America’s Foreign-Born Population in 2026
The United States remains home to the largest immigrant population of any country on earth, and one nationality has dominated that population for decades running: Mexico. As of the latest official estimates, 50.2 million foreign-born residents live in the US, accounting for 14.8% of the total US Population, a share that has climbed steadily from just 4.7% in 1970 and now sits at levels not seen since the early 20th century.
This article covers the full range of foreign-born population statistics for the US in 2026, breaking down which countries send the most immigrants, how those origins have shifted in recent years, where immigrants settle once they arrive, and a genuinely unusual 2025 development: the first outright decline in America’s foreign-born population since the 1960s. Every figure below reflects the most current data available, drawn primarily from the US Census Bureau and Pew Research Center.
Interesting Facts About the Largest Foreign-Born Group in US 2026
| Fact | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total US foreign-born population (2024) | 50.2 million, 14.8% of the population |
| Largest single source country | Mexico, almost 25% of all immigrants |
| Mexican immigrants admitted since 1965 | around 18 million |
| China-born residents (LPR-track figure) | 713,527 |
| India-born residents (LPR-track figure) | 631,689 |
| Immigrants arriving 2020–2025 | over 11 million |
| New arrivals in 2023 alone | over 3 million, a record annual total |
| Foreign-born population decline by June 2025 | more than 1 million, first drop since the 1960s |
| State with the most immigrants | California, 10+ million |
| State with the highest immigrant share | California, 27.3%–27.7% |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Pew Research Center
Mexico remains, by a wide margin, the single largest source of foreign-born residents in the United States, accounting for almost one-quarter of the entire immigrant population and roughly 18 million arrivals since 1965. Behind Mexico, China and India occupy the next two spots, together with the Philippines rounding out the top four countries of origin, a pattern that has held consistently even as the overall pace and composition of immigration has shifted considerably over the past few years.
That pace has actually reversed course in 2025 for the first time in more than six decades. After over 11 million immigrants arrived between 2020 and 2025, including a record 3 million-plus in 2023 alone, Pew Research Center found the foreign-born population had shrunk by more than 1 million people by June 2025, driven by a wave of departures and deportations outpacing new arrivals following a series of federal policy changes. California remains the epicenter of immigrant settlement regardless of these swings, home to over 10 million foreign-born residents and the highest immigrant share of any state at roughly 27%.
1. Total US Foreign-Born Population in 2026
US Foreign-Born Population Share, Selected Years
1970 |█████ 4.7%
2010 |████████████████ ~12.9%
2024 |███████████████████ 14.8%
| Year | Foreign-Born Population | Share of Total Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 | — | 4.7% |
| 2010 | ~40 million | ~12.9% |
| 2022 | 46.2 million | 13.9% |
| 2024 | 50.2 million | 14.8% |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey
The US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey put the country’s foreign-born population at 50.2 million as of 2024, representing 14.8% of the national population, according to the most recent congressional research analysis of Census data. That share has climbed steadily and substantially from just 4.7% in 1970, a low point that followed decades of restrictive immigration policy dating back to the 1920s, before major reforms in 1965 reopened the door to significantly higher immigration levels from a much broader range of countries.
The growth trajectory since then has been consistent: the foreign-born population stood at roughly 40 million in 2010, climbed to 46.2 million by 2022, a 15.6% increase in just over a decade, and reached 50.2 million by 2024. Some estimates, including Wikipedia’s compilation of Census-adjacent figures, put the January 2025 total even higher at 53.3 million, or 15.8% of the population, though estimates vary somewhat depending on the exact survey, reference date, and methodology used, a common feature of foreign-born population data given how quickly conditions can shift year to year.
