Washington

Summary Demographic State Data (and Source)
Population (2008 CB est):	6,549,224
Population (2000 Census):	5,894,121
Foreign-Born Population (2008 FAIR est.):	833,180
Foreign-Born Population (2000 Census):	614,457
Share Foreign-Born (2008 FAIR est.):	12.7%
Share Foreign-Born(2000):	10.4%
Immigrant Stock (2000 CB est.):	950,000
Share Immigrant Stock (1997 estimate):	16.1%
Naturalized U.S. Citizens (2006 CB est.):	343,319
Share Naturalized (2006):	43.3%
Legal Immigrant Admission (DHS 1997-2006):	203,651
Refugee Admission (DHS 1997-2006):	37,872
Illegal Alien Population (2008 FAIR est.):	225,000
Projected 2050 Population - (2006 FAIR):	11,045,211

Washington: Census Bureau Data

STATE POPULATION

Using the Current Population Survey, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that in July 2008 Washington’s population had increased to 6,549,224 residents, i.e., an annual average increase of about 78,930 residents since 2000. That is a rate of increase of about 1.3 percent per year.

Washington Population 1900-2008

Net International Migration (NIM)

Based on the Current Population Survey, the Census Bureau estimated that between the 2000 Census and July 2008 the state’s population increased by about 166,330 residents from net international migration (more foreign-born arriving than leaving). That was an annual average increase of about 20,040 residents, i.e., nearly three-tenths (29%) of the total increase (not including the children born to the immigrants after their arrival in the United States).

Washington Sources of Population Change 2000-08

The 2000 Census found 5,894,121 persons resident in Washington. This was an increase of 1,027,429 persons above the 1990 Census (21.1%). The amount of increase was the 10^th highest in the country. The rate of increase was the 22 fastest increasing population in the country.

The 2000 population is about 40,000 more persons than the Census Bureau had expected to find in the state in 2000 when it issued its most recent state population projections in 1996. The significance of this is that the Census Bureau has 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 Washington grew by 17.3 percent (from 4,132,353 to 4,866,692 residents).

Washington had the 10th greatest rate of population increase in the country between1960-2000.

FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION

Based on the American Community Survey (ACS), the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the foreign-born population of Washington was 778,501 persons in 2006. The ACS is a large-scale, continuous sampling process designed to replace the need for a long-form in the 2010 Census. However, because the ACS does not have the same follow-up procedures as the Census to include non-respondents, it may underestimate the foreign-born population.

FAIR estimates that the foreign-born population of Washington was about 833,180 residents in July 2008. This meant a foreign-born population share of 12.7 percent. The amount of change since the 2000 Census indicates an average annual rate of increase in the foreign-born population of about 26,350 people, which is more than one-third (33.4%) of the state’s annual average population increase. Since 2000, the foreign-born population has increased by 35.6 percent compared to a 8.3 percent increase in the native-born population.

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 25.4 percent share of the state’s current births is large enough to account for about 20,920 births a year. Combining the increase in the foreign-born population and estimated immigrant births suggests that immigration may account for nearly 47,270 persons added to the state’s population annually, i.e., nearly three-fifths (59.9%) of the state’s overall population increase.

Washington Foreign-Born Population 1900-2008

Washington ranked 6th nationally in the rate of foreign-born change between 1970-2005.

A comparison of the increase in the immigrant population from 1990 with the change in the overall population during the same period shows that immigrant settlement directly accounted for 28.5 percent of the state's overall population increase over that decade. The share of the population increase due to immigration would be still higher if the children of the immigrants born here after their arrival were included with their immigrant parents in the calculation. The amount of the overall impact of immigration (immigrants plus their children) on population change is more likely to account for about 37 percent of the state's population increase, based on the increase in the share of those in Washington who speak a language other than English at home.

Speakers of Foreign Languages (at home in Washington in the 2000 Census)
Spanish	321,425
Tagalog	41,675
Vietnamese	39,830
German	39,660
Korean	39,520
Chinese	34,945
Russian	31,340
Japanese	24,055
French	22,335
Mon-Khmer, Cambodian	14,560
(Source: Census Bureau report: Language Spoken at Home for the Population 5 Years and Over, April 2004)

The 2000 Census found that 46.6 percent of Washington's foreign-born population had arrived in the state since 1990. This demonstrates the effects of the current mass immigration, and it is a higher share than the national average (43.7%).

