STATE POPULATION
The Census Bureau estimated that in July 2007 Nevada’s population had increased by an annual average of about 78,930 residents since 2000 (to 2,495,529 residents). Over that period net immigration was adding about 11,585 persons each year (more immigrants arriving than leaving). During the same period there was a net annual average population gain of about 49,955 residents from net domestic migration (more native-born residents arriving than leaving). Net immigrant settlement accounted for more than one-seventh (14.7%) of the overall net population increase over this period, and that does not take into account the children born to the immigrants after their arrival in the United States. ).

[Note:children born in the United States to immigrants (part of the immigrant stock) are not included as part of the immigration flow.]

The 2000 Census found 1,998,257 persons resident in Nevada. This was an increase of 796,424 persons above the 1990 Census (66.3%). The amount of increase was the 13^th highest in the country. The rate of increase was the fastest increasing population in the country.

The 2000 population is about 130,000 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 Nevada grew by 50.1 percent (from 800,508 to 1,201,833).

FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION

FAIR estimates that the foreign-born population of Nevada was about 501,205 residents in July 2007. This meant a foreign-born population share of 20.1 percent. The amount of change since the 2000 Census indicates an average annual rate of increase in the foreign-born population of about 25,290 people, which is more than one-third (37.1%) of the state’s annual average population increase. Since 2000, the foreign-born population has increased by 58.3 percent compared to an 18.6 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 40.2 percent share of the state’s current births is large enough to account for about 13,840 births a year. Combining the increase in the foreign-born population and estimated immigrant births suggests that immigration may account for adding about 39,000 persons to the state’s population annually, i.e., more than half (57.4%) of the state’s overall population increase.

The 2000 Census recorded 316,593 foreign-born residents in the state. That was 15.8 percent of the state's overall population and an increase of 202 percent above the 1990 foreign-born population of 104,828 residents. That tripling of the immigrant population was much higher than the 53.3 percent increase in the native-born population. The amount of increase was the 12^th highest in the country. The rate of increase in the foreign-born population was the third highest in the country.

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 26.6 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 likely to be closer to 38 percent, which is based on the increase in the share of those who speak a language other than English at home in Nevada.

The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey found that in 2006, the foreign born population was 475,914 residents, an increase of 50.3% percent since 2000. In comparison, the foreign-born population changed from 104,828 to 316,593 residents between 1990 and 2000, an increase of 202.0 percent.

The ten countries below constituted approximately one fourth (75.6%) of the foreign-born population in Nevada in 2006. Mexico accounted for (42.7%).

CONNECT TO LEGAL IMMIGRATION ADMISSION DATA

THE IMMIGRANT STOCK
The Census Bureau estimated that there were about 576,000 people in Nevada 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 1,998,257, the immigrant stock share of the state's population was 28.8 percent -- the fifth highest share in the country.

As the graph below shows, the amount and share of Nevada’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 485,800 people to the population. Over this period, the increase in the foreign stock has accounted for 26.6 percent of the state’s population increase.

NATURALIZATION
Data from the 2006 American Community Survey indicate that 172,505 residents, or 36.2 percent, of the foreign-born population in Nevada were citizens, compared to 116,786 residents, or 36.9 percent, in 2000

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

REFUGEE SETTLEMENT
Nevada has received 5,400 refugees over the most recent ten fiscal years (FY'97-'06), with 489 arriving in FY’06.

 

Under the Office of Refugee Resettlement's (HHS/ORR) assistance funding for FY'02 $494,168 is available for refugee employment training and other services programs in Nevada based on a three-year refugee settlement program covering 1,969 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 $1,417,858 and $1,485,824.

IMMIGRANT CHILDREN
In 2000 nearly three-tenths of all of Nevada's children are either foreign born or the child of an immigrant. Six percent are first-generation immigrants (foreign born) and 22 percent are second-generation (a child of an immigrant).
(Source: "Check Points," The Urban Inst. Sept. 2, 2000)

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.

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 Nevada as 3,170. One school in Nevada is listed as having a major concentration of these students: University of Las Vegas had enrollment of 1,443 foreign students, 5.2% of total enrollment. 

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

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

ILLEGAL ALIENS

FAIR Estimate - FAIR’s estimate of the state’s illegal alien population as of 2007 is about 170,000 persons. This is part of an overall estimate of the U.S. illegal alien population of about 13 million persons.

INS/DHS Estimate - The INS (now dissolved into the Dept. of Homeland Security) estimated in February 2003 that the resident illegal population in Nevada was 101,000 as of January 2000. This number 77,000 higher than the INS' 1996 estimate. In November 2006, DHS updated the estimate of the stat's illegal alien population to 240,000, a striking 200,000 more than just ten years previously.

Other Estimates - The Pew Hispanic Center estimates the illegal alien population of the state at 150,000 to 200,000 as of 2005.

COST OF ILLEGAL ALIENS
Incarceration Costs -The INS estimated in February 2003 that the illegal alien population in Nevada was about 101,000 residents. This was more than a four-fold increase from the last INS estimate that in October 1996 the illegal alien population living in Nevada was 24,000 residents. The previous INS estimate was that in October 1992 there were 18,000 illegal aliens. The numbers show a rapidly growing illegal alien population.

Most of the illegal aliens are newcomers, because in 1986 an amnesty was enacted that allowed illegal resident aliens to become legal residents. INS data listed in 1991 the number of applicants from Nevada for the amnesty for illegal aliens adopted in 1986 as 3,421 (1,149 long-term illegal residents and 2,272 agricultural workers.

The current INS estimate means that there are only 12 states with larger numbers of illegal alien residents.

Nevada 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 Nevada has received were:

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 556 prisoner years of detention. By FY’02, the state’s reported illegal alien detention more than doubled to 1,192 prisoner years, while compensation increased by 17 percent and since has decreased sharply.

Medical Costs - 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 Nevada, the proposed payment in fiscal year 2004 is $2,408,539.

Educational Costs - In our study Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools into the Red, we estimated based on 2004 data that educational expenditures for illegal immigration were costing the Nevada taxpayer $321.1 million dollars annually. This cost was partially for educating students who were themselves illegally in the country ($133.8 million) and in part for the education of their siblings born in the United States to illegal residents ($187.3 million).

Projected Fiscal Costs - In 2006 we estimated that Nevada taxpayers are currently burdened with annual costs of about $518 million because of illegal aliens residing in the state. That estimate was based on only expenditures for education, emergency medical care and incarceration. We projected that those costs will rise unless we gain control over our borders and our worksites. If a new amnesty and increases in immigrants and guest workers were enacted, as proposed by business and ethnic advocacy groups, we project that the cost to the state’s taxpayers for those same programs would rise to $950 million per year in 2010 and to $1.784 billion per year in 2020.

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.

Revised July 2008