California, Texas and Florida: The U.S. coastal and border states where immigrants are moving

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Coastal and border states and states with some of America’s biggest cities saw the biggest influxes of new residents from foreign countries in 2023, according to new Census migration data.

Immigration is a pressing political issue across the U.S., but there are massive gaps between the states in terms of how many new arrivals are actually settling there.

The data tracks all the people who moved from one state to another plus those who moved to the U.S. from abroad. Of all those movers — close to 32.5 million — nearly a quarter were immigrants or Americans who had been living in a foreign country a year ago.

California saw the highest share of new residents from foreign countries at 42%. Montana had the smallest at 7%.
Other states with large shares of movers from foreign countries were New Jersey (37%), New York (35%), Illinois (32%), Massachusetts (31%), Florida (31%) and Texas (30%).

The three states that picked up the most newcomers were Florida, Texas and California.

In addition to new residents from foreign countries, these states also saw large numbers of movers coming from within the U.S.

The top state of origin among new Floridians was New York. For Texans, it was California, and for Californians, it was Texas.

The Census data attempts to capture all residents of the U.S., regardless of their legal status, although undocumented immigrants might be less likely to participate.

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