With immigration reform remaining one of the biggest policy issues in 2019 and border security taking center stage in the longest government shutdown in history, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2019’s Economic Impact of Immigration by State as well as accompanying videos.
In order to determine which states benefit most from immigration, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 20 key metrics, ranging from median household income of foreign-born population to jobs generated by immigrant-owned businesses as a share of total jobs.
| States Where Immigrants Have Biggest Economic Impact | States Where Immigrants Have Smallest Economic Impact | |||
| 1 | California | 42 | Tennessee | |
| 2 | New York | 43 | Arkansas | |
| 3 | New Jersey | 44 | Louisiana | |
| 4 | Massachusetts | 45 | South Carolina | |
| 5 | Maryland | 46 | Maine | |
| 6 | District of Columbia | 47 | Idaho | |
| 7 | Delaware | 48 | Montana | |
| 8 | Illinois | 49 | South Dakota | |
| 9 | Florida | 50 | Wyoming | |
| 10 | Washington | 51 | Mississippi | |
Key Stats
- California has the highest share of foreign-born residents, 26.98 percent, which is 16.8 times higher than in West Virginia, the lowest at 1.61 percent.
- Maryland has the highest median household income for the foreign-born population, $76,119, which is 2.1 times higher than in New Mexico, the lowest at $35,626.
- New Mexico has the highest homeownership rate for the foreign-born population, 63.20 percent, which is 2.1 times higher than in North Dakota, the lowest at 30.30 percent.
- New Jersey has the highest share of foreign-born STEM workers, 43.80 percent, which is 54.8 times higher than in Wyoming, the lowest at 0.80 percent.
- The District of Columbia has the highest share of direct and indirect jobs created by the economic contributions of international students, 1.57 percent, which is 52.3 times higher than in Alaska, the lowest at 0.03 percent.
To view the full report and your state or the District’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/economic-impact-of-immigration-by-state/32248/