2. Mexico: The Largest Source of US Immigrants in 2026
Share of Total US Immigrant Population by Top Origin Country
Mexico |████████████████████████ ~25%
China |████ smaller but sizable share
India |████ smaller but sizable share
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Mexico’s share of total US immigrant population | almost 25% |
| Mexican immigrants admitted since 1965 | around 18 million |
| Mexico’s share of 2011–2020 immigration | 14.3%, more than double any other country |
| Mexican-origin immigration, 2023 | over 180,000 that year |
Source: Migration Policy Institute, U.S. Census Bureau
Mexico has been the single largest source of US immigration for decades, and the scale of that dominance is difficult to overstate: almost one in every four immigrants living in the United States today was born in Mexico, a share built on roughly 18 million arrivals since the landmark 1965 immigration reform reopened the door to sustained large-scale migration. Between 2011 and 2020 alone, the US welcomed 10.3 million immigrants total, and Mexico accounted for 1.5 million of them, 14.3%, more than double the contribution of any other single country over that decade.
Mexico’s position as the top source country persisted even through 2023, when it remained the leading country of origin for new immigrants at over 180,000 arrivals that year, a pattern closely tied to its shared border with the US and generations of established family and community networks that continue to facilitate ongoing migration. This dominant Mexican-origin population also feeds directly into the US’s broader Hispanic population figures, since Mexican-Americans, both immigrant and US-born, make up the single largest Hispanic origin group in the country by a substantial margin.
3. Top Countries of Origin After Mexico in 2026
Leading Immigrant Source Countries (LPR-Track Figures)
Mexico |████████████████████████████████████████ largest by far
China |███████████ 713,527
India |██████████ 631,689
Philippines |████████ 4th largest
| Country | Figure |
|---|---|
| Mexico | Largest source, ~25% of all US immigrants |
| China | 713,527 |
| India | 631,689 |
| Philippines | 4th-largest source country |
Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Migration Policy Institute
Behind Mexico, China and India consistently rank as the second- and third-largest source countries for US immigrants, with 713,527 China-born and 631,689 India-born residents counted in recent government tracking of lawful permanent residents. The Philippines rounds out the top four, a position it has held for decades given the deep historical ties between the two countries dating back to the post-World War II era, along with sustained demand for Filipino healthcare workers, particularly nurses, in the US labor market.
This top-four ranking, Mexico, China, India, and the Philippines, has remained remarkably stable across multiple decades of US immigration data, even as the relative growth rates among these countries have shifted. India in particular has seen accelerating numeric growth in recent years, driven substantially by high-skilled employment-based immigration and a large existing population base eligible for family-sponsored visas, positioning it as an increasingly significant driver of overall US immigration growth even though it has not yet overtaken China or Mexico in total foreign-born population terms.
4. Regional Origins of US Immigrants in 2026
US Immigrant Population by Region of Birth (2023)
Latin America |███████████████████████████████████ largest single region
Asia |███████████████████████ 27% (~14 million)
Europe |██████████ 10%
Other regions |████████ 11%
| Region of Birth | Share of US Immigrant Population (2023) |
|---|---|
| Latin America | Largest single region |
| Asia | 27%, nearly 14 million people |
| Europe | 10% |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 5% |
| Middle East–North Africa | 4% |
| Canada/other North America | 2% |
Source: Pew Research Center
Latin America remains the largest single region of origin for US immigrants overall, though Asia has grown into a substantial and rapidly expanding second-place region, accounting for 27% of all immigrants, nearly 14 million people, as of 2023, according to Pew Research Center’s analysis of Census data. That Asian-origin population is closely tied to the same countries driving individual-nation rankings, with China, India, and the Philippines together representing the bulk of Asian immigration to the US, alongside significant and growing populations from Vietnam, Korea, and other Asian nations that feed into the country’s broader Asian population figures.
The remaining 22% of America’s foreign-born population traces back to a more geographically scattered set of origins: Europe contributes 10%, sub-Saharan Africa 5%, the Middle East and North Africa 4%, and Canada along with other North American countries 2%. Pew’s research also documents a meaningful recent shift in these regional patterns, with a growing share of new arrivals coming from South America and Europe in the most recent years, even as the share arriving from Asia and sub-Saharan Africa has declined somewhat relative to prior periods.
