New York

Summary Demographic State Data (and Source)
Population (2009 CB est.):	19,541,453
Population (2000 Census):	18,976,457
Foreign-Born Population (2009 CB est.):	4,178,170
Foreign-Born Population (2000 Census):	3,868,133
Share Foreign-Born (2009):	21.4%
Share Foreign-Born (2000):	20.4%
Naturalized U.S. Citizens (2009 CB est.):	2,179,877
Share Naturalized (2009):	52.2%
Legal Immigrant Admission (DHS 2000-2009):	1,275,188
Refugee Admission (HHS 2000-2009):	73,190
Illegal Alien Population (2010 FAIR est.):	750,000
Cost of Illegal Aliens - (2010 FAIR)	$9,479,000,000
Projected 2050 Population - (2006 FAIR):	26,157,000

New York: Census Bureau Data

STATE POPULATION

Using the American Community Survey (ACS), the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that in July 2009 New York’s population had increased to 19,541,453 residents, i.e., an increase of 564,996 residents since 2000. That is a rate of increase of about 0.3 percent per year. The comparable national annual rate of increase was 1.0 percent.

New York Population 1900-2008

The 2000 Census found 18,976,457 persons resident in New York. This was an increase of 986,002 persons above the 1990 Census. The annual average increase of 0.5 percent was lower than the national annual average of 1.2 percent population increase.

The 2000 population was about 835,000 more persons than the Census Bureau had expected to find in the state in 2000 when it issued its state population projections in 1996. The significance of this is that the Census Bureau concluded that much of the shortfall in their population estimates during the 1990s was due to an underestimation of the illegal alien population.

Between the 1980 and 1990 Censuses, the population of New York grew by 2.5 percent (from about 17,558,070 to 17,990,455). That was an annual rate of increase of 0.2 percent. The national rate of change was 1.0 percent.

FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION

Based on the American Community Survey (ACS), the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the foreign-born population of New York was 4,178,170 persons in 2009. This meant a foreign-born population share of 21.4 percent.

New York Foreign-Born Population 1970-2008

NET INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION (NIM)

Based on the Current Population Survey, the Census Bureau estimated that between the 2000 Census and July 2009 the state’s population increased by about 839,590 residents from net international migration (more foreign-born arriving than leaving). That was an annual average increase of about 90,280 residents, i.e., more than the total population increase (133%), and that does not include the children born to the immigrants after their arrival in the United States).

New York Sources of Population Change 1990-99

New York Sources of Population Change 2000-08

FOREIGN-BORN CHANGE

The amount of change since the 2000 Census estimated in the 2009 ACS was an annual rate of increase in the foreign-born population of about 33,340 people, which is three-fourths (55%) of the state’s annual average population increase. Since 2000, the foreign-born population has increased by 8 percent compared to a 1.7 percent increase in the native-born population.

The 2000 Census found that 40.4 percent of New York's foreign-born population had arrived in the state since 1990. This demonstrates the effects of the current mass immigration, although it is a lower share than the national average (43.7%). The 2009 ACS estimate was that 28.2 percent of the foreign-born population had entered since 2000. This also is lower than the national share of new arrivals of 31.6 percent.

Immigration also contributes to population growth through the children born to immigrants in this country. Nationally the share of births to the foreign-born is about double their share of the population. A 42.8 percent share of the state’s current births is large enough to account for about 106,820 births a year. Combining the increase in the foreign-born population and estimated immigrant births suggests that immigration may account for nearly 140,155 persons added to the state’s population annually, i.e., more than double (231%) the state’s overall population increase.

FOREIGN-BORN CHARACTERISTICS

An indicator of the change in New York's immigrant population may be seen in data on the share of the population over five years of age that speaks a language other than English at home. Between 1990 and 2000, the share of non-English speakers (over age 5) increased from 23.3 percent to 28 percent. Nearly half (46.6%) of those persons in 2000 also said they spoke English less than very well. In the 2009 ACS, the share of those speaking a language other than English at home had increased to 29 percent and of those 45.6 percent spoke English less than very well. Spanish speakers were 48.6 percent of those who spoke other than English at home, and 50.2 percent of those who spoke English less than very well.

