Immigration Accounts for 3/4 of Population Growth
The Center for Immigration Studies reports:
WASHINGTON (December 21, 2010) – Most of the media coverage of the 2010 Census will likely focus on the country's changing racial composition and the redistribution of seats in Congress. But neither of these is the most important finding. Rather, it is the dramatic increase in the size of the U.S. population itself that has profound implications for our nation's quality of life and environment. Most of the increase has been, and will continue to be, a result of one federal policy: immigration. Projections into the future from the Census Bureau show we are on track to add 130 million more people to the U.S. population in the just the next 40 years, primarily due to future immigration.
- Immigration accounted for three-quarters of population growth during the decade. Census Bureau data found 13.1 million new immigrants (legal and illegal) who arrived in the last 10 years; there were also about 8.2 million births to immigrant women during the decade.1
- The numerical increase of 27.3 million this decade is exceeded by only two other decades in American history.
- Without a change in immigration policy, the nation is projected to add roughly 30 million new residents each decade for the foreseeable future.
- Assuming the current ratio of population to infrastructure, adding roughly 30 each decade will mean:
- building and paying for 8,000 new schools every 10 years;
- developing land to accommodate 11.5 million new housing units every 10 years;
- constructing enough roads to handle 23.6 million more vehicles every 10 years.
