The other day when I was telling you about the Top Ten Migration Stories of the year from MPI, I came across this article in their Migration Information Source section of the website. It is a great piece of work that everyone interested in refugees and immigrants should bookmark for future reference entitled, “Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States.”
Here is just a tiny sample of the information they have collected.
What are the top five states in terms of the number of immigrants, share of immigrants in the total state population, absolute growth, and percent growth between 1990 and 2000 and between 2000 and 2008?
In 2008, the top five US states by the number of immigrants were California (9,859,027), New York (4,236,768), Texas (3,887,224), Florida (3,391,511), and Illinois (1,782,423).
When classified by the share of immigrants in the total state population, the top five states in 2008 were California (26.8 percent), New York (21.7 percent), New Jersey (19.8 percent), Nevada (18.9 percent), and Florida (18.5 percent).
Between 1990 and 2000, the five states with the largest absolute growth of the immigrant population were California (2,405,430), Texas (1,375,206), New York (1,016,272), Florida (1,008,227), and Illinois (576,786).
Between 2000 and 2008, the five states with the largest absolute growth of the immigrant population were California (994,772), Texas (987,582), Florida (720,683), New York (368,635), and Georgia (333,200).
Between 1990 and 2000, the five states with the largest percent growth of the immigrant population were North Carolina (273.7 percent), Georgia (233.4 percent), Nevada (202.0 percent), Arkansas (196.3 percent), and Utah (170.8 percent).
However, between 2000 and 2008, the five states with the largest percent growth of the immigrant population were South Carolina (68.2 percent), Georgia (57.7 percent), Tennessee (56.3 percent), Nevada (55.0 percent), and Mississippi (51.7 percent).
For future reference you will find this post linked in our ‘where to find information’ category, here.