US – Immigrant population (legal and illegal) hit a record 41.3 million according to the Census Bureau

The Census Bureau recently released some of the data from the 2013 American Community Survey (ACS). The data show that the nation’s immigrant population (legal and illegal) grew by 1.4 million from July 2010 to July 2013. The data also imply that 3.3 million new immigrants settled in the country in that same
period. These new arrivals were offset by return migration and deaths among the existing population. The immigrant population, referred to as the foreign-born by the Census Bureau, includes all those who were not U.S. citizens at birth, including illegal immigrants.

Among the findings from the new data:

• The nation’s immigrant population (legal and illegal) hit a record 41.3 million in July 2013, an increase of 1.4 million since July 2010. Since 2000 the immigrant population is up 10.2 million.
• The 41.3 million immigrant population (legal and illegal) in 2013 was double the number in 1990, nearly triple the number in 1980, and quadruple that in 1970, when it stood at 9.6 million.
• The sending regions with the largest increases from 2010 to 2013 were South Asia (up 373,000, 16 percent growth); East Asia (up 365,000, 5 percent growth); the Caribbean (up 223,000, 6 percent growth), the Middle East (up 208,000, 13 percent growth); and sub-Saharan Africa (up 177,000, 13 percent growth).
• The sending countries with the largest increases 2010 to 2013 were India (up 254,000, 14 percent growth); China (up 217,000, 10 percent growth); the Dominican Republic (up 112,000, 13 percent growth); Gua- temala (up 71,000, 9 percent growth); Jamaica (up 55,000, 8 percent growth); Bangladesh (up 49,000, 32 percent growth); Saudi Arabia (up 44,000, 97 percent growth); Pakistan (up 43,000, 14 percent growth); and Iraq (up 41,000, 26 percent growth).
• Between 2010 and 2013, four million new immigrants settled in the United States; and since 2007, when the Great Recession began, at least 7.5 million immigrants have settled in the country.2
• As a share of the population, immigrants (legal and illegal) comprised 13.1 percent of U.S. residents (about one out of every eight), the highest percentage in 93 years. As recently as 1980, 6.2 percent of the country was comprised of immigrants.
• Immigrants comprised 16 percent of the adult population (18-plus) in 2013, nearly one out of every six adults.
• Mexicans accounted for the largest immigrant population in the United States by far, with 11.6 million legal and illegal immigrants living in the United States in 2013. However, the number of Mexican immi- grants in the country declined 1 percent from 2010 to 2013.
• The number of immigrants from Europe also declined.