Immigration settlement patterns in the US (1997-2011) (state, largest, compared)

[Lifeshadower]

Source: Data & Statistics | Homeland Security

Lately, the Department of Homeland Security has actually been pretty good at upkeeping their site to make immigration statistics easy to ascertain.

Since there is a lot of talk about 'immigration' and 'internationalness' on this forum, I decided to take it upon myself to see how the patterns of immigration to the US have changed in the past few years from the point of view of where immigrants settle.

If you're more interested about where specific groups TEND to settle, please refer to a past thread I have made: The geography of US immigration: what regions do immigrants settle the most (by country)?

So here is what the US immigration numbers have been from 1997-2011 in terms of numbers of legal permanent residents, which of course does NOT track down illegal immigrants.

1997 797,847
1998 653,206
1999 644,787
2000 841,002
2001 1,058,902
2002 1,059,356
2003 703,542
2004 957,883
2005 1,122,257
2006 1,266,129
2007 1,052,415
2008 1,107,126
2009 1,130,818
2010 1,042,625
2011 1,062,040

Here's where the totality of all legal immigrants settled from basically 1988-2011 (don't want to post it all here, since it would take way too much space, so here are the links for the interested)

http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/s...3/table11D.xls (1988-2003)
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/s...011/table4.xls (2002-2011)

I'll compare the years 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011 and represent the percentages of total immigrants in the US settled by state: (note: ALL NUMBERS ROUNDED TO ITS NEAREST HUNDREDTHS)

1996 Immigrant percentage by state

Alabama 0.00
Alaska 0.00
Arizona 0.01
Arkansas 0.00
California 0.22
Colorado 0.01
Connecticut 0.01
Delaware 0.00
District of Columbia 0.00
Florida 0.09
Georgia 0.01
Hawaii 0.01
Idaho 0.00
Illinois 0.05
Indiana 0.01
Iowa 0.00
Kansas 0.00
Kentucky 0.00
Louisiana 0.00
Maine 0.00
Maryland 0.02
Massachusetts 0.03
Michigan 0.02
Minnesota 0.01
Mississippi 0.00
Missouri 0.01
Montana 0.00
Nebraska 0.00
Nevada 0.01
New Hampshire 0.00
New Jersey 0.07
New Mexico 0.01
New York 0.17
North Carolina 0.01
North Dakota 0.00
Ohio 0.01
Oklahoma 0.00
Oregon 0.01
Pennsylvania 0.02
Rhode Island 0.00
South Carolina 0.00
South Dakota 0.00
Tennessee 0.00
Texas 0.09
Utah 0.00
Vermont 0.00
Virginia 0.02
Washington 0.02
West Virginia 0.00
Wisconsin 0.00
Wyoming 0.00

2001 Total Immigrant Percentage by State

Alabama 0.00
Alaska 0.00
Arizona 0.02
Arkansas 0.00
California 0.27
Colorado 0.01
Connecticut 0.01
Delaware 0.00
District of Columbia 0.00
Florida 0.10
Georgia 0.02
Hawaii 0.01
Idaho 0.00
Illinois 0.05
Indiana 0.01
Iowa 0.00
Kansas 0.00
Kentucky 0.00
Louisiana 0.00
Maine 0.00
Maryland 0.02
Massachusetts 0.03
Michigan 0.02
Minnesota 0.01
Mississippi 0.00
Missouri 0.01
Montana 0.00
Nebraska 0.00
Nevada 0.01
New Hampshire 0.00
New Jersey 0.06
New Mexico 0.00
New York 0.11
North Carolina 0.01
North Dakota 0.00
Ohio 0.01
Oklahoma 0.00
Oregon 0.01
Pennsylvania 0.02
Rhode Island 0.00
South Carolina 0.00
South Dakota 0.00
Tennessee 0.01
Texas 0.08
Utah 0.00
Vermont 0.00
Virginia 0.03
Washington 0.02
West Virginia 0.00
Wisconsin 0.01
Wyoming 0.00

2006 Total Immigrant Percentage by State

Alabama 0.00
Alaska 0.00
Arizona 0.02
Arkansas 0.00
California 0.21
Colorado 0.01
Connecticut 0.01
Delaware 0.00
District of Columbia 0.00
Florida 0.12
Georgia 0.03
Hawaii 0.01
Idaho 0.00
Illinois 0.04
Indiana 0.01
Iowa 0.00
Kansas 0.00
Kentucky 0.00
Louisiana 0.00
Maine 0.00
Maryland 0.02
Massachusetts 0.03
Michigan 0.02
Minnesota 0.01
Mississippi 0.00
Missouri 0.01
Montana 0.00
Nebraska 0.00
Nevada 0.01
New Hampshire 0.00
New Jersey 0.05
New Mexico 0.00
New York 0.14
North Carolina 0.01
North Dakota 0.00
Ohio 0.01
Oklahoma 0.00
Oregon 0.01
Pennsylvania 0.02
Rhode Island 0.00
South Carolina 0.00
South Dakota 0.00
Tennessee 0.01
Texas 0.07
Utah 0.00
Vermont 0.00
Virginia 0.03
Washington 0.02
West Virginia 0.00
Wisconsin 0.01
Wyoming 0.00