An indicator of the change in the immigrant population may be seen in data on the share of the population that speaks a language other than English at home. Between 1990 and 2000 the share of non-English speakers at home in Washington increased by half, from nine percent to 13.5 percent. Less than half (45.5%) of those who said they spoke a language other than English at home in 2000 also said they spoke English less than very well.

Foreign-Born Change: Top Ten Countries 1980-2000
Rank	Country	1980	Country	1990	Country	2000
1	Canada	46,818	Mexico	46,876	Mexico	148,115
2	Germany	19,609	Canada	44,262	Canada	47,568
3	U.K.	17,230	Philip.	27,106	Philip.	46,733
4	Mexico	16,414	Korea	20,267	Vietnam	40,879
5	Philip.	15,726	Germany	18,635	Korea	38,172
6	Korea	11,389	U.K.	17,028	Sov.Un. *	35,372
7	Japan	9,274	Vietnam	16,647	China *	35,146
8	Vietnam	8,449	Japan	12,654	Germany	21,167
9	Norway	8,092	China	9,840	U.K.	20,321
10	China	5,948	Cambodia	8,004	Japan	16,936
	All Others	80,111	All Other	100,825	All Others	164,048
	Total	239,060	Total	322,144	Total	614,457

* 2000 Census data for China include Hong Kong and Taiwan;
Soviet Union data include Russia, Ukraine & Belarus.

The ten countries above constituted more than seven-tenths (73.3%) of the foreign-born population in Washington in 2000. Mexicans alone constituted narly one-quarter (24.1%) of the foreign-born total. Compared to the 84,318 Mexican-born residents from the 2000 Census who said they entered the United States between 1990-2000, INS data indicate that Mexican immigrants who listed Washington as their intended residence during that period numbered fewer than 46,200 persons.

The Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS) data from 1996 show that in Washington the foreign-born share of those in poverty was over double the comparable native-born population share (23.6% and 11.6% respectively). In addition, the foreign born had higher rates of unemployment (11.8% and 7.7% of those in the labor force) and public assistance income receipt (6.5% and 4%), but a slightly lower food stamp recipiency rate (12.2% and 12.8%). Welfare receipt for the foreign born residents would have been higher except for the fact that illegal alien residents are ineligible to receive most welfare benefits.

The state's foreign-born population grew by 34.8 percent between 1980-1990 and accounted for 11.6 percent of the overall population growth. As a percent of its total population in 1990 (4,866,692), the foreign born were 5 percent, below the national average of 7.9 percent. However, because the foreign born are unequally distributed, with heavy concentrations in some states, the state ranked 16th in the country in its immigrant share.

The Census Bureau estimated from its American Community Survey that in 2002 the foreign-born population of Washington was about 632,100 persons. The chart below shows the regions from which those foreign residents came.

THE IMMIGRANT STOCK

The Census Bureau estimated that there were about 950,000 people in Washington in 1997 who were "immigrant stock." That is a term that refers to immigrants and their children born here after their arrival. Based on that estimate, and a population of 5,610,000, the immigrant stock share of the state's population was 16.1 percent.

As the graph below shows, the amount and share of Washington’s population change due to the increase in the foreign stock is rising rapidly. Over the past 34 years the new immigrants and children born to them have added about 845,400 people to the population. Over this period, the increase in the foreign stock has accounted for 30.3 percent of the state’s population increase.

Washington Foreign Stock

NATURALIZATION

Data from the 2006 American Community Survey indicate that 343,319 residents, or 43.3 percent, of the foreign-born population in Washington were citizens, compared to 257,648 residents, or 41.9 percent, in 2000.

Nationally, 40.3 percent of the foreign-born population was citizens in 2000 and 42.0 percent were citizens in 2006.

POPULATION PROJECTIONS

Washington -- Projected Population in 2050: Projection Scenarios

Amnesty+		High-trend		Low-trend		Zero-net
11,045,211		10,305,297		9,933,414		8,165,658

wa 2050 projection

Washington's projected population in 2050 could range anywhere from about 8.2 million to about 11 million residents. The about 2.8 million person difference between these alternatives depends on whether policies aimed at immigration stability are adopted or, instead, currently advocated policies that would accommodate today's illegal alien population, allow a new stream of guest workers and increase legal immigration are adopted.

Without any change in immigration policy or enforcement, i.e., with the current trend in large-scale legal and illegal immigration, the state's population is likely to increase from today's about 6.3 million residents to around 9.9 million to 10.3 million persons in 2050 - an increase of 57 to 62 percent.

