43.7M Immigrants Live in US Today

The Census Bureau estimates that 43.7 million immigrants lived in the U.S. as of July 2016.^[1] That’s the highest total in the nation’s history and reflects an increase of 12.6 million since the year 2000.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, immigrants "comprised 13.5 percent, or one out of eight U.S. residents in 2016." That’s "the highest percentage in 106 years." By way of comparison, in 1980 "just one out of 16 residents was foreign-born."

Just over a century ago, 14.7 percent of the nation’s population were immigrants. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that record will be broken in the next couple of decades. In fact, by 2060, the Bureau estimates that immigrants will account for 18.8 percent of the population.^[2]

Earlier Numbers of The Day have noted that 64 percent believe growing racial and ethnic diversity makes America better.

Additionally, 84 percent of voters believe being truly American means accepting people of diverse racial and religious backgrounds.

Some have theorized that the result of all this immigration will lead America to become a minority-majority country. However, that may not be the case since 60 percent of second-generation Mexican immigrants describe themselves as typical Americans. On top of that, large numbers of people that the Census Bureau classifies as Hispanic or Latino consider themselves to be white.

Finally, 17 percent of newlyweds marry across racial and ethnic lines.

Footnotes:

1. Center for Immigration Studies, "U.S. Immigrant Population Hit Record 43.7 Million in 2016," October 16, 2017
2. Statista, "U.S. Immigrant Population Hit Record 43.7 Million In 2016," October 19, 2017

Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Dayexplores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology. Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.