Migration Policy Institute
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2011 American Community Survey
and Census Data on the Foreign Born by State
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While the immigrant population of the United States increased by 9.3 million between 2000 and 2011, the impact of this growth varied considerably from state to state in terms of population size and characteristics. To facilitate analysis of these differences, the interactive map below provides national and state-by-state data on immigrant populations from the 1990 and 2000 Decennial Censuses and the 2011 American Community Survey (ACS) data. Click the desired state to generate fact sheets about the demographic & social, language & education, workforce, and income & poverty characteristics.

A sampling of the types of data included in each of the four fact sheets for each state:

  • Demographic and Social: top countries of birth, geographic mobility, children in immigrant families;
  • Language and Education: rates of limited English proficiency and levels of educational attainment, rates of linguistic isolation, and adult English literacy;
  • Workforce: immigrants’ share among all, low-wage, and high-wage workers, top occupations and industries, skill underutilization of college-educated immigrants;
  • Income and Poverty: average incomes, income distributions, poverty rates.

State Rankings

To view the 2000 version of the data tool, click here.

This data tool is a project of MPI's National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy. It was made possible with generous support from Carnegie Corporation of New York.