The largest difference from the current trend comes in comparison with a zero-net immigration scenario (when arriving immigrants balance those who are departing). In that case, the population would still grow, but not as fast, i.e., by less than 30 percent. However, if the currently proposed immigration expansion and illegal alien accommodation proposals were adopted - the amnesty/guest worker/immigration increase scenario - the increase in the projected population over the next 45 years would be accelerated to more than 73 percent higher than the current level.

Washington -- Projected Population in 2050: Cohorts

1970 Pop. Post-'70 Stock Legal Post-'04 Illegal Post-'04 Amnesty+

6,511,378 1,654,2818 1,436,538 703,101 739,914

wa 2050 cohort projection

The projection indicates that the population that was already in the country in 1970 - before the effects of the 1965 major change in immigration law - will be still increasing by more than 1 million persons (less than 20%) over the next 45 years, but will be leveling off after 2040. This trend reflects some continued net in-migration from other states.

Post-1970 immigrants are projected to add nearly 790,000 more people, growing 91 percent by 2050. This growth is influenced by the larger average family size of these immigrants to the state. At the beginning of the projection, this post-1970 immigrant cohort already accounted for nearly 870,000 of the state's residents. By 2050, this cohort is projected to rise to nearly 1.7 million residents largely on the basis of succeeding generations being larger than that of their forebears.

Without any change in the immigration laws, current mass immigration is projected to continue into the state. Washington has had an average of about 18,700 legal immigrant admissions per year between 1994 and 2003. The largest flow to the state is by persons from Asian countries. They are projected to continue to represent about 44.5 percent of the new admissions.

Immigrants from Mexico and other Hispanic countries represent about 22 percent of the immigrant flow. Immigrants from countries with predominantly white populations account for nearly one-third of admissions, and slightly less than one percent come from countries with black populations in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. We project that new immigrants and their children from all sources will add more than 1.4 million residents to the state's population over the next 45 years if current trends remain unchanged. This projection includes new immigrants and their offspring.

We estimate that Washington's illegal alien population now numbers about 157,000 persons. The continued addition of illegal immigrants over the next 45 years, assuming it continues at current rates, is projected to add more than 700,000 residents to the population from newcomers and their offspring.

Finally, we project that proposals for amnesty and other provision that are currently being advocated, if adopted, would add an additional nearly 740,000 persons to the state's population over the next 45 years. This would result from the family members of amnesty recipients, increased legal immigration, and increased long-term guest worker residents.

Washington -- Projected Population in 2050: Demographic Change

White, not Hispanic		Mexican		Other Hispanic		Black		Asian		Other
5,930,971		2,480,458		452,364		446,481		1,345,708		389,229

wa 2050 ethnicity projection

The rate of population change for the various scenarios depends on the size and demographic composition of the influx of immigrants, and the differential rates of fertility. The following projections are based on the highest scenario, i.e., amnesty/guestworker increases.

Because the Mexican or Mexican ancestry population constitutes a large share of the post-70 and continuing immigrant influx as well as potential amnesty beneficiaries, and this population on average has larger than replacement family size, this population segment is projected to rise by more than 2 million residents (477%). Other Hispanics are projected to more than triple (254%) and add more than 324,000 residents.

The Asian population is also projected rise rapidly - an increase of 193 percent and add more than 885,000 residents.

Blacks and non-Hispanic whites over the next 45 years have the smallest rates of projected increase. Non-Hispanic whites increase by about 1 million persons (22%), and blacks by about 242,000 persons, which would be a 119 percent increase.

Washington: Extended Immigration Data

REFUGEE SETTLEMENT

Washington has received 37,872 refugees over the most recent ten fiscal years (FY'97-'06), with 165 arriving in FY’06.

Under the Office of Refugee Resettlement's (HHS/ORR) assistance funding for FY'02, $3,865,253 is available for refugee employment training and other services programs in Washington based on a three-year refugee settlement program covering 15,401 refugees (an average of $251 per refugee). This allocation does not include a larger share (55%) of funding programs for communities heavily affected by recent Cuban and Haitian entrants, communities with refugees whose cultural differences make assimilation especially difficult, communities impacted by federal welfare reform changes, educational support to schools with significant refugee students, and discretionary grants. ORR grants for FY’05 and FY’06 respectively were $14,972,999 and $13,445,341..

LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENCY STUDENTS

Data are not available nationally on immigrant students (either legally or illegally resident in the United States) who are enrolled in primary and secondary schools (K-12). However, many of these students are enrolled in Limited English Proficiency/English Language Learning (LEP/ELL) instruction programs. Many may be U.S.-born, but the majority of these students may be assumed to be either immigrants or the children of immigrants, with the exception being areas with native Americans who speak a native language other than English.

In Washington, overall enrollment in 2002 (1,009,626) was 4.9 percent above enrollment in 1993. By contrast, LEP enrollment (70,431 - 7% of all enrollment) was 114 percent higher than a decade earlier.

Data on enrollment in LEP/ELL programs are collected by the federal government from school systems that receive Title VII funds for these special instruction programs. The data on LEP/ELL enrollment are understated because data from private schools that do not apply for Title VII assistance are sketchy.

FOREIGN STUDENTS

The 2006/07 annual report of the Institute of International Education (IIE) lists the number of foreign students attending post-secondary school in Washington as 11,663. Two schools in Washington are listed as having a major concentration of these students:

Washington State University had enrollment of 1,430 foreign students, 6.0% of total enrollment.
University of Washington had enrollment of 2,884 foreign students, 6.7% of total enrollment

Below, a chart illustrates the sharp increase of foreign students attending school in Washington 1960-2000.

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

ILLEGAL ALIENS

FAIR’s estimate of the state’s illegal alien population as of 2007 is about 255,000 persons. This is part of an overall estimate of the illegal alien population of about 13 million persons.

INS ESTIMATE

The INS estimated in February 2003 that the number of illegal aliens in Washington had risen to about 136,000 residents. That was more than double the previous INS estimate of 52,000 illegal aliens resident in the state as of October 1996. The INS previously had estimated the number at 30,000 in October 1992. It later increased that estimate by 12,000 to account for more Mexican illegal residents. Thus, the illegal resident alien population is estimated to have grown by 22,000 (73%) or by 10,000 (24%) over those four years.

The current INS estimate means that there are only ten states that have a higher level of illegal resident aliens than Washington.

This illegal resident population is mostly recent arrivals, as the amnesty in 1986 gave legal status to earlier illegal aliens. In the 1986 amnesty for illegal resident aliens, 37,000 applied from Washington to "legalize" their status.

INCARCERATION COSTS

Washington has received partial compensation under the federal State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) that was established in 1994 to compensate the states and local jurisdictions for incarceration of "undocumented," aliens who are serving time for a felony conviction or at least two misdemeanors.

The recent SCAAP amounts that Washington has received were:

FY'99	—	$14,478,854
FY'00	—	$5,576,121
FY'01	—	$13,679,341
FY'02	—	$8,173,908
FY'03	—	$3,627,398
FY'04	—	$4,300,435

The amount of SCAAP awards has been declining in both total distributions and even more as a share of the state’s expenses. In FY’99 the state received 38.6% of its costs for 1,778 prisoner years of detention. By FY’02, the state’s reported illegal alien detention increased to 1,813 prisoner years, while compensation fell by 44 percent and since has fallen more steeply.

MEDICAL COSTS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, hospitals with emergency rooms are required to treat and stabilize patients with emergency medical needs regardless whether or not they are in the country legally or whether they are able to pay for the treatment. Congress in 2003 enacted an appropriation of $250 million per year (for 4 years) to help offset some of the costs due to use of this service by illegal aliens. This amount has been allocated among the states based upon estimates of the illegal alien population and data on the apprehension of illegal aliens in each state. This amount compensates only a fraction of the medical outlays. For Washington, the proposed payment in fiscal year 2004 is $3,243,181.

LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS

You can view a listing of local immigration reform groups here.

STATE CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION VOTING RECORD

You can view the voting record of your representatives in Congress regarding immigration issues in our voting report section.

Washington: Immigrant Admissions

Washington Immigrant Admissions by Fiscal Year
1997	18,656
1998	16,920
1999	13,043
2000	18,486
2001	23,085
2002	25,704
2003	17,935
2004	19,442
2005	26,482
2006	23,805
Total	203,561

Recent immigrant admissions have increased by about 356 percent since adoption of the current immigration system in 1965. During the 1965-'69 period, annual admissions averaged about 4,970 immigrants. During the 2002-'06 period, admissions averaged about 22,675 immigrants.

The charts below show recent immigrant admissions and the cumulative INS immigrant admissions data since 1965. The number of annual admissions has ranged from 3,359 in FY'72 to 33,826 in FY'91 (influenced by the 1986 amnesty). The cumulative total of admissions to Washington between fiscal years 1965 and 2006 was about 523,355 immigrants

The data for fiscal years 1989-91 were artificially raised by the inclusion of former illegal aliens who were amnestied in 1986. According to INS data (1991) the number of amnesty applicants from Washington was 37,502 (9,833 pre-1982 residents and 27,669 agricultural workers).

The data for FY'95 and FY'97-'99 were artificially low because the INS did not issue green cards to all the eligible applicants for adjustment of status who were already in the United States. In those four years, new immigration could have registered as much as 30 percent higher, if the INS had kept up with its workload.

Beginning with FY'01, the INS began to increase admissions as a result of reducing the size of the backlog of Section 245(i) adjustment of status cases, i.e., amnesty, for illegal aliens.

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 Washington during this period.

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	-	-	-	10	31	23	11	31	-	17	150
Canada	798	821	706	860	657	708	529	936	1,057	1,136	8,208
China *	1,844	1,333	1,283	1,087	1,317	1,315	1,137	1,485	1,525	2,123	14,449
Colombia	40	35	34	45	42	74	54	65	68	103	560
Cuba	17	26	17	9	35	47	35	14	24	10	234
Dom. Rep.	5	11	15	7	1	5	13	19	8	15	99
Ecuador	14	-	7	15	10	23	15	26	27	25	162
El Salvador	40	45	40	120	75	113	85	89	85	131	823
Germany	197	226	185	-	168	178	156	251	242	204	1,807
Guatemala	34	41	63	65	60	74	74	89	85	109	694
Guyana	4	5	5	4	22	5	7	3	-	8	63
Haiti	14	17	39	77	35	11	12	8	20	29	262
Honduras	24	-	-	-	43	49	39	27	-	37	219
India	426	475	437	577	501	599	470	578	1,301	1,108	6,472
Iran	170	186	161	229	177	210	181	193	217	237	1,961
Ireland	128	179	-	-	17	25	19	34	-	29	431
Jamaica	17	22	10	19	14	27	18	11	21	20	179
Japan	-	287	-	-	250	363	267	362	392	374	2,295
Korea	637	649	633	697	577	787	591	706	679	699	6,655
Mexico	1,108	2,573	2,489	3,482	3,124	4,129	2,687	3,256	2,518	3,650	29,016
Nicaragua	-	-	-	-	12	22	19	39	54	44	190
Nigeria	-	-	40	42	29	41	41	56	-	25	274
Pakistan	67	63	85	56	103	119	146	119	146	152	1,056
Peru	70	45	53	71	83	75	75	101	76	115	764
Philippines	1,834	1,781	1,381	1,688	1,514	1,159	971	1,216	1,406	1,573	14,523
Poland	179	128	81	112	71	71	62	56	50	106	916
Sov. Un. *	2,678	3,340	2,186	1,972	2,477	2,382	1,382	3,218	4,768	6,481	30,884
Trin.& Tob.	-	21	-	-	3	10	5	22	-	9	70
U. Kingdom	318	334	254	275	225	273	196	357	449	486	3,167
Vietnam	3,080	2,607	2,101	2,105	2,508	940	893	1,216	1,533	1,499	18,482
Yugo. *	-	-	125	230	449	183	207	511	725	926	3,356
Other	3,404	2,930	3,432	4,979	4,026	2,880	2,649	3,392	5,609	4,224	37,525
Total	17,147	18,180	15,862	18,833	18,656	16,920	13,046	18,486	23,085	25,704	185,919

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-'97and ’01 include only Russia and Ukraine). Former Yugoslavia data continued since break-up.

The 31 nationalities above represent nearly four-fifths (79.8%) of all immigrant settlement and adjustment in Washington during this ten-year period. The major source countries for the state's new immigrant admissions (former Soviet Union, Mexico, Vietnam, Philippines and China) accounted for more than half (57.7%) of all admissions during since 1990. Both the former Soviet Union and Mexico each accounted for more than one-eighth of total admissions.

Washington : 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?

The U.S. Justice Department has decided to challenge the legality of Arizona’s new immigration law in federal court. Do you agree or disagree with the decision to challenge the legality of Arizona’s new immigration law?

Washington: Illegal Aliens

FAIR ESTIMATE

FAIR estimates the state’s illegal alien population as of 2008 is as many as 225,000 persons. This is part of an overall estimate of the U.S. illegal alien population of about 13 million persons.