FRBB: Immigrants in New England Profile

Over 1.6 million immigrants live in New England. Over 1.3 million came from foreign countries, and 300,000 came from U.S. Territories. At first glance, New England’s immigrants seem to be spread across the states in the same pattern as the overall population. For both immigrants and natives, Massachusetts contains the largest share of the population, followed by Connecticut.

*Technical definitions for who is considered an “immigrant” often vary. In this profile, “immigrant” includes most people born in foreign countries and all those born in U.S. Territories. In New England, nearly all U.S. Territory-born people are from Puerto Rico. For most socioeconomic indicators, the U.S. Territory-born population is more like to the foreign-born than native-born population. This profile makes one other distinction in whom is considered an immigrant. Not all people born in a foreign country are classified as immigrants. Anyone born abroad to American parents is treated in this profile as “native,” because for most socioeconomic indicators, this population is more like the native-born than the foreign-born population.


A closer examination shows that, in addition to the over 900,000 immigrants living in Massachusetts and nearly 500,000 in Connecticut, there are about 120,000 immigrants living in Rhode Island. The number of immigrants in this small state is about the same number as the total number of immigrants in New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont combined.


Massachusetts, home to a population that is 12% foreign-born and 2% U.S. Territory-born, has the highest concentration of immigrants in the region. Like the Bay State, Connecticut and Rhode Island both have higher concentrations of immigrants than the nation does as a whole.


Over 80 percent of native-born New Englanders live in middle- and upper-income census tracts. In contrast, only 60 percent of the foreign-born and 40 percent of the territory-born population lives in these tracts. Nearly one-third of New England’s territory-born population lives in a low-income census tract.


Nearly three-quarters of immigrants from the Caribbean and Central America live in low- and moderate-income census tracts. In contrast, this is true for only 12 percent of North American and 25 percent of European immigrants.


New England’s largest cities generally have high concentrations of immigrants. In Hartford, for example, immigrants account for a full 37 percent of the city’s population. Similarly, immigrants in Providence, Bridgeport, and Stamford account for over 30 percent of the cities’ total populations.

Connecticut

Maine

Massachusetts

New Hampshire

Rhode Island

Vermont