A survey released on Thursday, September 12th, showed that the proportion of foreign-born residents in the United States reached its highest level in over a century in 2023.
According to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey, the proportion of people born outside the U.S. rose from 13.9% in 2022 to 14.3% in 2023.
This marks the highest point since 1910 when the percentage of foreign-born residents was 14.7%. The growth at that time was driven by waves of immigrants seeking a better life at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
International immigration has become a major driver of U.S. population growth in the 2020s, with the proportion of immigrants in the overall population steadily increasing as the number of U.S.-born children declines.
In 2023, international immigrants accounted for over two-thirds of U.S. population growth. From 2020 to 2023, they made up nearly three-quarters of U.S. population growth.
The growth in the foreign-born population appears to be mainly driven by individuals from Latin America. The proportion of foreign-born residents from Latin America rose from 50.3% to 51.2%. Latin Americans are the only group in the U.S. population where the percentage of residents born in other countries increased, while the proportion of foreign-born residents from Europe and Asia slightly declined.
Among states with the largest annual increase in foreign-born residents, the proportion in Delaware rose from 9.9% to 11.2%; in Georgia from 10.7% to 11.6%; and in New Mexico from 9.3% to 10.2%.
On the other hand, the proportion of foreign-born residents in Washington D.C., Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and Oregon slightly decreased.
The survey revealed that the percentage of U.S. residents self-identifying as Hispanic or Latino increased from 19.1% to 19.4% compared to the previous year. The proportion of non-Hispanic white residents decreased from 57.7% to 57.1%.
The percentage of residents self-identifying as Black slightly decreased from 12.2% to 12.1%, while the proportion of residents self-identifying as Asian increased marginally from 5.9% to 6%.
This community survey provides the most comprehensive data on American life, covering various topics such as commuting time, internet access, family life, income, education level, disabilities, military service, and employment.
The median age of U.S. residents continued to rise, reaching 39.2 years in 2023 from 39 years in 2022. As the majority of the baby boomer generation enters old age and millennials transition to middle age, the country is experiencing an aging population. While the proportion of children under 18 remained steady at 21.7%, the percentage of individuals aged 65 and older rose from 17.3% to 17.7%.
Meanwhile, the trend of working from home is reverting to pre-pandemic levels, with 13.8% of employees working from home last year, down from 15.2% a year ago.
In 2021, the first full year post-pandemic, nearly 18% of employees worked from home, a significant increase from 5.7% in 2019. However, the return-to-office mandates over the past two years have reversed this trend, leading to a slight increase in commuting time last year, from an average of 26.4 minutes to 26.8 minutes.
The Census Bureau data does not differentiate between legal and illegal residency status in the U.S.