Children of Immigrants: 2008 State Trends Update

Abstract

This brief updates perspectives brief 9 "Children of Immigrants: National and State Characteristics," which profiled children of immigrants as of 2005–06. The current brief presents data highlights for the 50 states and the District of Columbia from the 2007 and 2008 American Community Surveys. The statistics in this brief and other indicators on children can be obtained on the Urban Institute’s Children of Immigrants Data Tool web site.

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Introduction

Immigration Flows and Population Momentum Contribute to Rising Numbers of Children of Immigrants

• Growth in immigration during the 1990s and afterward resulted in a larger number of children in immigrant families. Between 1990 and 2008, the share of U.S. children with immigrant parents increased from 13 percent to 23 percent. In 2008, 16.5 million children age 0 to 17 had at least one immigrant parent, a 5 percent increase from 15.7 million in 2005?06 and a twofold increase from 8.3 million in 1990.
• Most of the growth in the number of U.S. children age 0 to 17 from 1990 to 2007 comes from children of immigrants. The number of children in native families increased by 2.1 million, while the number of children with at least one immigrant parent grew by 8.1 million, accounting for 77 percent of the increase in children in the United States (Fortuny and Chaudry 2009).

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