Approximately 41 million people immigrated to the United States of America between the years 1820 and 1957. During this time period, the United States expanded across North America, growing from 23 to 48 states, and the population grew from approximately 10 million people in 1820, to almost 180 million people by 1957. Economically, the U.S. developed from being an agriculturally focused economy in the 1820s, to having the highest GDP of any single country in the 1950s. Much of this expansion was due to the high numbers of agricultural workers who migrated from Europe, as technological advances in agriculture had lowered the labor demand. The majority of these migrants settled in urban centers, and this fueled the growth of the industrial sector.

American industrialization and European rural unemployment fuel migration The first major wave of migration came in the 1850s, and was fueled largely by Irish and German migrants, who were fleeing famine or agricultural depression at the time. The second boom came in the 1870s, as the country recovered from the American Civil War, and the Second Industrial Revolution took off. The final boom of the nineteenth century came in the 1880s, as poor harvests and industrialization in Europe led to mass emigration. Improvements in steam ship technology and lower fares led to increased migration from Eastern and Southern Europe at the turn of the century (particularly from Italy). War and depression reduces migration Migration to the U.S. peaked at the beginning of the 20th century, before it fluctuated greatly at the beginning of the 20th century. This was not only due to the disruptions to life in Europe caused by the world wars, but also the economic disruption of the Great Depression in the 1930s. The only period between 1914 and 1950 where migration was high was during the 1920s. However, the migration rate rose again in the late 1940s, particularly from Latin America and Asia. The historically high levels of migration from Europe has meant that the most common ethnicity in the U.S. has been non-Hispanic White since the early-colonial period, however increased migration from Latin America, Asia and Africa, and higher fertility rates among ethnic minorities, have seen the Whites' share of the total population fall in recent years (although it is still over three times larger than any other group.

Historical dataset showing U.S. immigration statistics by year from 1960 to 2015.

Trends and Policy: U.S. Immigration simplifies the discovery process by providing a single location to cross-search relevant documents from 1790-today. These include U.S. immigration laws and other content from the legislative branch, reports and statistics from the executive and judicial branches and news content to provide additional information and context.

This data collection contains information on the characteristics of aliens who became legal permanent residents of the United States in fiscal year 1996 (October 1995 through September 1996). Data are presented for two types of immigrants. The first category, New Arrivals, arrived from outside the United States with valid immigrant visas issued by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service. The second category, Adjustments, were already in the United States with temporary status and were adjusted to legal permanent residence through petition to the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service. Variables include port of entry, month and year of admission, class of admission, and state and area to which the immigrants were admitted. Demographic information such as age, sex, marital status, occupation, country of birth, country of last permanent residence, and nationality is also provided.

US Naturalizations Statistics

Trends and statistics on US naturalizations from 1999 to 2017

By Throwback Thursday [source]

About this dataset

The dataset US Naturalizations 1999-2017 provides information on the naturalization process of immigrants in the United States during the period from 1999 to 2017. The dataset includes various features or columns, capturing valuable insights into trends and statistics related to immigrants becoming US citizens.

Firstly, there is a column that specifies the year in which each naturalization case occurred, allowing for analysis and comparison over time. Additionally, there is a column indicating the country of birth of each individual who went through the naturalization process. This information allows for an exploration of patterns and trends based on country of origin.

The dataset also includes columns providing details about gender and age groups. By examining the distribution of naturalized individuals across different genders and age ranges, one can gain insights into demographic patterns and changes in immigration over time.

Furthermore, this dataset features columns related to occupation and educational attainment. These variables contribute to understanding the socio-economic characteristics of immigrants who became US citizens. By analyzing occupational trends or educational levels among naturalized individuals, researchers can gain valuable knowledge regarding immigrant integration within various industries or sectors.

Moreover, this dataset contains data on whether an applicant had previous experience as a lawful permanent resident (LPR) before being granted US citizenship. This variable sheds light on pathways to citizenship among those who have already obtained legal status in the United States.

Finally, there are columns providing information about processing times for naturalized cases as well as any special exemptions granted under certain circumstances. These details offer insights into administrative aspects related to applicants' journeys towards acquiring US citizenship.

In summary, this comprehensive dataset offers a wide range of variables that capture important characteristics related to immigrants becoming US citizens between 1999 and 2017. Researchers can use this data to analyze trends based on year, country of origin, gender/age groups, occupation/education levels,and pathways to citizenship such as previous LPR status or special circumstances exemptions

How to use the dataset

• Understand the columns: Familiarize yourself with the different columns available in this dataset to comprehend the information it offers. The columns included are:

  • Year: The year of naturalization.
  • United States: The number of individuals naturalized within the United States.
  • Continents:
    • Africa: Number of individuals born in African countries who were naturalized.
    • Asia: Number of individuals born in Asian countries who were naturalized.
    • Europe: Number of individuals born in European countries who were naturalized.
    • North America (excluding Caribbean): Number of individuals born in North American countries (excluding Caribbean nations) who were naturalized.
    • Oceania: Number of individuals born in Oceanian countries who were naturalized, including Australia and New Zealand.
    • South America: Number of individuals born in South American countries who were naturalized.

