EARLY CENSUS STATISTICS REVEAL INCREASE IN IMMIGRANT POPULATION

According to statistics issued by the Census Bureau in the middle of September, 9.3 percent of the US population was born in a country other than the US.  As of July 1, 1998, there were 25,208,000 foreign-born US residents and a total US population of 245.1 million.  This number is up significantly from the low point in 1970, when foreign-born residents accounted for only 4.7 percent of the population, and is also up from the last census in 1990, when foreign-born residents were 7.9 percent of the population.

The number of foreign-born US residents is nowhere close to the numbers seen during the late 1800s and early 1900s, when there were massive waves of immigrants to the US from European countries.  In 1890 foreign-born US residents made up 14.8 percent of the population.  However, there has been a dramatic shift in the places from which immigrants to the US come.   One hundred years ago most immigrants were European.  Today, most immigrants are Hispanic and Asian. 

Since 1990, the nationwide Hispanic population has increased 35.2%, from 22.4 million to 30.3 million.  One-third of the country’s Hispanic population lives in California, and the state with the largest Hispanic percentage of its population is New Mexico.  The Asian population experienced an even more dramatic increase, rising 40.8%, from 7.5 million to 10.5 million.  Again, California is home to more Asians than any other state, but Hawaii has the highest Asian concentration.

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