Percentage of Foreign Born

• The percentage of foreign-born Americans in the population has varied throughout U.S. history. According to census figures, it was 9.7 percent in 1850; rose to 13 to 14 percent from 1860 through 1920; went as low as 4.7 percent in 1970; and rose in each census after 1970 to 11.1 percent in 2000. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, immigration law revisions from 1965 through the 2000s contributed to the recent rise in percentage of foreign born people living in the United States.
  
  

Immigration Rate

• According to the Statistical Abstract of the United States, the immigration rate, dividing the number of immigrants in a time period by the U.S. population for a time period, was highest in the years 1901-1910, at 10.4 percent, and has declined overall, to 3.2 percent in 2004. The rate declines while the percentage of foreign born people increases. This likely reflects that the legalization program of the early 1990s created an increase in the number of immigrants and those immigrants remain in the U.S. as part of the foreign-born population.
  
  

Population Growth Rate

• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population growth rate is slowing. The Bureau predicts that as the baby boomer population ages, the death rate will rise, further slowing the growth rate. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the birth rate is declining. This leaves the immigration rate as a major factor of population increase (though it is declining). The Census Bureau states that almost 1/3 of population growth is from immigration.
  
  

Change in Immigrant Countries of Origin

• According to the Census Bureau, immigration sources since 1970 have changed; European immigrants as a percentage of the total have declined, while Asian and Latin American immigrants have become the greater proportion of immigrants. Since 1970, the share of Latin American immigrants has gone from 19 percent to 51 percent. As a result, the ethnic composition of the U.S. will change as the Hispanic-origin population share increases.
  
  

Domestic and Local Figures

• According to the Census Bureau, the states with the highest numbers of immigrants are California, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey and Illinois. The Bureau observes that 54.5 percent of immigrants live in metropolitan areas, compared with 27.4 percent of native-born Americans. Los Angeles and New York had the highest concentration of immigrants, per the 2000 census, while Miami had the highest percentage--42.7 percent--of foreign born in its population.