American Community Survey Reports
U.S. Department o Commerce
Economics and Statistics Administration
U.S. CENSUS BUREAU
The Foreign-Born Population in theUnited States: 2010
This report presents a portrait o theoreign-born population in the UnitedStates. The U.S. Census Bureau uses theterm
to reer to anyone whois not a U.S. citizen at birth. This includesnaturalized citizens, lawul permanentresidents, temporary migrants (such asoreign students), humanitarian migrants(such as reugees), and undocumentedmigrants. The term
reers toanyone born in the United States, PuertoRico, or a U.S. Island Area, or those bornabroad o at least one U.S. citizen parent.
Inormation on the demographic, social,economic, and housing characteristicspresented in this report is based on datarom the 2010 American CommunitySurvey (ACS).
In this report, data on the oreign bornare presented by broad region o birth,including Arica, Asia, Europe, LatinAmerica and the Caribbean, NorthernAmerica, and Oceania. More detail isshown or Latin America and theCaribbean—including Mexico, OtherCentral America, South America, and theCaribbean. For this report, the categoryOther Central America excludes Mexicobut includes the remaining countries o Central America.
In the graphs display-ing inormation by nativity and place
are used inter-changeably in this report. U.S. Island Areas includeGuam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, andthe Commonwealth o the Northern Mariana Islands.
Additional inormation about the ACS is avail-able on the Census Bureau’s Web site at
Other Central America includes the countries o Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,Nicaragua, and Panama.
o birth, data on the total, native, andoreign-born populations as well as theregions o birth are shown in light green,while the areas within Latin America areshown in light blue.
Data are shown or population (e.g., age,marital status, occupation) and house-hold (e.g., size, type, income) character-istics. A household is a person or a groupo people who occupy a housing unit astheir current residence. College residencehalls, military barracks, correctional acili-ties, and other group quarters are notincluded. A householder is usually theperson, or one o the people, in whosename the home is owned, being bought,or rented. A amily household consists o a householder and one or more peopleliving together in the same householdwho are related to the householder bybirth, marriage, or adoption. It may alsoinclude people unrelated to the house-holder. The nativity status and place o birth o a household are determined bythe nativity status and place o birth o the householder. A household with aoreign-born householder may alsocontain native residents, and a house-hold with a native householder may alsocontain oreign-born residents.The 2010 ACS estimated the number o oreign born in the United States to be
Latin America and the Caribbean
includes countries in Central and South America andthe Caribbean. Throughout the remainder o thisreport, the term
is used to reer toall o these areas. A complete list o the countriesincluded in the regions and subregions is available onthe Census Bureau’s Web site at
www.census.gov /acs/www/Downloads/data_documentation /CodeLists/Foreign_Country_Code_List_062310.pd
Issued May 2012
ByElizabeth M. Grieco,Yesenia D. Acosta,G. Patricia de la Cruz,Christine Gambino,Thomas Gryn,Luke J. Larsen,Edward N. Trevelyan,andNathan P. Walters