5. Recent Immigration Trends and the 2025 Decline in 2026
Foreign-Born Population Change, 2020-2025
2020-2025 arrivals |████████████████████████████████████ over 11 million
2023 arrivals alone |████████████ over 3 million (record)
Decline by June 2025 |▼▼▼▼ -1 million+ (first since 1960s)
| Period/Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total arrivals, 2020–2025 | over 11 million |
| Arrivals in 2023 alone | over 3 million, largest annual total ever recorded |
| Foreign-born population decline by June 2025 | more than 1 million people |
| Immigrant share of US labor force, June 2025 | 19%, down from 20% |
| Immigrant workers lost from labor force since January 2025 | over 750,000 |
Source: Pew Research Center
The pace of US immigration reached genuinely unprecedented levels in the first half of the 2020s, with over 11 million immigrants arriving between 2020 and 2025, including a record-breaking 3 million-plus in 2023 alone, the largest annual total ever recorded according to Pew Research Center’s analysis of government data sources. That surge, however, reversed sharply and unexpectedly during 2025, following a series of federal policy shifts that began under the Biden administration’s June 2024 asylum restrictions and accelerated substantially after President Trump’s return to office, when 181 executive actions on immigration were taken within the first 100 days alone.
By June 2025, Pew found the foreign-born population had actually shrunk by more than 1 million people, marking the first decline in America’s immigrant population since the 1960s, as departures and deportations outpaced new arrivals for a sustained period. That contraction showed up directly in labor market data too, with immigrants making up 19% of the US workforce by June 2025, down from 20% just months earlier, a loss of more than 750,000 immigrant workers from the labor force in a matter of months, underscoring how quickly policy shifts can translate into measurable economic and demographic change.
6. States with the Largest Foreign-Born Populations in 2026
Foreign-Born Share of State Population
California |███████████████████████████ 27.3%-27.7%
New Jersey |█████████████████████ 24.2%-25.0%
New York |████████████████████ 23.1%
Florida |███████████████████ 22.1%-23.1%
Nevada |████████████████ 19.3%
| State | Foreign-Born Population | Share of State Population |
|---|---|---|
| California | over 10 million | 27.3%–27.7% |
| Texas | 5.1 million | 17.2% |
| New Jersey | — | 24.2%–25.0% |
| New York | — | 23.1% |
| Florida | — | 22.1%–23.1% |
| Nevada | — | 19.3% |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, USAFacts
California hosts by far the largest immigrant population of any US state, with over 10 million foreign-born residents, more than double the total in Texas, the second-ranked state at 5.1 million. Measured by share of state population rather than raw numbers, California again leads at roughly 27% foreign-born, followed closely by New Jersey at 24%–25%, New York at 23.1%, Florida at 22%–23%, and Nevada at 19.3%, a group of states that share a common thread: large coastal or Sun Belt metropolitan economies with long-established immigrant communities and networks.
Texas, despite ranking only second by raw immigrant population, stands out for the intensity of its Mexican-origin immigration specifically, with its 17.2% foreign-born share concentrated heavily around the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston metro areas. Meanwhile, states like West Virginia and Montana sit at the opposite extreme, with foreign-born shares of just 2.1%, illustrating just how unevenly immigrant settlement patterns are distributed across the country, with the overwhelming majority concentrated in a relatively small number of major metropolitan states.
7. Counties and Cities with the Highest Immigrant Concentrations 2026
Highest Foreign-Born County Shares
Queens County, NY |███████████████████████████████████ 47.6%
Santa Clara County, CA |█████████████████████████████████████ ~40% (2 in 5 residents)
| County | Foreign-Born Share | Notable Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Queens County, NY | 47.6% | Highest of any NY county; 1.1 million immigrants |
| Santa Clara County, CA | ~40% (2 in 5) | Mostly Chinese and Indian-origin residents |
| Miami-Dade County, FL | Immigrant-majority | Nation’s only immigrant-majority major county |
| Counties with zero foreign-born residents | 12 counties | Mostly small, rural counties |
Source: USAFacts, U.S. Census Bureau
Immigrant settlement in the US is intensely concentrated at the county level, far more so than state-level figures alone suggest. Queens County, New York, home to 12% of all New Yorkers, has the highest foreign-born share of any county in the state at 47.6%, housing 1.1 million immigrants, nearly half from Central or South America and close to 40% from Asia. On the West Coast, Santa Clara County, California, at the heart of Silicon Valley, has an even higher concentration, with roughly two in five residents foreign-born, over two-thirds of them from Asia, predominantly China and India, reflecting the county’s status as a global technology employment hub.
