41 percent and South Dakota at 39 percent.

"The enormous number of immigrants already in the country coupled with the settlement of well over a million newcomers each year has a profound impact on American society, including on workers, schools, infrastructure, hospitals and the environment," Center for Immigration Studies Director of Research Steven Camarota told the Washington Examiner.

"The nation needs a serious debate about whether continuing this level of immigration makes sense," he added

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