US Counties With the Highest Share Foreign-born
2,453 US counties ranked by share foreign-born, from highest to lowest. First are Miami-Dade County, FL (54.3%), Queens County, NY (47.6%) and Aleutians West Census Area, AK (44.1%). The middle one of the 2,453 has 3.65%.
What this measures
The percentage of residents born outside the United States, whether or not they are citizens. The middle county is 2.7%, and the numbers are very uneven: Miami-Dade is 54% and Queens 48%, while half of all counties are under 3%. The count alone mostly ranks counties by size, which is why this percentage is shown next to it. Source: Census ACS 5-year.
For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.
The 100 highest counties
Every state, highest first
Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.
| Rank | State | % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 26.7% |
| 2 | New Jersey | 23.5% |
| 3 | New York | 22.6% |
| 4 | Florida | 21.4% |
| 5 | Nevada | 19% |
| 6 | Hawaii | 18.1% |
| 7 | Massachusetts | 17.7% |
| 8 | Texas | 17.2% |
| 9 | Maryland | 16.3% |
| 10 | Connecticut | 15.4% |
| 11 | Washington | 15.1% |
| 12 | Rhode Island | 14.8% |
| 13 | Illinois | 14.4% |
| 14 | District of Columbia | 13.3% |
| 15 | Virginia | 12.9% |
| 16 | Arizona | 12.9% |
| 17 | Georgia | 10.8% |
| 18 | Delaware | 10.4% |
| 19 | Oregon | 9.69% |
| 20 | Colorado | 9.58% |
| 21 | New Mexico | 9.24% |
| 22 | North Carolina | 8.73% |
| 23 | Minnesota | 8.56% |
| 24 | Utah | 8.56% |
| 25 | Alaska | 7.78% |
| 26 | Nebraska | 7.7% |
| 27 | Pennsylvania | 7.4% |
| 28 | Kansas | 7.19% |
| 29 | Michigan | 7.04% |
| 30 | Oklahoma | 6.25% |
| 31 | New Hampshire | 6.2% |
| 32 | Indiana | 5.94% |
| 33 | Tennessee | 5.9% |
| 34 | Idaho | 5.74% |
| 35 | Iowa | 5.71% |
| 36 | South Carolina | 5.63% |
| 37 | Arkansas | 5.22% |
| 38 | Wisconsin | 5.09% |
| 39 | Ohio | 5.04% |
| 40 | Louisiana | 4.73% |
| 41 | North Dakota | 4.47% |
| 42 | Kentucky | 4.43% |
| 43 | Missouri | 4.38% |
| 44 | Vermont | 4.33% |
| 45 | South Dakota | 3.92% |
| 46 | Maine | 3.89% |
| 47 | Alabama | 3.8% |
| 48 | Wyoming | 3.51% |
| 49 | Puerto Rico | 2.72% |
| 50 | Mississippi | 2.39% |
| 51 | Montana | 2.29% |
| 52 | West Virginia | 1.71% |
More on share foreign-born
- US Counties With the Lowest Share Foreign-born
- Share foreign-born by US county: map by year and what it goes with
A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.