Answers to Key Questions about U.S. Immigration

"The United States has more immigrants than any other country in the world," according to an article by Jynnah Radford. "Today, more than 40 million people living in the U.S. were born in another country, accounting for about one-fifth of the world’s migrants in 2017."

Radford is presenting the latest statistical portraits of foreign-born residents of the United States, regularly published by the Pew Research Center. Raford uses these data to address "key questions" about the U.S. immigrant population.

So, for instance, the question of where most U.S. immigrants come from, finds Mexico, China, and India as the top birthplaces for U.S immigrants, but "[]he population of immigrants is also very diverse, with just about every country in the world represented among U.S. immigrants."

Another question, about the number of immigrants arriving to the United States relative to the historic record can be answered thusly: "New immigrant arrivals have fallen, mainly due to a decrease in the number of unauthorized immigrants coming to the U.S. The fall in the growth of the unauthorized immigrant population can partly be attributed to more Mexican immigrants leaving the U.S. than coming in."

The article includes many other questions and answers, including an infographic to illustrate the cities with the largest number of immigrant residents.