• Overview by year: Analyze the total number of people being granted US citizenship over time by examining the United States column. Use statistical methods like mean, median, or mode to understand trends or identify any outliers or significant changes across specific years.

• Continent-specific analysis:

  a) Identify patterns among continents over time by examining each continent's respective column (Africa, Asia, Europe, etc.). Compare growth rates and determine any regions experiencing higher or lower rates compared to others.

  b) Determine which continent contributes most significantly to overall US immigration by calculating continent-wise percentages based on total immigrants for each year.

• Identify region-specific trends:

  a) Analyze immigration patterns within individual continents by dividing them further into specific regions or countries. For example, within Asia, you can examine trends for East Asia (China, Japan, South Korea), Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Philippines), or South Asia (India, Bangladesh).

  b) Perform comparative analysis between regions/countries to identify variations in immigration rates or any interesting factors influencing these variances. ...

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15,341 DAYS (October 1st, 1979 - September 30th, 2021)

This is a dataset that describes annual statistics regarding US immigration between the 1980-2021 fiscal years.

All data are official figures from the Department of Homeland Security's government website that have been compiled and structured by myself. There are several reasons for the decision to only examine immigration data from 1980 to 2021. Since 1976, a fiscal year for the US government has always started on October 1st and ended the following year on September 30th. If the years prior to 1976 were included, the data may be incorrectly represented and cause further confusion for viewers. Additionally, the United States only tracked refugee arrivals after the Refugee Act of 1980, a statistic that is prominently featured in the dataset. As a result, the start date of 1980 was chosen instead of 1976.

Data Sources

The primary data sources used were the "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics" webpages from the Department of Homeland Security. As a whole, the website not only provided figures about US immigration that were perfect for making time series analyses, but also explored the logistics behind the annual trends found.

1. The Department of Homeland Security's 2021 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics - The Office of Immigration Statistics' 2021 Flow Reports and Population Estimates provide text, tables, and charts on lawful permanent residents, refugees and asylees, nonimmigrant admissions, naturalizations, enforcement actions, and the unauthorized population. Being the latest version released to date, the 2021 yearbook is the most comprehensive report publicly available and tends to feature data of past years for reference.
2. The Department of Homeland Security's Directory of Past Immigration Yearbooks - Past yearbooks were referenced in order to find the missing data from the fiscal years during 2000-2021. There is a single yearbook covering the fiscal years during 1996-1999, but that was the oldest publications featured in the directory.
3. The Center for Immigration Studies's File Library - In order to procure immigration data during the fiscal years of 1980-1999, I found free versions of the Immigration and Naturalization Service's paywalled yearbooks from the Center for Immigration Studies. By doing so, I was able fill in the missing values and finish the dataset.

Statistics Being Tracked

• Immigrants Obtaining Lawful Permanent Resident Status - Number of immigrants who obtained lawful permanent resident status in the United States, otherwise known as green card holders.
• Refugee Arrivals - Number of refugees who arrived in the United States. Excludes Amerasian immigrants except for the fiscal years of 1989 and 1991. Figures are based on refugee's arrival date.
• Noncitizen Apprehensions - Number of noncitizens apprehended in the United States. Data from 2020 to 2021 includes U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encounters that resulted in expulsion on public health grounds (due to the pandemic).
• Noncitizen Removals - Number of noncitizens removed from the United States. Removals are the compulsory and confirmed movement of an inadmissible or deportable noncitizen out of the United States based on an order of removal.
• Noncitizen Returns - Number of noncitizen returns from the United States. Returns are the confirmed movement of an inadmissible or deportable noncitizen out of the United States not based on an order of removal.

Dataset History

2023-01-07 - Dataset is created (465 days after the end of the 2021 fiscal year).

GitHub Repository - The same data but on GitHub.

Code Starter

Link to Notebook

Historical dataset showing Virgin Islands (U.S.) immigration statistics by year from 1960 to 2015.

