Share of foreign-born in the U.S. at highest rate in over a century, says survey

MIAMI — The percent of U.S. residents who were foreign-born last year grew to its highest level in more than a century, according to figures released Thursday from the most comprehensive survey of American life.

The share of people born outside the United States increased in 2023 to 14.3% from 13.9% in 2022, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey, which tracks commuting times, internet access, family life, income, education levels, disabilities, military service, and employment, among other topics.

International migrants have become a primary driver of population growth this decade, increasing their share of the overall population as fewer children are being born in the U.S. compared to years past. The rate of the foreign-born population in the United States hasn’t been this high since 1910 when it was 14.7%, driven by waves of people emigrating in search of a better life around the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century.

“We knew that here you can have savings, live well. Here you can have normal services such as water and electricity,” said Luciana Bracho, who moved legally to Miami from Venezuela as part of a humanitarian parole program with her boyfriend, parents and brother in April 2023. “I like Miami and the opportunities that I have had.”

In 2023, international migrants accounted for more than two-thirds of the population growth in the United States, and so far this decade they have made up almost three-quarters of U.S. growth.

The growth of people born outside the U.S. appears to have been driven by people coming from Latin America, whose share of the foreign-born population increased year-over-year to 51.2% from 50.3%, according to the estimates. Latin America was the only world region of origin to experience an increase among those U.S. residents born in another country, as the share of foreign-born residents from Europe and Asia dropped slightly.

Nicole Díaz, a Venezuelan opposition activist, left after receiving threats to her life and lived in Peru and Ecuador before moving to the Miami area legally in February 2023 with her husband and 9-year-old daughter. Díaz described herself as “100 percent happy” living in South Florida, where they pay $2,300 a month for a two-bedroom apartment.

“After being in different countries, working here is relaxed, despite the language,” Díaz said. “But housing is very expensive, and we have been evaluating moving to another state because here all the salary goes for the rent.”

Among the states with the largest year-over-year bumps in the foreign-born population was Delaware, going to 11.2% from 9.9%; Georgia, to 11.6% from 10.7%; and New Mexico, to 10.2% from 9.3% The share of the foreign-born population dropped slightly in the District of Columbia, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and Oregon.

The Census Bureau figures don’t distinguish whether people are in the United States legally or illegally. Illegal immigration has become a contentious topic in the 2024 presidential race, even as illegal border crossings from Mexico plunged this summer after reaching a record last December.

The rate of U.S. residents who identify as Hispanic, no matter what race, jumped last year to 19.4% from 19.1% in the previous year, according to the survey. At the same time, those who identify as non-Hispanic white alone dropped from 57.7% to 57.1%. The share of U.S. residents who identify as Black alone dropped slightly, from 12.2% to 12.1%, and it increased slightly for those who identify as Asian alone from 5.9% to 6%.

Residents in the United States continued to get older, as the median age increased from 39 in 2022 to 39.2 in 2023. The nation’s aging is taking place as a majority of baby boomers have become senior citizens and Millennials are entering middle age. While the share of children under age 18 remained steady at 21.7% year-over-year, the share of senior citizens age 65 and over increased to 17.7% from 17.3%.

Meanwhile, a post-pandemic bump in working from home continued its slide back to pre-covid-19 times, as the share of employees working from home dropped last year to 13.8% from 15.2% in the previous year.

In 2021, the first full year after the pandemic’s start, almost 18% of employees were working from home, up from 5.7% in 2019. But return-to-office mandates in the past two years have reversed that trend and caused commute times to bump up slightly last year, growing on average to 26.8 minutes from 26.4 minutes.