Immigrants (both legal and illegal) comprised 13.9% of the total US population of 33-odd crore as of July 2022, according to statistics recently released by the US Census Board.

This ratio was 13.6% in the previous year.

In other words, it can be said that one out of seven US residents is foreign born (the term used in the report).Foreign born population, based on the findings of the American Community Survey (ACS-2022), stood at 4.61 crore in July 2022, an increase of nearly 2 % from the previous year’s figure of 4.52 crore.Both Indian and Chinese immigrants each comprised of 6% of the total immigration count in 2022.

The number of Indians as per the 2022 census were 28.4 lakh, as against 27.09 lakh in the previous year – an increase of 4.8%.

Chinese immigrants showed an increase of 79,000 to stand at 28.3 lakh, showing an increase of nearly 3%.

While Mexicans continued to top the list at 106.8 lakh (or 23% of the immigrant population), there was a slight drop of less than 1% from the previous year’s statistic.The top three source countries:Country2022 (population)2021 (population)% increaseMexico106.8106.9(-) 0.09%India28.427.094.83%China28.3327.542.86%Total foreign born461.82452.702.01%All figures in lakh and rounded offCompared to the number of immigrants from these top three countries, numbers of those from Afghanistan and Venezuela are less significant at 4.07 lakh and 6.7 lakh respectively – however the percentage increase (owing to the influx of asylum seekers/refugees from these countries) over 2021 data is significant at 229% and 22% respectively.Commenting on the alarm expressed in some sections over the rise in number of immigrants, David J Bier, associate director, immigration studies, at Cato Institute, a Washington based think-tank in his post points out that, “The immigrant share of the US population rose just 0.3 percentage points from 13.6% to 13.9% from July 2021 to July 2022.”Bier goes on to explain that the increase in immigrant share of the population over the last decade (2012-2022) was the lowest ever.

Immigrants were 13.1% of the US population in 2012, which has now increased by just 0.7 percentage points.

He adds that the growth in the immigrant share is down by 76% since the 1990s.On the flip side, the Center for Immigration Studies, a think-tank that takes a hardened stance on immigration numbers, points out that the figure of foreign-born of 4.61 crore is the largest that the ACS has ever shown.

Ten years ago, in 2012, the foreign-born number was 4.08 crore.Given the ageing demographic, the slower population growth and the worker shortage, Bier firmly states that, “America needs people in both the short and long term, and it needs workers of all skill types.

Immigrants can help, and they should be allowed to do so legally.