Foreign-Born Population Grows, But Relative Size Not Unprecedented

While the number of immigrants in the U.S. as well as their share of the population has generally been rising, the level of the foreign-born population is not unprecedented. As of 2024, the latest year available through U.S. Census data, 14.8 percent of the U.S. population was foreign-born. Data aggregated by the Migration Policy Institute shows that throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the foreign-born population of the U.S. had been just as high, before reaching a low of just 4.7 percent in 1970.

Between mid-2020 and mid-2021, net migration to the United States (the number of immigrants arriving minus those leaving) only amounted to 247,000 people, down from the pre-pandemic figure of around 600,000 between 2018 and 2019. Post-pandemic, this has risen to new heights, with the total immigrant population in the U.S. reaching 50.2 million as of the latest data. An annual net migration of 2.4 million people was recorded in 2024, before this fell again quickly during the first year of the second Trump presidency. The number are even projected to turn negative this year, per the Census Bureau.

The term foreign-born refers to people residing in the United States who aren't U.S. citizens or weren't U.S. citizens at birth. This includes temporary and permanent residents, naturalized citizens, asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants.