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.

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.

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).


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 1st 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