2011 Total Immigrant Percentage by State

Alabama 0.00
Alaska 0.00
Arizona 0.02
Arkansas 0.00
California 0.20
Colorado 0.01
Connecticut 0.01
Delaware 0.00
District of Columbia 0.00
Florida 0.10
Georgia 0.03
Hawaii 0.01
Idaho 0.00
Illinois 0.04
Indiana 0.01
Iowa 0.00
Kansas 0.00
Kentucky 0.01
Louisiana 0.00
Maine 0.00
Maryland 0.02
Massachusetts 0.03
Michigan 0.02
Minnesota 0.01
Mississippi 0.00
Missouri 0.01
Montana 0.00
Nebraska 0.00
Nevada 0.01
New Hampshire 0.00
New Jersey 0.05
New Mexico 0.00
New York 0.14
North Carolina 0.02
North Dakota 0.00
Ohio 0.01
Oklahoma 0.00
Oregon 0.01
Pennsylvania 0.02
Rhode Island 0.00
South Carolina 0.00
South Dakota 0.00
Tennessee 0.01
Texas 0.09
Utah 0.01
Vermont 0.00
Virginia 0.03
Washington 0.02
West Virginia 0.00
Wisconsin 0.01
Wyoming 0.00


Top 5 by State vs. Rest of United States

1996
1) California: 22%
2) New York: 17%
3) Florida: 9%
4) Texas: 9%
5) New Jersey: 7%
TOTAL Top 5: 64% of all US immigrants
Rest of United States: 36% of all US immigrants

2001
1) California: 27%
2) New York: 11%
3) Florida: 10%
4) Texas: 8%
5) New Jersey: 6%
TOTAL Top 5: 62% of all US immigrants
Rest of United States: 38% of all US immigrants

2006
1) California: 21%
2) New York: 14%
3) Florida: 12%
4) Texas: 7%
5) New Jersey: 5%
TOTAL Top 5: 59% of all US immigrants
Rest of United States: 41% of all US immigrants

2011
1) California: 20%
2) New York: 14%
3) Florida: 10%
4) Texas: 9%
5) New Jersey: 5%
TOTAL Top 5: 58% of all US immigrants
Rest of United States: 42% of all US immigrants

I'll do it by region later, but for right now, the trend is clear that immigrants in the United States are starting to become more dispersed and settling in other areas aside the top 5 states. However, the top 5 states still contain the vast majority of US immigration, with the top 4 (CA, NY, FL, TX) making up over 50% of immigration to the US.

Keep in mind again this is all LEGAL immigration and not illegal. Those statistics are a bit harder to ascertain and are never exact.

[Code Lyoko]

Wow top 5 states have stayed the same all this time.

[Lifeshadower]

Originally Posted by Valencian

Wow top 5 states have stayed the same all this time.

Yeah, I mean, I don't expect that to change for the foreseeable future.

Back in 1991 (20 years ago), the year the most legal US residents came to the United States at 1,827,161, a whopping 74% of all immigrants settled in the top 5 states (which once included Illinois, was replaced by New Jersey in 1992 and has stayed that way since)

Now that number has decreased to 58%. America as a whole is thus changing.

[kidphilly]

Originally Posted by Valencian

Wow top 5 states have stayed the same all this time.

The 4 largest states plus NJ, not all that surprising in total but good info


As usual good stuff Lifeshawdower

[Lifeshadower]

Originally Posted by kidphilly

The 4 largest states plus NJ, not all that surprising in total but good info


As usual good stuff Lifeshawdower

No problem I think the proportional information vs. state's share in US population can also be compared.

For example, here are the top 5 states (for immigrant settlement) population proportion as of 2010 Census:

1) California: 11.91%
2) Texas: 8.04%
3) New York: 6.19%
4) Florida: 6.01%
5) New Jersey: 2.81%

Compare that to the percentages of immigrants

2011
1) California: 20% (67.9% overrepresented)
2) New York: 14% (126.1% overrepresented)
3) Florida: 10% (66.3% overrepresented)
4) Texas: 9% (11.9% overrepresented)
5) New Jersey: 5% (77.9% overrepresented)

Just keeping things in perspective