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U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates, 2020–2024. County and tract estimates and margins of error come from B05002 (population), B05006 (place of birth), B05001 (citizenship) and B05005 (year of entry). See the official data files, place-of-birth variable definitions and map data provenance. The saved values were checked against the official files on October 2, 2026.
National benchmarks cover the 50 states and Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico is excluded. The map's foreign-born total is 47,348,715 from B05006, which excludes people born at sea. B05002's broader foreign-born total is 47,349,078. Both round to 47.3 million. The menu includes 124 countries and places of birth; other and unspecified birthplace categories are included in the overall total but not offered separately.
City areas shows census tracts across selected whole counties, not municipal boundaries. New York covers all five boroughs and Philadelphia covers Philadelphia County. The other choices show Los Angeles County, Cook County (Chicago), Harris County (Houston), Maricopa County (Phoenix), Bexar County (San Antonio), San Diego County, Dallas County and Duval County (Jacksonville). These areas include other communities and may omit parts of a city extending into another county. All 124 birthplace categories are available in each view.
Place-of-birth, not ancestry. A naturalized citizen who arrived from India in 1985 counts toward "India." Their U.S.-born children do not — ACS doesn't tabulate parental nativity at county or tract level, so second-generation Americans are not visible on this map. The everyday meaning of "Italian-American" or "Vietnamese-American" includes both generations; this map only shows the first.
The Census Bureau defines foreign-born as people who were not U.S. citizens at birth. People born abroad to U.S. citizen parents are excluded. Naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, students, work-visa holders and undocumented residents are combined; ACS does not identify undocumented status. Sampling margins of error do not capture all possible coverage or response errors.
ACS 5-year estimates pool responses collected throughout 2020–2024. They represent that period, not a snapshot of 2024 or today's population. For annual changes, use a consistent series of ACS 1-year estimates where available (generally areas with at least 65,000 residents). For 5-year comparisons, Census recommends nonoverlapping periods, such as 2015–2019 versus 2020–2024. Comparing the 2023 and 2024 5-year releases does not isolate recent change.
Every ACS estimate carries a margin of error (MOE). For small countries in small counties, the MOE can exceed the estimate itself. The tooltip shows a colored dot indicating reliability based on the coefficient of variation (CV):
These are the map's screening thresholds, not guarantees of accuracy. CV = (MOE / 1.645) / estimate, using the Census formula for 90% margins of error. Indicators describe the resident count, not the uncertainty of a percentage or LQ. Zero estimates are shown as zero, not missing data; their CV is undefined. Tract estimates can have large relative errors, especially for less common birthplaces.
Percentage rankings require more than 5,000 county residents or 800 tract residents; count and LQ rankings require more than 50 residents. All lists exclude zero and missing estimates. Bottom lists include only counts with high or moderate reliability (CV below 30%). Rankings order point estimates, not statistically significant differences. Tooltip birthplace rankings cover the 124 listed categories.
LQ measures concentration relative to the national average. An LQ of 1 means a county has the same share of foreign-born from country X as the U.S. as a whole. LQ = 5 means 5× more concentrated. LQ < 1 means under-represented. LQ is the standard demographic measure for spotting ethnic enclaves and avoids the "everywhere is just LA and NYC" problem of raw counts. The 1.0 line is marked on the legend.
Large rural counties occupy more map area than small urban ones, even when they have far fewer residents. The optional proportional dots show counts through circle area.
A county at 25% foreign-born does not mean every neighborhood inside it is 25%. Use "City areas" to see tract-level variation in the covered counties. A census tract is a statistical area, not necessarily a named neighborhood.
For more on New York City — countries of origin, settlement patterns, socioeconomic profiles and legal paths of entry — see the NYC Department of City Planning's The Newest New Yorkers 2026, its first full update since 2013. Its 2023 ACS figures count about 3.09 million foreign-born New Yorkers. China and the Dominican Republic share first rank after accounting for statistical uncertainty. That report combines mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan; this map lists them separately and uses the 2020–2024 ACS 5-year period.
Open source: github.com/joshgreenman1973/foreign-born-map