Speakers of Foreign Languages (at home in New York in the 2000 Census)
Spanish	2,416,045
Chinese	304,155
Italian	294,270
Russian	218,765
French	174,080
French-Creole	114,745
Yiddish	113,515
Polish	111,730
Korean	102,105
German	92,685
(Source: Census Bureau report: Language Spoken at Home for the Population 5 Years and Over, April 2004)

The chart above shows the foreign-born population increasing by 8 percent since 2000. The share of the population from Latin America and the Caribbean was 49.9 percent in 2000 and 48.8 percent in the 2009 ACS estimate.

NATURALIZATION

Data from the 2009 ACS indicate that 2,179,877 residents, or 52.2 percent, of the foreign-born population in New York were U.S. citizens, compared to 1,783,744 residents, or 46.1 percent, in 2000.

Nationally, 40.3 percent of the foreign-born were U.S. citizens in 2000, and 43.7 percent in 2009.

Limited English Proficiency Students

In New York overall enrollment in 2008 (2,765,435) was 4.3 percent below enrollment in 1999. LEP enrollment was 2.3 percent lower than a decade earlier.

POPULATION PROJECTION

We projected New York’s population in 2050 likely would be between 24.5 million and 26.16 million depending on what happens with immigration policy. See “Projecting the U.S. Population to 2050: Four Immigration Scenarios,” FAIR 2006.

New York: Extended Immigration Data

REFUGEES

New York received 73,190 refugees over the most recent ten fiscal years (FY'00-'09).

FOREIGN STUDENTS

The 2009/2010 annual report of the Institute of International Education (IIE) lists the number of foreign students attending post-secondary school in New York as 76,146. Fourteen of the schools in the state have more than one thousand of these students:

New York U. – 7,276
Columbia U. – 6,833
SUNY-Buffalo – 4,911
Cornell U. – 4,115
SUNY-Stony Brook – 3,048
Syracuse U. – 2,690
Rochester Inst. Tech. – 1,765
LaGuardia C.C. – 1,712
New York Inst. Tech. – 1,535
Nassau C.C. – 1,325
CUNY-Queensborough – 1,251
CUNY-Manhattan – 1,181
SUNY Fashion Inst. – 1,084
Pratt Inst. – 1,039

Those schools represented slightly over half (52.2%) of the total foreign students in the state.

For information on foreign student issues see: Foreign Students in the United States

New York: Immigrant Admissions

New York Immigrant Admissions by Fiscal Year
2000	106,061
2001	114,116
2002	114,827
2003	89,661
2004	102,390
2005	136,828
2006	180,165
2007	136,739
2008	143,679
2009	150,722
Total	1,275,188

Recent immigrant admissions are at 176 percent of admissions just after adoption of the current immigration system in 1965. During the 1965-'69 period, annual admissions averaged about 84,970 immigrants. During the most recent five years, admissions averaged about 149,625 persons.

The charts below show recent immigrant admissions and the cumulative immigrant admissions data since 1965. The number of annual admissions has ranged from 69,011 in FY'65 to 189,589 in FY’90. The cumulative total of admissions to New York between fiscal years 1965 and 2009 was about 4,969,105 immigrants.

INS DATA BY NATIONALITY: FY'93 - FY'02

The INS data below are furnished for nationals of the countries with the largest number of immigrants admitted or adjusted to legal residence each year since 1993. The absence of data means that the total number of admissions to the United States by nationals of that country was not enough to merit detailed reporting in that year.

The nationalities may change each year, so the totals in some cases will not reflect all the immigrants of that nationality who have become legal immigrants in Wyoming during this period.

The Department of Homeland Security website has detailed data on immigrant admissions since FY’03 by year and by country. (See http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/statistics/data/dslpr.shtm).

