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Immigrants and the economy

How many people living in the United States were born abroad, what work they do, and what immigration means for wages, population and the budget.

Last reviewed October 12, 2026

Know

Facts that are not in dispute. Guess first, then see the figure and where it comes from.

"Foreign-born" means anyone born outside the United States to parents who were not US citizens, whatever their legal status: naturalized citizens, green-card holders, people on temporary visas and unauthorized immigrants. Worker figures are 2025 averages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. October 2025 was not surveyed because of the government shutdown.

  1. Out of every 100 people living in the United States, about how many were born in another country?

    Slide to make your guess

    About 15 of every 100 people living in the United States were born abroad.

    In 2024 the foreign-born population reached 50.2 million, the largest number ever and 14.8% of the population. That ties the record share set in 1890. The share fell steadily after 1920 to a low of 4.7% in 1970.

    Source: Census Bureau, Foreign-Born Population in the United States Changed Significantly in Both Numbers and Countries of Origin

  2. Out of every 100 people in the labor force in 2025, about how many were born abroad?

    Slide to make your guess

    About 19 of every 100 people in the labor force were born abroad.

    That is 32.7 million people. A larger share of foreign-born adults work or look for work, 66.3% against 61.6% for those born here. Pew estimates that 9.7 million of the workers are unauthorized immigrants, 5.6% of the workforce.

    Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor Force Characteristics of Foreign-Born Workers, 2025; Pew Research Center, U.S. Unauthorized Immigrant Population Reached a Record 14 Million in 2023

  3. Of every 100 foreign-born workers, about how many work in service jobs, construction and maintenance, or production and transport?

    Slide to make your guess

    About 50 of every 100 foreign-born workers hold those jobs, compared with about 35 of every 100 workers born here.

    Service jobs, such as cleaning, cooking and personal care, employ 21.2% of foreign-born workers. Production, transportation and moving goods employ 15.1%, and construction, farming and maintenance 13.3%. For workers born here the figures are 15.6%, 11.4% and 7.9%. The totals are sums of those groups. The chart below compares them.

    Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor Force Characteristics of Foreign-Born Workers, 2025

  4. Of every 100 workers on US crop farms, about how many lack authorization to work?

    Slide to make your guess

    Between 37 and 47 of every 100 crop farmworkers lack work authorization.

    That is the range from the Labor Department's survey for 2021 and 2022. The survey does not cover dairy, poultry or livestock farms. Separately, the government approved about 363,000 positions for H-2A temporary farmworkers in fiscal year 2024.

    Source: Congressional Research Service, Unauthorized Farmworkers in the United States (IF13083), from the Labor Department's National Agricultural Workers Survey, 2021–2022

  5. How many children does the Congressional Budget Office expect each 100 women in the United States to have, at 2026 birth rates?

    Slide to make your guess

    About 158 children for every 100 women, well below the roughly 210 needed for each generation to replace the last.

    CBO projects that deaths will outnumber births from 2030, and that without immigration the population would begin to shrink that year. With immigration it projects growth from 349 million in 2026 to 364 million in 2056. Women born abroad have more children, about 179 per 100.

    Source: Congressional Budget Office, The Demographic Outlook: 2026 to 2056

  6. In 2025, how did the unemployment rate of workers born abroad compare with that of workers born here?

    Unemployment was about the same, 4.2% for workers born abroad and 4.3% for workers born here.

    Pay differed more. Median weekly earnings for full-time workers were $1,059 for those born abroad and $1,236 for those born here.

    Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor Force Characteristics of Foreign-Born Workers, 2025

  7. CBO studied the rise in immigration from 2021 to 2026, about 8.7 million more people than the earlier trend. What did it find the rise does to federal deficits through 2034?

    CBO estimated that the rise lowers federal deficits by about $0.9 trillion from 2024 to 2034.

    It adds $1.2 trillion in revenue and $0.3 trillion in spending on benefits and interest. The estimate leaves out spending that Congress sets each year, and costs paid by states and cities, such as schools. CBO calls it very uncertain.

    Source: Congressional Budget Office, Effects of the Immigration Surge on the Federal Budget and the Economy

Where workers work, by place of birth, 2025

Share of employed workers in three broad groups of jobs. The other groups, management, professional, sales and office work, make up the rest.

  • Service, born abroad 21.2%
  • Service, born here 15.6%
  • Production and transport, born abroad 15.1%
  • Production and transport, born here 11.4%
  • Construction, farming and maintenance, born abroad 13.3%
  • Construction, farming and maintenance, born here 7.9%

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor Force Characteristics of Foreign-Born Workers, 2025

Charts appear here once you have answered or skipped the questions above.

Debate

Questions the facts cannot settle, with the strongest case for each side.

Should the United States admit more immigrants, fewer, or about the same number?