This graph shows the distribution of nationalities among documented immigrants who arrived in the United States between 1820 and 1870. As we can see, over seven million people arrived in the US in this 50 year period, with the majority coming from Ireland, Germany and Britain. The largest groups, by far, were Irish and German, who together made up roughly two thirds of all immigrants to the US during this time. The reasons for this were because of the Irish Potato famine from 1845 to 1849, which resulted in the death or emigration of twenty to twenty five percent of the total Irish population, and a number of internal factors in Germany such as economic migration for farmers affected by industrialization, political/religious asylum, and in order to avoid conscription. One noteworthy exclusion from the information is of those transported to US as slaves, whose information was not recorded in this statistic (although the slave trade was abolished in 1808, the practice continued in the decades that followed).

United States US: Net Migration data was reported at 4,500,000.000 Person in 2017. This stayed constant from the previous number of 4,500,000.000 Person for 2012. United States US: Net Migration data is updated yearly, averaging 4,213,405.500 Person from Dec 1962 (Median) to 2017, with 12 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 8,612,074.000 Person in 1997 and a record low of 1,549,465.000 Person in 1967. United States US: Net Migration data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Net migration is the net total of migrants during the period, that is, the total number of immigrants less the annual number of emigrants, including both citizens and noncitizens. Data are five-year estimates.; ; United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision.; Sum;

🔍This a dataset detailing immigration patterns by citizenship and age. This dataset consists of demographic data that can be used to analyze trends in immigration patterns, understand the composition of immigrant populations, and identify potential factors influencing migration.🌎

🔍Note: This was sourced from OECD and refined for further analysis.

🔍Image by Aum Global from Pixabay

Historical dataset showing Central America immigration statistics by year from N/A to N/A.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the majority of documented migration to the United States of American came from European countries. Between 1820 and 1957, of the approximate 41 million migrants to the US, over 34 million of these came from Europe. The most commonly documented countries of origin during this time were Germany (6.6 million), Italy (4.9 million), Ireland (4.6 million), Great Britain (4.5 million), and Russia (3.4 million). The first wave of mass migration came in the 1850s, as the Great famine crippled Ireland's population, and many in rural areas of mainland Europe struggled to adapt to industrialization, and economic opportunities attracted many in the 1870s, following the American Civil War. The 1880s saw another wave, as steam powered ships and lower fares made trans-Atlantic journeys much more affordable. The first wave of mass migration from Eastern and Southern Europe also arrived at this time, as industrialization and agricultural advancements led to high unemployment in these regions.

The majority of migrants to the United States settled in major urban centers, which allowed the expansion of industry, leading to the United States' emergence as one of the leading global economies at the turn of the twentieth century. The largest wave of migration to the United states during this period came in the first fifteen years of the 1900s. The influx of migrants from Northern and Western Europe had now been replaced by an influx from Eastern and Southern Europe (although migration from the British Isles was still quite high during this time). European migration fell to it's lowest levels in eighty years during the First World War, before fluctuating again in the interwar period, due to the Great Depression. As the twentieth century progressed, the continent with the highest levels of migration to the US gradually changed from Europe to Latin America, as economic opportunities in Western Europe improved, and the US' relationship with the Soviet Union and other Eastern, communist states became complicated.

In 2023, Northern America was the region with the highest level of net immigration, while Asia was the region with the highest level of net emigration. There is a clear trend of people moving from poorer regions of the Global South to more affluent regions, however it must be noted that these figures do not reflect internal migration within continents, such as the large number of migrants from South Asia to the Middle East, or movement from Eastern to Western Europe.

In Northern America, the United States was the largest recipient of immigrants, receiving one million more immigrants than emigrants lost. In contrast, in Asia, India and China had the largest number of net emigrants, totalling roughly 500,000 and 300,000 people respectively.

Estimates for UK immigration, emigration and net migration, year ending June 2012 to year ending December 2024. These are official statistics in development. To access the most up-to-date data for each time period, please use the most recently published dataset.

As of 2023, 27.3 percent of California's population were born in a country other than the United States. New Jersey, New York, Florida, and Nevada rounded out the top five states with the largest population of foreign born residents in that year. For the country as a whole, 14.3 percent of residents were foreign born.

United States Immigrants Admitted: All Countries data was reported at 1,127,167.000 Person in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 1,183,505.000 Person for 2016. United States Immigrants Admitted: All Countries data is updated yearly, averaging 451,510.000 Person from Sep 1900 (Median) to 2017, with 118 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,827,167.000 Person in 1991 and a record low of 23,068.000 Person in 1933. United States Immigrants Admitted: All Countries data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by US Department of Homeland Security. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.G087: Immigration.

In 2022, about **** million illegal aliens were apprehended in the United States. This was a significant increase from the previous year, when there were around **** million illegal aliens apprehended nationwide. Apprehensions refer to Border Patrol apprehensions and ICE administrative arrests.