Immigrant Admissions by Fiscal Year
Country	FY'93	FY'94	FY'95	FY'96	FY'97	FY'98	FY'99	FY'00	FY'01	FY'02	Total
Bangladesh	-	-	-	4,511	4,909	4,795	3,228	3,491	-	2,394	23,328
Canada	1,391	1,277	912	1,061	890	755	699	1,153	1,148	1,096	10,382
China *	16,718	13,914	13,197	12,481	11,074	10,227	10,111	10,458	8,757	11,296	118,233
Colombia	3,674	2,888	2,590	3,340	3,350	2,823	2,526	2,459	2,652	2,861	29,163
Cuba	315	247	331	452	497	322	265	561	512	449	3,951
Dom. Rep.	26,799	28,250	21,471	20,579	14,537	10,719	8,977	8,543	10,394	10,609	160,878
Ecuador	3,988	-	3,158	3,836	3,935	3,171	4,351	3,360	4,029	4,478	34,306
El Salvador	2,711	1,983	1,001	1,636	1,782	1,088	1,286	2,548	3,732	5,123	22,890
Germany	521	481	501	-	464	396	443	597	732	578	4,713
Guatemala	1,089	708	543	698	717	603	592	669	795	942	7,356
Guyana	6,082	5,320	5,132	6,798	5,203	2,781	2,238	3,917	-	7,011	44,482
Haiti	3,643	4,527	3,508	4,461	3,884	3,408	4,778	5,507	4,531	3,861	42,108
Honduras	1,691	-	-	-	1,444	1,130	842	904	-	876	6,887
India	5,338	5,338	4,859	5,611	4,833	4,017	3,542	3,581	4,942	4,728	46,789
Iran	799	563	437	619	427	357	319	443	469	414	4,847
Ireland	4,411	5,142	-	-	200	179	167	226	-	184	10,509
Jamaica	7,992	6,366	6,884	7,990	7,461	5,874	6,687	5,825	5,727	5,548	66,354
Japan	-	702	-	-	524	465	498	775	947	881	4,792
Korea	2,022	1,904	1,757	2,429	1,832	1,449	1,523	1,773	1,893	1,652	18,234
Mexico	1,911	1,310	848	1,553	1,774	1,616	1,841	1,883	2,065	2,250	17,051
Nicaragua	-	-	-	-	277	146	269	741	504	338	2,275
Nigeria	-	-	1,230	1,942	1,222	1,301	1,083	1,108	-	1,143	9,029
Pakistan	2,056	2,200	2,694	3,352	3,451	3,900	3,878	3,820	3,294	2,538	31,183
Peru	2,062	1,770	1,275	2,151	2,089	1,666	1,433	1,226	1,349	1,453	16,474
Philippines	4,905	3,878	3,216	3,719	2,614	1,490	1,480	1,927	2,218	2,319	27,766
Poland	6,517	6,733	3,065	3,694	2,829	1,684	1,787	2,108	2,369	2,757	33,543
Sov. Un. *	14,345	19,618	19,227	15,039	8,870	7,514	10,974	11,128	6,615	10,385	123,715
Trin.& Tob.	-	3,496	-	-	3,518	2,287	2,171	3,100	-	2,671	17,243
U. Kingdom	2,059	1,894	1,164	1,304	942	762	816	1,066	1,417	1,151	12,575
Vietnam	1,759	995	963	971	702	646	611	665	792	76010	8,864
Yugo. *	-	-	1,553	2,043	1,397	1,782	1,434	2,160	1,425	3,853	15,647
Other	26,411	22,850	26,890	41,825	26,068	17,206	16,130	18,339	40,808	18,228	254,755
Total	151,209	144,354	128,406	154,095	123,716	96,559	96,979	106,061	114,116	114,827	1,230,322

A dash (-) indicates that the data for that year were not published for that country in the INS Statistical Yearbook.
* China data include Hong Kong and Taiwan. Former USSR data continued since break-up (except FY'96-'97 and ’01 include only Russia and Ukraine). Former Yugoslavia data continued since break-up.

The 31 nationalities above represent nearly four-fifths (79.3%) of all immigrant settlement and adjustment in New York during this ten-year period. Nearly one-third (32.8%) of total admissions were accounted for by immigrants from the Dominican Republic, the former Soviet Union and China. The Dominican Republic alone accounted for more than one-eighth (13.1%) of total admissions.

New York: Illegal Aliens

FAIR ESTIMATE

FAIR estimates the state’s illegal alien population as of 2010 is about 750,000 persons. This is part of an overall estimate of the U.S. illegal alien population of about 12 million persons.