Miami-Dade County, Florida has more recently been identified as the nation’s only immigrant-majority major county, meaning foreign-born residents now make up more than half its population, a milestone driven by decades of sustained migration from Cuba, Latin America, and the Caribbean. At the opposite extreme, 12 US counties currently have essentially zero foreign-born residents at all, mostly small, sparsely populated rural counties scattered across states including Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming, underscoring the stark rural-urban divide in how immigrant populations are distributed nationally.
8. Education and English Proficiency Among US Immigrants 2026
Bachelor's Degree or Higher, Selected Groups
US-born adults |████████████████████████████████████ 36%
All immigrants (average) |████████████████████████████████████ 36%
Central American immigrants |███████████ 11%
| Education/Language Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Immigrants with bachelor’s degree or higher | 36%, matching US-born adults |
| Central American immigrants with bachelor’s+ | 11% |
| Immigrants proficient in English (age 5+) | 52% |
| North American-origin immigrants, English proficient | 97% |
| Oceania-origin immigrants, English proficient | 83% |
Source: Pew Research Center
Despite common assumptions, US immigrants overall hold bachelor’s degrees or higher at essentially the same rate as the US-born population, 36% for both groups, according to Pew Research Center’s analysis. That headline figure, however, conceals enormous variation by region of origin: just 11% of Central American immigrants hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, while immigrants from Asia, Europe, the Middle East-North Africa region, and sub-Saharan Africa are all actually more likely than US-born adults to hold a bachelor’s degree, reflecting the heavy weighting of employment-based and skilled-worker visa categories among immigrants from those regions.
English proficiency follows a similarly uneven pattern by origin. 52% of immigrants aged 5 and older are proficient English speakers, defined as speaking English very well or speaking only English at home, but that average blends enormous variation: 97% of immigrants from elsewhere in North America are English-proficient, as are 83% from Oceania, largely Australia and New Zealand, compared with considerably lower proficiency rates among immigrants from regions where English is not a dominant or commonly taught second language.
9. Long-Term Immigration Projections for the US 2026
US Population Growth With Immigration, Census Bureau Projection
2014 |███████████████████████████████ 317 million
2060 |████████████████████████████████████████ 417 million (projected)
| Projection Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| US population, 2014 | 317 million |
| US population, 2060 (projected, with immigration) | 417 million |
| Foreign-born share by 2060 (projected) | nearly 20% |
| Global share of international migrants residing in the US (2024) | 17% |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
Looking further ahead, the US Census Bureau’s long-range population projections show immigration remaining the single largest driver of future US population growth, projecting the national population to climb from 317 million in 2014 to 417 million by 2060, with nearly 20% of that future population expected to be foreign-born, up from today’s roughly 15%. That trajectory would represent a genuinely historic level of immigrant representation in the US population, exceeding even the peak reached during the last great wave of immigration in the early 20th century.
At the global level, the scale of the United States’ role in international migration is already substantial: even though the country represents only about 4% of the world’s total population, it is home to roughly 17% of all international migrants worldwide, making it by far the single largest destination country for cross-border migration anywhere on the planet. Whether that long-term growth trajectory holds depends heavily on how the current period of policy volatility, including the unprecedented 2025 population decline detailed earlier in this article, evolves over the coming years, since Census Bureau projections of this kind are built on assumptions about future immigration levels that can shift considerably as actual policy changes.
Disclaimer: The data research report we present here is based on information found from various sources. We are not liable for any financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that may result from the use of the information herein. We acknowledge that though we try to report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute facts of everything that has been represented.
