March 11, 2002

One-fifth of U.S. population today either
foreign-born or first-generation resident
___WASHINGTON--One in five United States residents is foreign-born or a first-generation U.S. resident, according to new data from the Census Bureau.
___The 56 million foreign-born and first-generation residents mark the highest level of immigrant residence in U.S. history.
___"The number of foreign-born and first-generation residents is likely to rise in the future as recent immigrants form families," said Dianne Schmidley, author of the Census Bureau report. "One indication of this is the fact that births to foreign-born women now account for one in five births in the United States, which is up from about one in 20 three decades ago."
___The 2000 total of 56 million residents who either were foreign-born themselves or who had at least one foreign-born parent grew from 34 million in 1970. The foreign-born population alone was estimated at 28 million in 2000, or one in 10 U.S. residents.
___The foreign-born and first-generation population has become not only larger, but also younger, the Census Bureau noted. As a result, 21 percent of the nation's population under age 25 in 2000 was either foreign-born or first-generation, up from only 7 percent in 1970.
___"Contrary to popular belief, most children who live with foreign-born parents were born in the United States and not abroad." Schmidley said. "Indeed, among the 11.5 million children who lived with foreign-born householders in 2000, about eight in 10 were born in the United States."
___Other highlights of the report:
___ Although the survey sample was not large enough to rank most countries with complete accuracy, Latin America and Asia probably accounted for as many as nine of the 10 leading countries of birth for the U.S. foreign-born in 2000. Mexico alone accounted for more than one-quarter of this population.
___ A ratio of seven in 10 foreign-born people lived in the six states having a foreign-born population of 1 million or more. These included California (8.8 million), New York (3.6 million), Florida (2.8 million), Texas (2.4 million), New Jersey (1.2 million) and Illinois (1.2 million).
___ In five of these states, the proportion foreign born exceeded the national average of 10.4 percent: California (25.9 percent), New York (19.6 percent), Florida (18.4 percent), New Jersey (14.9 percent) and Texas (12.2 percent).
___ The 1999 median income of households with a foreign-born householder ranged from a low of $29,388 for those where the householder was born in Latin America to a high of $51,363 for those whose householders were born in Asia.
___ The median duration of residence in the United States for the foreign-born population was 25 years for those from Europe and 14 years each for those from Asia and those from Latin America.
___ Average household size for foreign-born households ranged from a high of 3.7 people for those with Latin American householders to a low of about 2.3 people for those with householders from Canada and Europe.

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