Children of Immigrants: Immigration Trends

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Abstract

This fact sheet is the first in a series of publications on children of immigrants in the United States that updates the Urban Institute's May 2006 fact sheet that described the circumstances of these children in the early 2000s. The current fact sheet examines immigration trends and finds that children of immigrants are the fastest growing segment of the nation's children population – while the number of children of natives increased by 2.1 million between 1990 and 2007, children of immigrants grew by 8.1 million accounting for 77 percent of the growth of the U.S. children population during this time.

Introduction

This fact sheet is the first in a series of publications on children of immigrants. The series updates the Urban Institute’s May 2006 fact sheet that described the characteristics of children of immigrants in the early 2000s. The current series profiles the population of children of immigrants in the United States using data from the 2007 American Community Survey and other sources.

Children in immigrant families are the fastest growing segment of the nation’s children population. While the number of children in native families grew by 2.1 million between 1990 and 2007, children of immigrants increased by 8.1 million during this time. The share of children that have at least one foreign-born parent rose rapidly as a result, and now children of immigrants represent more than one in five U.S. children.

Most 1990–2007 Growth in U.S. Children Is from Children of Immigrants

• The rising number of children of immigrants follows directly from the rapid growth in immigration since 1990, with the number of immigrants in the United States nearly doubling from 19.8 million to 38.1 million between 1990 and 2007. The growth rate was fastest in the 1990s, when the immigrant population reached 31.1 million in 2000, but the numbers continued to increase steadily during the 2000s and reached 38.1 million in 2007.
• As a result, the number of children age 0 to 17 with immigrant parents increased from 8.3 million in 1990 to 13.3 million in 2000 and 16.4 million in 2007. The increase represents a doubling of this population since 1990.
• Children of immigrants contributed 77 percent of the increase in the number of U.S. children between 1990 and 2007. While children of immigrants increased by 8.1 million during this time, children of natives increased more modestly. Between 2000 and 2007, the number of children of natives actually declined by 1.2 million, while the number of children of immigrants continued to grow.

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