Immigrants Birmingham, Alabama are making big economic contributions, despite making up a small fraction of the city’s population. Accounting for just 3.5 percent of the overall population in 2014, the foreign-born of the Birmingham metro area made up an outsize 5.2 percent of the employed workforce – contributing to the local economy through high rates of entrepreneurship, large tax contributions, and spending power.
The report, New Americans in Birmingham, finds:
- In 2014, foreign-born households contributed $3 billion to the GDP.
- In 2014, immigrants in Birmingham paid $213.2 million in federal taxes, and $73.8 million in state and local taxes. They also held $821.9 million in remaining spending power.
- The 2,665 immigrants in the Birmingham metro area who were self-employed in 2014 earned $19.2 million in business income.
- In 2014, foreign-born residents in the Birmingham metro area had higher levels of education than those born in the United States, with 11.7 percent of immigrants holding an advanced degree.
Read the full report here.