INS/DHS ESTIMATE

The INS (now dissolved into the Dept. of Homeland Security) estimated that in 2000 the resident illegal population in New York was 489,000 persons. This number was 51,000 lower than the INS' 1996 estimate. By 2008, the DHS estimated illegal alien population had risen to 640,000, but by 2010 it was scaled back to 460,000.

OTHER ESTIMATES

The Pew Hispanic Center estimated the illegal alien population of the state at 625,000 as of 2010.

COSTS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

New York Fiscal Costs In 2009
Due to Illegal Aliens ($M)		(Pct.)
K-12 educ.	$4,879.4	51.5%
LEP educ.	$946.3	10.0%
University	$22.2	0.2%
Medicaid	$675.2	7.1%
SCHIP	$281.6	3.0%
Justice	$865.3	9.1%
Welfare+	$648.2	6.8%
General	$1,160.3	12.2%
Total	$9,478.5
Tax Receipts	$191.9
Net Cost	$9,286.6

Source: “The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers,” FAIR 2010.

New York : Poll Data

Rasmussen Poll: Arizona Law SB 1070
July 2010

Suppose the new Arizona immigration law was being considered for your state. Would you favor or oppose passage of that law in your state?

Zogby Poll (718 New York State voters)
October 2009

65% oppose Governor Spitzer’s plan of making drivers’ licenses available to illegal immigrants
46% said that New York City clerks, who disagree with the rule, should refuse issuing driver’s licenses.
63% said they believe the proposal would hurt by encouraging undocumented immigrants to register to vote illegally and to improperly obtain other state benefits using their drivers’ licenses as identification.
64% disagreed with Spitzer’s rationale that once undocumented immigrants obtained licenses, they would also buy car insurance.
66% rate the issue of undocumented aliens’ driver’s license as important, compared with other issues facing New York. (4% “the most important issue” 28% “more important than most issues” and 34% “of medium importance”).

Empire State Poll
July 2006

72% of New Yorkers think that entering the United States without valid immigration document should be made a criminal offense.
66% of New Yorkers support border controls.
45% of New Yorkers would like the number of immigrant to decrease.

New York: Immigration Impact

ENVIRONMENTAL AND QUALITY OF LIFE PROFILE

Water: By 2050 the state's population is expected to rise from 19.3 million in 2006 to 26.2 million.¹ The state currently has a daily, per-capita water demand of 135.4 gallons.² The projected population increase implies that by 2050 public water usage may increase by 934.3 million gallons each day.

Traffic: As population growth put more traffic on the roads, the average commute for residents increased to an average of 31.2 minutes in 2005. ³ 34% of New York's major urban roads are congested, and 35% of New York's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition. Vehicle travel on New York's highways increased 26% from 1990 to 2003. Driving on roads in need of repair costs motorists $3.2 billion a year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs — $285 per motorist. Congestion in the Albany area costs commuters $208 per person per year, $182 per person in Buffalo per person per year, $893 per person in New York City per person per year, and $103 person per year in Rochester in excess fuel and lost time.⁴

In the New York-Newark area travelers experience an annual delay of 49 hours, and an annual delay of 7 hours in Rochester. 26 percent of commuters have a commute that is 45 minutes or longer, a figure that ranks 1^st in the U.S.⁵

Disappearing open space: Long Island used to have 151,000 acres of farmland; now only 34,000 acres remain. By 2010 as much as three-fourths of that will be gone.⁶

A study of urban sprawl between 1970 and 1990 that calculated the impact of population increase and per capita land use found that 58.2 square miles of additional land were consumed by urban sprawl in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy metropolitan area, and 13.9 percent of that sprawl was attributable to population increase. In the Syracuse metro area sprawl consumed an additional 37.4 square miles and population increase accounted for 10.1 percent of the increase.⁷

Crowded housing: Studies show that a rise in crowded housing often correlates with an increase in the number of foreign-born.^8,9 Throughout the state over 303,000 households were defined as crowded or severely crowded housing in 2005.¹⁰

Solid Waste: generates 1.29 tons of solid waste per capita. ¹¹

Air Quality: 19 of New York's 62 counties received a grade of "F" from the American Lung Association in their "State of the Air 2005" report. 5 other counties received a grade of "C". ¹²

Health Care: The New York Court of Appeals ruled in 2001 that the state must finance health coverage for legal immigrants. Officials say this will cost taxpayers at least $200 million in extra Medicaid costs.¹³

IMMIGRANT SETTLEMENT

Immigrant Settlement Immigrant admissions between 1991 and 2000 totaled 1.3 million, an annual average of nearly 134,000. (This does not reflect the full impact of immigration on New York, as it only includes immigrants who went straight to upon first entering the country).

