Source: CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES, 10/3/16

The Center for Immigration Studies has published a detailed picture of America's foreign-born population, including an assessment of the progress immigrants have made over time. Based on data from the Census Bureau, the report examines the 42.4 million immigrants (both legal and illegal) now living in the United States – a population in 2014 that has more than doubled since 1990, tripled since 1980, and quadrupled since 1970.
Dr. Steven Camarota, the Center's director of research and author of the report, writes that this publication provides "the reader with information to make sound judgments about the effects of immigration on American society with the hope that it will shed some light on what policy should be in the future." He continued, "The future, of course, is not set and when deciding on what immigration policy should be it is critically important to know the impact of immigration in recent decades." 

The profile reports that "from 2010 to 2014, new immigration (legal and illegal) plus births to immigrants added 8.3 million residents to the country," and that the sending country with the largest percentage increase in immigrants living in the U.S. during this time was Saudi Arabia, with a 93 percent increase. On the receiving side, North Dakota (up 45 percent) and Wyoming (up 42 percent) had the largest percentage increases in the number of immigrants during this time. Looking at the younger population, the report reveals that "There are 10.9 million students from immigrant households in public schools, and they account for nearly 23 percent of all public school students."

Some surprising findings:
• Immigrants and natives have very similar rates of entrepreneurship, with about 12 percent of both groups operating their own businesses. 
• Recent immigration has added enormously to the overall size of the U.S. population, but its impact on the nation's age structure is small. If all post-2000 immigrants are excluded from the data, the median age in the United States would be unchanged at 37. 

The majority of workers in almost every occupations are U.S.-born, even jobs often thought to be overwhelmingly done by immigrants – 51 percent of maids, 53 percent of taxi drivers and chauffeurs, 67 percent of butchers and meat processors, and 65 percent of construction laborers are U.S.-born.

For the full report, click here.