COMING TO AMERICA

U.S. Foreign-Born Population Reaches Its Highest Share Since 1910

Immigrants from Asia overtake those from Latin America.

The foreign-born population of the United States has hit its highest level since 1910, with most people arriving from Asia—not Latin America. The Census Bureau’s figures for 2017 confirm a major change in who is coming to America—41 percent of the people who said they arrived since 2010 came from Asia; 39 percent were from Central and South America. The analysis also found that 45 percent of people who arrived in the U.S. were college-educated, compared with around 30 percent of those who came between 2000 and 2009. “This is quite different from what we had thought,” said the Brookings Institution’s William H. Frey, who conducted the analysis. “We think of immigrants as being low-skilled workers from Latin America, but for recent arrivals that’s much less the case. People from Asia have overtaken people from Latin America.”