IMPACT OF IMMIGRATION ON NEW YORK SCHOOLS

Between 1990 and 2000, New York's public school enrollment increased 14 percent.

31 percent of school-aged children in New York have immigrant parents.¹⁴ Seven percent of New York City students immigrated to the U.S. in the past three years. In Queens, schools are scrambling for space for 30,000 additional students. "That's almost exclusively driven by immigration," according to Harold Levy, New York City's school chancellor.¹⁵

As fast as new schools are built, enrollment increases fill them up. New York City estimated it would be 22,000 students over capacity during the 2002 school year.¹⁶ Over 1,600 classes in 400 public schools there violate city guidelines for overcrowding.¹⁷ Many of the areas most affected by overcrowding are those that have experienced a large influx of immigrants in recent years.¹⁸

"With too many students and too few classrooms, the principal and teachers at PS 112 in Long Island City make do," reports Newsday. "The gym teacher shares his gymnasium with therapists for special-education students, so there isn't enough space for basketball games. Upstairs, fifth-graders use a former boys' shower as a storage room and hang their coats on the shower knobs. It would be shocking, if only it weren't so commonplace in Queens, which has the most crowded schools in New York City, if not the nation. Queens needs another 30,000 new seats just to handle current students — before expected hikes in enrollment".¹⁹

More than 11,100 city classrooms are overstuffed -- with 10,000 of them in high schools — a new teachers union survey shows. Queens' high schools, where overcrowding has been a chronic problem, were the most packed on average. The union found 4,490 of Queens' high school classes had more than 34 students — the cap outlined in the union's contract with the city. ²⁰

In the Orchard Park School District, some classes are held in school ticket booth and custodial closets.²¹

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

The bulk of the state's illegal aliens live in New York City, which has one of the country's highest concentrations of illegal residents. Social service agencies there say they are seeing an increase of illegal aliens seeking help because they are homeless. ²²

Endotes:

Jack Martin and Stanley Fogel. "Projecting the U.S. Population to 2050." FAIR. March 2006.
U.S. Geological Survey 2000.
Selected Economic Characteristics: 2005 Data Set- 2005 American Community Survey, American Fact Finder, U.S. Census Bureau.
Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers
"The 2005 Urban Mobility Report", Texas Transportation Institute.
"U.S. Population 2007 Data Sheet," Population Reference Bureau.
Richard Amper, "Development, Planning Threaten Open Space" Newsday, August 23, 2002.
Haya El Nasser, "U.S. Neighborhoods Grow More Crowded" USA Today, July 7, 2002.
Randy Capps, "Hardship among Children of Immigrants: Finding from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families," Urban Institute, 2001.
Selected Housing Characteristics: 2005 Data Set - 2005 American Community Survey, American Fact Finder, U.S. Census Bureau.
"Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers.
"State of the Air 2005: New York", American Lung Association.
Michael Gormley, "State May Face Greater Cost Through Immigrant Health Care Ruling" Associated Press, June 12, 2001.
"Check Points," Urban Institute,, September 2,2000.
Charisse Jones, "New-Timers' Lives Reviving Old Cities" USA Today, April 20, 2001.
Carl Campanile, "Classroom Crush is Easing a Little" New York Post, August 15, 2002.
Carl Campanile and Clemente Lisi, "City Students are Forced to Cram" New York Post, February 20, 2001.
ibid.
Jessica Kowal, "Overcrowding Tests Schools" Newsday, February 17,2001.
"Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers.
Karen Robinson, "Growth Puts School District, Planners in a Bind," Buffalo News, October 12, 2001.
Judith Messina, "Life in the Margins" Crain's New York Business, July 16, 2001.

Other Resources

State Local Reform Organizations

State Representatives Voting Record

Updated December 2011

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