Immigration Drove White, Asian Population Growth in US Last Year

Without immigration, the white population in the U.S. would have declined last year.

Immigration also propelled the expansion of the Asian population, which was the fastest-growing race or ethnic group last year in the U.S., while births outpacing deaths helped propel growth in Hispanic, Black, tribal and Hawaiian populations.

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For white residents in the U.S., immigration drove the expansion. Without it, the white population, including those who identify as more than one race, would have dropped last year by more than 85,000 people instead of growing meagerly by more than 388,000 residents, or 0.1%.

When the focus is narrowed to white people who aren’t Hispanic and identify only with a single race, there was a decline of more than 668,000 people in the white population since the number of immigrants couldn’t overcome the steep drop in natural decrease that came from deaths outnumbering births last year.

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Since the start of the pandemic in April 2020, the white population has grown by 391,000 people, all of it driven by immigration.

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The United States last year had 260.5 million people who identified as white, including those who identify as more than one race. {snip}

Immigration also drove Asian growth last year, accounting for two-thirds of the 577,000-person increase in people who identify as Asian, including those who identify with more than one race. That 2.4% bump was the largest of any race or ethnic group, and there were 24.6 million Asians in the U.S. last year.

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The Hispanic population in the U.S. grew by more than 1 million people last year, the biggest jump in pure numbers of any race or ethnic group. Two-thirds of that expansion was driven by natural increase, or births outpacing deaths. More than 63.3 million people identified as Hispanic last year, a 1.7% increase over the previous year.

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Natural increase also drove almost two-thirds of the 436,000-person jump in the Black population last year, a 0.9% increase from the previous year. {snip}

The American Indian and Alaska Native population stood at 7.2 million residents last year, an increase of more than 93,000 people, or 1.3%. {snip}

There were more than 1.7 million Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders in the U.S. last year, an increase of 1.2% over the previous year. {snip}

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