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The foreign-born population from Africa has grown rapidly in the United States during the last 40 years, increasing from about 80,000 in 1970 to about 1.6 million in the period from 2008 to 2012, according to a U.S. Census Bureau brief released today. The population has roughly doubled each decade since 1970, with the largest increase happening from 2000 to 2008-2012.
The Foreign-Born Population from Africa: 2008-2012, a brief based on American Community Survey statistics, shows that the African foreign-born population accounts for 4 percent of the total U.S. foreign-born population. No African country makes up the majority of these immigrants, but four countries — Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt and Ghana — make up 41 percent of the African-born total.
“The brief — the Census Bureau’s first focusing on the African foreign-born population — highlights the size, growth, geographic distribution and educational attainment of this group,” said Christine Gambino of the Census Bureau’s Foreign-Born Population Branch, who is one of the brief’s authors. “We have found that the African-born population tends to be more educated and accounts for a relatively large proportion of the foreign-born population in some nontraditional immigrant gateway states such as Minnesota and the Dakotas.”
The foreign-born population from Africa had a higher level of educational attainment than the overall foreign-born population: 41 percent of African-born had a bachelor’s degree or higher compared with 28 percent overall. Within the foreign-born population from Africa, educational attainment varied by place of birth. For example, 40 percent of the Somali-born population had less than a high school education, while 64 percent of Egyptian-born individuals had a bachelor’s degree or higher.
This brief is one of several focusing on the foreign-born population from world regions of birth. Previous reports include “The Foreign Born from Asia: 2011” and “The Foreign Born from Latin America and the Caribbean: 2010.” In addition, supplemental tables are now available for the African-born population by metropolitan statistical area. Below are highlights of the geographic distribution of the African-born population from the brief:
The information in this release comes from data collected from the American Community Survey from 2008 to 2012. The questions asked include:
Organizations use this information to develop programs for refugees, immigrants and other foreign-born individuals. Federal and state agencies require these statistics to support enforcement of nondiscrimination policies and to allocate funds for school districts based on limited English proficiency, immigrant, low income and minority student populations.
Ever since Thomas Jefferson directed the first census in 1790, the census has collected detailed characteristics about our nation’s people. Questions about jobs and the economy were added 20 years later under James Madison, who said such information would allow Congress to “adapt the public measures to the particular circumstances of the community,” and over the decades allow America “an opportunity of marking the progress of the society.”
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Note: Statistics from sample surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling error. All comparisons made in this report have been tested and found to be statistically significant at the 90 percent confidence level, unless otherwise noted. Please consult the tables for specific margins of error. For more information, go to <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/data_documentation/documentation_main/>. See <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/data_documentation/2012_release/> for more information on changes affecting the 2008-2012 statistics. See <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/guidance_for_data_users/comparing_2012/> for guidance on comparing 2008-2012 American Community Survey statistics with previous years.
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African-Born Population in US Roughly Doubled Every Decade Since 1970
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