Immigration and U.S. Population Growth

According to a report released by the Pew Research Center today, 82 percent of U.S. population growth out to the year 2050 will be due to immigrants arriving from 2005 on and their U.S.-born descendants. As the country’s population will grow by about 142 million people during this period, 67 million will be immigrants themselves and another 50 million will be their children, trends that will surpass the immigration peak experienced over a century ago. Other projections of note include:

• 19% of Americans will be foreign-born in 2050, compared to 12% in 2005;

• Already the nation’s largest minority group, the Latino population in the U.S. will triple in size by 2050, and Latinos will make up 29% of the U.S. population by that point;

• The non-Hispanic white population will grow more slowly than other ethnic groups, and will make up a minority (47%) of the U.S. population in 2050.

Clearly, these striking forecasts for immigration in the U.S. hold tremendous implications for how we allocate resources, how we construct American identity (or identities), and how we govern in the decades to come. To read more about the study, click here.