American Community Survey Shows Record Size and Growth in Foreign-Born Population in 2023

The Census Bureau today released the 2023 American Community Survey (ACS), which shows a total foreign-born or immigrant population (legal and illegal) of 47.83 million in July 2023 — an increase of 1.65 million compared to the 2022 ACS. The size of the foreign-born population and the year-over-year increase are the largest the survey has ever shown.¹ At 14.3 percent of the total U.S. population, the share is also a record in the ACS.

The bureau also released on Tuesday, September 10, the Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey (ASEC CPS), which shows a foreign-born population of 51.26 million as of March 2024 — an increase of 2.48 million over March 2023. The ASEC CPS shows the foreign-born were 15.5 percent of the total U.S. population.² As with the ACS, the total size, single-year increase, and share of the U.S. population that is foreign- born in the 2024 ASEC CPS are all new record highs for the survey.³

(The likely reasons for the differing numbers are differing methodologies as well as the fact that the ASEC CPS is more recent, reporting March 2024 numbers, rather than the ACS’s July 2023.)

The Census Bureau is clear that illegal immigrants are included in their survey data. As record-setting as these results are, the numbers may still significantly understate the scale of immigration to the United States, particularly in the ACS. For one thing, there is monthly data collected by the Census Bureau that shows even higher numbers, which the Center for Immigration Studies has reported on over the last two years. But even on their own terms, the new ACS and ASEC CPS show unprecedented levels of growth.

In interpreting the estimates below, please note that the margin of error for the foreign-born population in the ACS is ±191,000 in 2023, and ±575,000 for the 2024 ASEC CPS.

Other Interesting Findings:

Whether one uses net migration of 1.9 million or 2.8 million, the figures are extremely high by historical standards. Moreover, they are dramatically higher than the net international migration estimated by the Census Bureau in its 2023 population estimates released in December of just 1.14 million.⁶

Immigrants from Latin America account for 76 percent, or 1.25 million, of the increase in the foreign-born population from July 2022 to July 2023 in the ACS.⁴ Of the 2.48 million increase in the foreign-born population from March 2023 to March 2024 in the ASEC CPS, 97 percent, or 2.41 million, is due to immigrants from Latin America.

The rapid increase in Latin Americans in the two surveys reflects the large increase in illegal immigrants in the data. We have previously estimated that some 58 percent of the increase in Census Bureau data is from illegal immigration.

The non-citizen population also shows a dramatic increase, which further supports the idea that the number of illegal immigrants has surged. Over the last year, non-citizens accounted for 72 percent of the increase in the total foreign-born population in the ACS and 63 percent of the increase in the ASEC CPS.

The increase in the foreign-born is all the more striking because there are about 280,000 deaths per year among the existing foreign-born, and emigration is estimated to be 500,000 per year at a minimum. Yet, the total foreign-born population is still growing at an unprecedented pace.⁵

Net migration of the foreign-born — the difference between the number coming vs. leaving each year — equals growth in the foreign-born plus annual deaths. The numbers from the ACS imply net migration of roughly 1.9 million from mid-2022 to mid-2023, while the ASEC CPS implies net migration of roughly 2.8 million from March 2023 to March 2024.