Immigration 101
By the Numbers:
Immigration Changing Trends Over Time
Since the 1960s, the number of immigrants and the composition of the foreign-born population in the United
States have shifted and fluctuated significantly.
In 1960, the foreign-born population in the United States was 75 percent European and 9 percent Latin
American. Today, more than 53 percent of the foreign-born population comes from Latin America and only 12
percent from Europe.
The foreign-born population also surged after the 1960s, from about 9.6 million in 1960 to 40 million today,
but remains below earlier levels as a percentage of the total population.
Changing Composition of the Foreign Born Population
Prior to the 1960s, the U.S. immigration system was governed by immigration quota laws from the 1920s.1 These nationality-specific
quota systems reflected regional preferences: Northern and Western Europeans were viewed as a preferred source of immigrants, while
immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa was restricted. The laws were also an attempt to decrease the inflow
of immigrants after the foreign-born population reached 13.9 million in 1920—a record high at the time and the highest percent of the
overall population at 15 percent. The quotas, which many believed were discriminatory, stood out in the midst of the social changes
that came in the 1950s and 1960s, and were ultimately replaced by the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. 2
The 1965 immigration reforms are often credited as the beginning of a major wave of immigration, shifting the demographic makeup of
the immigrant community in the United States. In changing a system from one that favored region, race, and nationality to a system
that favored family ties and skills more equitably across nations, the law allowed for an eventual shift in the major sources of
immigration away from Northern and Western Europe toward Asia and the Americas.
The result was a major (and ongoing) shift
in the composition of foreign-born
population. In 1960, the foreign-born
population in the United States was 75
percent European, 9 percent Latin
American, and 5 percent Asian. Today,
more than 53 percent of the foreign-born
population comes from Latin America,
while 28 percent comes from Asia, and
only 12 percent comes from Europe
(Figure 1).
In absolute numbers, the overall flow of
immigrants to the United States also
significantly increased after the act’s
passage. Since 1965, the foreign-born
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Figure 1. Composition of Foreign-Born Population in the United States (1960-2010)
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1960
Europe
1970
Latin America
1980
Asia
1990
Africa
Northern America
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
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2000
@BPC_Bipartisan
2010
Oceania
population of the United States has increased from
about 9.6 million (or about 5 percent of the total
U.S. population) to 40 million in 2010 (about 14
percent of the population) (Figure 2). In that time
span, new immigrants and their descendants
accounted for 55 percent of U.S. population
growth, adding 72 million to the total population.3
Figure 2: Foreign-Born Population and Percent of Total Population (1850-2010)
45,000,000
15%
14%
13%
13%
40,000,000
16%
15%
14%
13%
30,000,000
13% 14%
12%
35,000,000
11%
10%
9%
25,000,000
Legal Immigration by the Numbers
Congress once again overhauled U.S. immigration
policy in 1990 and amended the system set up in
1965 to attract even more educated and diverse
immigrants. The Immigration Act of 1990 included
prefrence categories, numerical limits, and a
heavier emphasis on education and skilled
immigrants. It also increased the overall cap for
employment-based immigrants and created new
non-immigrant temporary work programs.
According to the Department of Homeland Security
statistics, 9.8 million lawful permanent residents
(LPRs) were admitted between 1990 and
1999—the most for any decade in U.S. history
until that point (Figure 3). In fact, that
decade-to-decade increase was also the highest
since the turn of the century, when 8.2 milion LPRs
were admitted between 1900 and 1910. Another
14 million LPRs have been admitted between 2000
and 2013. Since 1990, 44 percent of admitted
LPRs have been from Latin America, 33 percent
from Asia, and 13 percent from Europe.
8%
6%
5%
6%
5%
15,000,000
10,000,000
10%
8%
7%
20,000,000
12%
4%
Percent of Total Population
2%
5,000,000
0
1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Perecent of Total Population
Foreign-Born Population
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
Figure 3: Legal Permanent Admissions by Decade and Area of Origin
12,000,000
10,000,000
8,000,000
6,000,000
4,000,000
2,000,000
0
99
0-
9
18
09
0-
0
19
19
0-
1
19
Europe
29
0-
2
19
Asia
39
0-
3
19
49
0-
4
19
59
0-
5
19
69
0-
6
19
Latin America
79
0-
7
19
Africa
89
0-
8
19
99
0-
9
19
99
0-
0
20
4
-1
10
20
Oceania
0%Statistics
Source: DHS Yearbook Immigration
1 The 1921 Emergency Quota Law and the National Origins Act of 1924.
2 For more on the impact of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, see Zamora, Lazaro, “Immigration in Two Acts,” Bipartisan Policy Center, December, 2015, at
http://bipartisanpolicy.org/library/immigration-in-two-acts/.
3 U.S. Census Bureau. Population Estimates (2014); Pew Research Center (September 28, 2015).
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