Immigration By District

Click a district link for more detail via the map.

Highest Percentage of Foreign-born Residents, 2008

District	Percentage	Representative
Florida 21	55.6%	Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R
Florida 18	52.7%	Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
California 31	51.8%	Xavier Becerra, D
California 47	48.9%	Loretta Sanchez, D
New York 5	47.9%	Gary L. Ackerman, D
Florida 25	46.3%	Mario Diaz-Balart, R
New York 6	44.4%	Gregory W. Meeks
California 34	44.2%	Lucille Roybal-Allard, D
California 29	43.4%	Adam B. Schiff, D
California 28	42.2%	Howard L. Berman, D
U.S. median	8.2%

Largest Increase in Foreign-born Residents since 2000

District	Increase in Percentage Points	Representative
Georgia 3	6.7	Lynn Westmoreland, R
Maryland 4	5.9	Donna Edwards, D
Virginia 8	5.5	James P. Moran, D
Massachusetts 6	5.5	John F. Tierney, D
Florida 21	5.5	Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R
Virginia 9	5.5	Rick Boucher, D
Florida 3	5.3	Corrine Brown, D
California 19	5.0	Geroge Radanovich, R
Arizona 3	5.0	John Shadegg, R
Nevada 3	5.0	Dina Titus, D
U.S. median	1.2

Highest Percentage of Limited English, 2008

District	Percentage	Representative
California 31	30.6%	Xavier Becerra, D
California 47	29.3%	Loretta Sanchez, D
California 34	28.0%	Lucille Roybal-Allard, D
Florida 21	26.0%	Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R
Illinois 4	25.8%	Luis V. Gutierrez, D
Florida 18	25.7%	Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R
Texas 29	25.1%	Gene Green, D
New York 12	24.7%	Nydia M. Velazquez, D
New York 16	22.8%	Jose E. Serrano, D
Arizona 4	22.3%	Ed Pastor, D
U.S. median	2.7%

Largest Increase in Limited English Population Since 2000

District	Increase in Percentage Points	Representative
Texas 6	4.7	Joe L. Barton
Texas 17	4.3	Chet Edwards, R
New York 13	4.2	Michael E. McMahon, D
Arizona 4	3.9	Ed Pastor, D
New York 23	3.7	Bill Owens, D
Florida 24	3.6	Suzanne M. Kosmas, D
Texas 25	3.5	Lloyd Doggett, D
Florida 7	2.9	John L. Mica, R
California 27	2.8	Brad Sherman, D
New Jersey 6	2.6	Frank Pallone Jr., D
U.S. median	0.4

The Shifting Landscape of Immigration

Immigrants, both legal and illegal, are a growing portion of the U.S. population. The number of foreign-born residents rose to 37.7 million — or 12.5 percent of the population, up from 11.1 percent — according to the latest Census Bureau estimates, which are based on a 2006-08 survey. That amounts to a 21 percent increase in the number of foreign-born residents since 2000.

The increase was seen not only in the Southwest — Nevada had the largest percentage-point increase in foreign-born residents — but across the country. Big increases were seen in states from Maryland to Georgia to Washington. California was the only state where more than a quarter of the population was foreign-born, based on the latest data, but in 16 other states 10 percent or more of the population was not native-born.

Looking at the statisics by congressional district, it becomes clear that in some states, such as North Carolina and Virginia, an immigration boom in just a few places is driving statewide growth. But big increases can be seen in all areas of Florida and New Jersey. And while South Texas remains home to the greatest number of that state's foreign-born residents, the immigrant population East Texas is growing much faster.

The rise in foreign-born residents is mirrored by an increase in the number of people who report that they speak little or no English. In the latest Census figures, 4.8 percent of the population — 13.4 million people — said they had little or no English ability. That was a 22 percent increase from 2000, when the number was 11 million, or 4.2 percent of the population

SOURCE: US Census, 2000 general survey and 2008 three-year sample from the American Community Survey. Population speaking English includes all those five year old and above.

DEFINITION OF TERMS: Individuals with limited English are those five year old and above who self-identify as speaking English not well or not at all. Foreign-born individuals also self-identify and do not include those born to U.S. citizens abroad.

CREDITS: Ted Benson (design), John Cranford (editor), Sarah Vanderbilt (data), Thomas Wilburn (interactive)

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