Pew Hispanic Center
Growing Share of Immigrants Choosing Naturalization
The proportion of all legal foreign-born residents who have become naturalized U.S. citizens rose to 52% in 2005, the highest level in a quarter of a century and a 14 percentage point increase since 1990, according to an analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center.
The population of naturalized citizens reached 12.8 million in 2005, a historic high that reflects both a rise in the number of legal migrants and an increased likelihood that those who are eligible apply for citizenship. As a result of these combined trends, the average number of naturalizations annually has increased from fewer than 150,000 in the 1970s to more than 650,000 since the mid-1990s.
By 2005 (the last year for which figures are available), naturalized citizens accounted for slightly more than one-in-two (52%) legal foreign-born residents. Among all 36 million foreign-born residents in 2005, naturalized citizens made up a slim plurality (35%) over legal non-citizens (33%) and unauthorized migrants (31%). In 1995, legal non-citizens had accounted for a near majority (47%) of the 24 million immigrants who were in the country at the time, compared with 30% who were naturalized residents and 20% who were unauthorized migrants.
Source: Pew Hispanic Center tabulations of augmented March supplements to the Current Population Survey. Figures for 2005 add to more than 100% due to rounding.
The population of immigrants who are eligible for naturalization was 8.5 million in 2005 and of these more than a third, or nearly 3 million, were Mexican. Mexicans still have a comparatively lower tendency to become U.S. citizens, but the number of naturalized citizens from Mexico rose by 144% from 1995 to 2005 -- the most of any major sending country.
While the number of legal permanent residents admitted to the United States has risen in recent years, the number of naturalized citizens has grown even more rapidly. In fact, because so many new immigrants have become citizens, the size of the legal non-citizen population has barely grown since the mid-1990s.
These trends point to a sharp rise since the mid-1990s -- following nearly half a century of decline -- in the tendency of legal permanent residents to naturalize. Legal immigrants are not only becoming citizens at a higher rate than in the recent past, but they are also doing so more quickly. Whatever the reasons for this, it is clear that today's legal immigrants are signing on to a closer relationship with the U.S. than was the case a decade or two ago.