Economic Impact of Immigration by State: Where’s Georgia?

Immigration continues to be at the forefront of state and national issues, which is why personal finance website WalletHub recently released its report on 2019’s Economic Impact of Immigration by State.

WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 20 key metrics, ranging from median household income of foreign-born population to jobs generated by immigrant-owned businesses as a share of total jobs.

The study found the following:

States Where Immigrants Have Biggest Economic Impact

1. California
2. New York
3. New Jersey
4. Massachusetts
5. Maryland
6. District of Columbia
7. Delaware
8. Illinois
9. Florida
10. Washington

States Where Immigrants Have Smallest Economic Impact

1. Mississippi
2. Wyoming
3. South Dakota
4. Montana
5. Idaho
6. Maine
7. South Carolina
8. Louisiana
9. Arkansas
10. Tennessee

The Peach State ranked 19th for the most impacted.

Other findings from Wallethub:

*     California has the highest share of foreign-born residents, 26.98 percent, which is 16.8 times higher than in West Virginia, the lowest at 1.61 percent.

*     Maryland has the highest median household income for the foreign-born population, $76,119, which is 2.1 times higher than in New Mexico, the lowest at $35,626.

*     New Mexico has the highest homeownership rate for the foreign-born population, 63.20 percent, which is 2.1 times higher than in North Dakota, the lowest at 30.30 percent.

*     New Jersey has the highest share of foreign-born STEM workers, 43.80 percent, which is 54.8 times higher than in Wyoming, the lowest at 0.80 percent.

*     The District of Columbia has the highest share of direct and indirect jobs created by the economic contributions of international students, 1.57 percent, which is 52.3 times higher than in Alaska, the lowest at 0.03 percent.

You can read the full study here.