Immigration accounted for the entirety of the U.S. population growth between 2022 and 2023, according to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI).
Birth rates among American citizens dropped 2% from 2022 to 2023, but the number of immigrants climbed by 1.6 million, reaching a record high of 47.8 million. That's a population increase of 3.6%, the most since 2010. "The fertility rate fell to 54.5 births per 1,000 females of ages 15-44 in 2023, down from 56 in 2022," reports NBC News.
The percentage of foreign-born Americans stands at 14.3% which is slightly less than the record of 14.8% in 1890.
Nearly 75% of U.S. immigrants are here legally, and almost half are naturalized citizens.
The shift has been noted in other reporting in recent months, including from the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), which found that more immigrants were entering the workforce than American-born workers because of an aging population and the declining birthrate. Immigrants made up around 18 percent of the total workforce in 2023, the last year for which complete data is available.
The rise in the number of immigrants has been a godsend to cities that lost large numbers of residents during the pandemic.
The U.S. Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program notes that cities are gaining ground as a result of an influx of immigrants.
Cities can thank international migration for this latest population spike.
"All of the nation's 387 metro areas had positive net international migration between 2023 and 2024, and it accounted for nearly 2.7 million of the total population gain in metro areas," the bureau said in a statement accompanying the new data.
The bureau bases these estimates on current data for births, deaths and migration, all of which affect overall population.
The nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) also released a study using Census Bureau estimates from January 2025 and found an even larger rise in the immigrant population. It now stands at around 15.8 percent, according to the CIS analysis.
Some of the largest nationalities represented in the U.S. immigrant population in 2023 were Mexicans at 23%, followed by Indians (6%) and Chinese (5%).
Thanks to Biden's "humanitarian parole" program, most of the immigrants from Central and South America are considered "legal" despite their entry into the U.S. without the usual safeguards and background checks.
In addition to the nearly quarter of immigrants who are in the country illegally, 19% had green cards, while 49% had become U.S. citizens.
Jeanne Batalova, MPI senior policy analyst and demographer, told Newsweek, "Recent MPI work shows that immigrants and their U.S.-born children are projected to account for all future U.S. labor force growth over the coming decades, which is a finding that should be of interest to policymakers, employers, educators, and others."
Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, said, "The new data is not only more up-to-date, and therefore better reflects the migrant surge, it is the first government survey to reflect the re-weighting the Census Bureau did to better reflect that surge. The total foreign-born is now 53.3, not 47.8 million. And the percent of the U.S. population is a record 15.8%."
The "Nation of Immigrants" continues to welcome almost everyone. Whether that's a wise policy remains to be seen.
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