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It tells you what cities are experiencing a growth in popularity with immigrants or places that might be experiencing above average demographic/cultural understood. Its not meaningless.
It could tell you what cities are growing in popularity, if the numerator for the highly ranked cities was high. However, if you look at the actual data, that is not the case, outside of maybe Seattle. Almost all of the highly ranked cities in this silly ranking just show which cities have low denominators, i.e. total foreign born population. Those cities aren't attracting many immigrants, either on a per capita basis or compared to the traditional immigrant hubs. They just don't have a lot to begin with.
It could tell you what cities are growing in popularity, if the numerator for the highly ranked cities was high. However, if you look at the actual data, that is not the case, outside of maybe Seattle. Almost all of the highly ranked cities in this silly ranking just show which cities have low denominators, i.e. total foreign born population. Those cities aren't attracting many immigrants, either on a per capita basis or compared to the traditional immigrant hubs. They just don't have a lot to begin with.
But it's a lot or at least its new for them. That is significant culturally if you plan to move there or perhaps if you live there.
A few of those cities may become immigration leaders in the next few decades or at least become much more attractive. Its just not meaningless.
Rank MSA Percent of total MSA pop that immigrated over last 10 years (Rank by raw number of immigrants over the last 10 years) Rank Immigrants over last 10 years/number of immigrants in metro
1 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL MSA 11.33% (2) 33 2 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA MSA 10.80% (12) 34
3 San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA MSA 6.92% (7) 45
4 New York City-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA MSA 6.76% (1) 42
5 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA MSA 6.71% (10) 9
6 Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX MSA 6.61% (4) 29
7 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA 6.32% (6) 31
8 Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL MSA 6.29% (14) 13
9 Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH MSA 6.19% (9) 15
10 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA 5.65% (5) 24
11 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA MSA 5.21% (3) 49
12 Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV MSA 5.12% (20) 44
13 Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX MSA 5.10% (22) 14
14 Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA MSA 4.54% (23) 39
15 San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA MSA 4.47% (16) 47
16 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL MSA 4.26% (18) 22
17 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA MSA 4.09% (11) 25
18 Raleigh-Cary, NC MSA 4.09% (31) 16
19 Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC MSA 3.82% (24) 7
20 Salt Lake City, UT MSA 3.52% (38) 30
21 Columbus, OH MSA 3.49% (28) 2
22 Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI MSA 3.42% (8) 48
23 Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, CT MSA 3.37% (40) 38
24 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA MSA 3.34% (27) 37
25 Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN MSA 3.32% (30) 6
26 Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ MSA 3.27% (15) 43
27 Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI MSA 3.21% (17) 18
28 Providence-Warwick, RI-MA MSA 3.20% (33) 41
29 Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD MSA 3.12% (25) 20
30 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI MSA 3.11% (21) 23
31 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD MSA 2.89% (13) 36
32 Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO MSA 2.86% (26) 40
33 Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA MSA 2.82% (19) 50
34 Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN MSA 2.78% (44) 1
35 Jacksonville, FL MSA 2.72% (39) 26
36 Richmond, VA MSA 2.55% (45) 17
37 San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX MSA 2.53% (29) 46
38 Kansas City, MO-KS MSA 2.46% (32) 8
39 Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY MSA 2.40% (48) 5
40 New Orleans-Metairie, LA MSA 2.35% (47) 19
41 Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN MSA 2.31% (34) 12
42 Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI MSA 2.25% (43) 21
43 Oklahoma City, OK MSA 2.21% (46) 32
44 Cleveland-Elyria, OH MSA 2.19% (37) 10
45 Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN MSA 2.11% (35) 3
46 Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA 2.01% (42) 27
47 Pittsburgh, PA MSA 1.65% (41) 4
48 St. Louis, MO-IL MSA 1.61% (36) 11
49 Memphis, TN-MS-AR MSA 1.36% (49) 35
50 Birmingham-Hoover, AL MSA 1.13% (50) 28
Thank you! I appreciate the work. SJ and SF have seen thousands and thousands of foreign tech workers move in over the past decade. Prior to the pandemic, my office's personnel dept was sifting through resumes from around the world every single day-not just from India and China, but from far flung places like Israel, Australia and South Africa.
Between them and the transplants from within the US, the area's demography is changing very quickly. One of my favorite measures is by Urban Area and here are some demographic stats from the SF and SJ UAs:
San Francisco-Oakland & San Jose Urban Areas, 2019
Area: 809 sq miles
Combined Population: 5,375,148
Population Per Square Mile: 6,644
Foreign Born Population: 1,914,681(35.6%)
Racial Breakdown:
White 1,790,978(33.3%)
Asian 1,752,613(32.6%)
Hispanic 1,210,356(22.5%)
Black 319,708(5.9%)
Multiracial 212,603(3.9%)
1. Immigrants as a group outnumber any single racial group.
2. Asians are on the verge of surpassing whites as the largest racial group, in 2019 they were separated by only 38,000 and 0.7% percentage points.
I was curious about Louisville since it was top so I looked it up. Of the 35k new international immigrants since 2010, about 8k came from Cuba. I guess its pretty well known there:
But it's a lot or at least its new for them. That is significant culturally if you plan to move there or perhaps if you live there.
A few of those cities may become immigration leaders in the next few decades or at least become much more attractive. Its just not meaningless.
Again, outside of Seattle, NONE of those cities are becoming immigration leaders. It doesn't even show which are becoming attractive. They are not experiencing rapid demographic change. In fact, of the top 10 on that list, only 3 have even average MSA immigration rates over the last decade (Median= 3.3% of metro population). Seattle is significantly above, Columbus and Nashville are right at the MSA average. The rest are all still well BELOW average.
As mentioned, Chicago (and most of the rest of the bottom 20) have relied heavily on Mexican immigration, which has taken a nosedive over the past decade or so.
This makes Philadelphia's spot look ever worse since the vast majority of immigrants are from Puerto Rico, DR, and China.
Puerto Ricans cant be immigrants. Just a point of clarity.
We can argue over semantics another time since someone from Guam wouldn't be considered an immigrant either. You understood my last point though, and that's all that matter.
We can argue over semantics another time since someone from Guam wouldn't be considered an immigrant either. You understood my last point though, and that's all that matter.
This isnt a semantic. Puerto Ricans are not classified as immigrants by the Census. They are viewed the same as those who might move to Philly from Chicago.
This makes Philadelphia's spot look ever worse since the vast majority of immigrants are from Puerto Rico, DR, and China.
Puerto Rican Migration is Domestic Migration. No different than if you moved to a neighboring state.
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