The Demographic Intersection of Age, Race, and Immigrant Composition in the United States

Abstract

This visualization illustrates the proportion of U.S. residents at every age between 0 and 80 years who are foreign born and native born. The author uses a robust cross-sectional sample from the 2022 American Community Survey and groups individuals into nine distinct racial and ethnic (i.e., ethnoracial) groups. Following demographic expectations, age-specific immigrant shares of the total population are largest in midlife. However, across different ethnoracial groups the pattern varies greatly. Among Hispanic White individuals, a presumed immigrant-dominant group, there is no age at which the majority of members are foreign born. Alternatively, among non-Hispanic Asians and Pacific Islanders, Hispanics from other races, and multiracial Hispanics, there is a clear divide between majority foreign-born and majority native-born age groups. These results show the strengths of disaggregating the Hispanic population and the need to consider the intersection of age, race, and immigration when formulating social policy.