More, or at least as many

Women in the United States are having about 158 children for every 100, far below replacement. CBO projects that deaths will outnumber births from 2030 and that without immigration the population would begin to shrink that year, leaving fewer workers to support each retiree. Immigrants fill that gap: 66.3% of foreign-born adults are in the labor force, against 61.6% of those born here. CBO found that the rise in immigration from 2021 to 2026 lowers federal deficits by about $0.9 trillion through 2034. The National Academies found that the children of immigrants are among the strongest fiscal contributors in the country.

Fewer

The foreign-born population reached 50.2 million in 2024, the most ever, and its share of the population ties the record set in 1890. The National Academies found that first-generation immigrants cost governments more than people born here, and CBO's deficit estimate, which it calls very uncertain, leaves out schools and other costs paid by states and cities. Pew counts a record 14 million unauthorized immigrants, so the system already admits more people than it controls. A slower pace would give schools, housing and wages time to adjust (the lifetime fiscal effect is disputed).

Underneath is a disagreement about how much weight to give a growing economy and an aging population against the costs and pace of change borne by particular places and workers.

Do lower-skilled immigrant workers help or hurt workers already here?

They help, or do little harm

The National Academies concluded that the long-term effect of immigration on the wages and employment of workers born here is "very small" overall. In 2025 unemployment was 4.2% for workers born abroad and 4.3% for those born here, a sign that immigrants were not crowding others out of work. Some industries depend on them: 37 to 47 of every 100 crop farmworkers lack work authorization, and farms requested about 363,000 H-2A guest-worker positions in 2024. A study of the 1980 Mariel boatlift, which brought a sudden wave of Cuban refugees to Miami, found no significant wage effect on workers without a diploma.

They hurt the lowest-paid

The same National Academies review found that any harm is most likely to fall on earlier immigrants and people born here who left high school, the workers with the least to spare. Those are the jobs where immigrants are concentrated: 50 of every 100 foreign-born workers are in service, construction, farming, production or transport, against 35 of every 100 born here. A reanalysis of the Mariel boatlift found that the wages of low-skilled men in Miami fell substantially afterward. Foreign-born full-time workers earn a median $1,059 a week against $1,236 for those born here, and Pew counts a record 9.7 million unauthorized workers, 5.6% of the workforce.

Underneath is a disagreement about whom economic policy should protect first, the workers already here at the bottom of the pay scale or the economy and consumers as a whole.

Wording

Terms that frame the argument before it starts. Who uses each one, and what can be checked.

  • "Taking our jobs" and "jobs Americans won't do"

    How it is used. The first phrase suggests immigrants displace workers born here. The second suggests no one born here would do the work. Both describe the same jobs.

    What can be checked. People born here do these jobs too. In 2025, 15.6% of employed workers born here were in service jobs and 7.9% in construction, farming and maintenance. Unemployment was about the same for both groups. Whether wages for these jobs would rise enough to fill them without immigrants is a real question, and a different one from whether anyone will do them.

    Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor Force Characteristics of Foreign-Born Workers, 2025

  • "Low-skilled" and "high-skilled"

    How it is used. The labels suggest a judgment about how good someone is at their work.

    What can be checked. In research, these labels usually measure schooling, not ability. "Low-skilled" generally means no high school diploma, or sometimes no college degree. A skilled roofer or cook can be "low-skilled" by this measure. Check which definition a statistic uses.

    Sources: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, statement on The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration (2017)

  • "Labor shortage"

    How it is used. Employers and supporters of more immigration speak of a shortage of workers. Skeptics say there is no shortage, only wages too low to attract people.

    What can be checked. Both can be true at once. Economists usually mean a shortage at the current wage. Measures such as unemployment, job openings and wage growth by occupation show where employers are struggling to hire, but not whether higher pay would fix it.

    Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor Force Characteristics of Foreign-Born Workers, 2025

Uncertain

Questions that have a factual answer in principle, where the evidence is still contested.
What did the Mariel boatlift do to wages in Miami?
In 1980 a boatlift brought a sudden wave of Cuban refugees to Miami within months, the kind of abrupt change economists rarely get to study. The economist David Card found no effect on local wages. George Borjas later found that wages of low-skilled non-Hispanic men fell substantially. Giovanni Peri and Vasil Yasenov found no significant difference. The disagreement turns on which workers are compared, and the samples are small. The episode is widely cited by both sides. Sources: Borjas, The Wage Impact of the Marielitos: Additional Evidence (NBER Working Paper 21850); Peri and Yasenov, The Labor Market Effects of a Refugee Wave: Applying the Synthetic Control Method to the Mariel Boatlift (NBER Working Paper 21801)
Over a lifetime, do immigrants pay more in taxes than they receive in services?
The answer depends on the time span, the level of government and how shared costs such as defense are divided. CBO found a net federal gain from recent arrivals over ten years but did not count state and local costs. The National Academies found that first-generation immigrants cost governments more than people born here, while their children are among the strongest contributors. Estimates for any one group swing with education, age at arrival and legal status. Sources: Congressional Budget Office, Effects of the Immigration Surge on the Federal Budget and the Economy; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, statement on The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration (2017)

Sources