Here's how many people in each state were born outside the US
- Immigrants make up a big part of the American population across all 50 states.
- Recently released Census data shows the share of each state's population that was born outside the US.
- California and New York had the largest percentages of foreign-born residents, while West Virginia, Mississippi, and Montana had the lowest.
America is largely a nation of immigrants, and immigrants today live all across the country.
The US Census Bureau recently released statistics from the 2017 American Community Survey, an annual program that asks millions of Americans each year about several social, economic, and demographic attributes. The Bureau publishes figures for each of the 50 states and Washington DC.
Read more: All 50 states and Washington DC, ranked from least to most average
One of the items asked on the survey is where respondents were born, which then tells us how many people in each state immigrated to the US from another country.
The share of the population born outside the US varied widely across the states, from lows of 1.6% of the population in West Virginia and 2.2% in both Mississippi and Montana to highs of 22.9% in New York and a whopping 26.9% in California.
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