Indian immigrants outnumber Chinese immigrants in US

Immigrants from India now slightly outnumber immigrants from China in the United States, according to the latest census figures. Immigrants, both legal and illegal, make up approximately 13.9 per cent of the total US population as of July 2022. This means that about one out of every seven people living in the US is foreign-born.

Census findings 

The census recorded approximately 2.84 million Indian immigrants, reflecting a 4.8 per cent increase from the previous year's count of 2.709 million. Chinese immigrants, on the other hand, saw an increase of 79,000, totalling 2.83 million, which represents a nearly 3 per cent rise. Mexicans continue to have the highest count among immigrant populations, at 10.68 million, constituting 23 per cent of the immigrant population. However, there was a slight decrease of less than 1 per cent compared to the previous year's statistics.

Comparing the number of immigrants from the top three countries—Mexico, India, and China—immigration from Afghanistan and Venezuela is relatively lower, with 407,000 and 670,000 immigrants, respectively. However, due to a significant influx of asylum seekers and refugees from these two countries, there has been a substantial percentage increase in 2022 compared to the data from 2021, with a 229 per cent increase for Afghanistan and a 22 per cent increase for Venezuela.

It's worth noting that the immigrant share of the US population only rose by 0.3 percentage points from July 2021 to July 2022, going from 13.6 per cent to 13.9 per cent. Over the last decade (2012–2022), the growth in the immigrant share of the population was the lowest ever, increasing by only 0.7 percentage points. This growth rate has decreased by 76 per cent since the 1990s, providing context for recent immigration trends in the US, as highlighted by David J Bier, Associate Director of Immigration Studies at Cato Institute.