With the economic downturn, immigration to the United States slowed, but the foreign-born population still increased more than 20% from 2000 through 2008, from 31 million to 38 million. One in eight Americans was foreign born in 2008, up from 1-in-20 in 1970.
The largest U.S. metropolitan areas continue to be home to the largest number of immigrants, with more than 1 million in places such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco. But the major metros with the fastest-growth immigrant populations were mostly in the southeast region of the country.
This growth has implications for real estate development, because immigrants tend to settle close together within metros and more than half of foreign-born metro residents live in the suburbs, according to the Brookings Institution. Here’s a Top 10 list of fastest-growing foreign-born populations in major metros (those with at least 100,000 immigrants) from 2000 through 2008, the latest year available:
Metro | 2000 foreign-born population | 2008 foreign-born population | Change |
Nashville | 58,539 | 107,184 | 83.1% |
Charlotte | 91,990 | 163,539 | 77.8% |
Raleigh-Cary, NC | 69,530 | 117,298 | 68.7% |
Atlanta | 424,519 | 710,885 | 67.5% |
Orlando | 197,119 | 323,945 | 64.3% |
Las Vegas | 247,751 | 403,674 | 62.9% |
Columbus, OH | 71,953 | 113,340 | 57.5% |
Austin, TX | 152,834 | 239,509 | 56.7% |
Kansas City | 81,072 | 121,621 | 50.0% |
Phoenix | 457,483 | 682,869 | 49.3% |
(Source: Brookings Institution.)
