Taxes and Spending Power
The contributions immigrants make as both taxpayers and consumers are indispensable to the U.S. economy. Nationally, immigrants earned $1.3 trillion in 2014 and contributed $105 billion in state and local taxes and almost $224 billion in federal taxes. This left them with nearly $927 billion in spending power, which they frequently used to purchase goods and services, stimulate local business activity, and create jobs in the broader U.S. economy.
Texas Tribune Opinion: Immigrant workers are why my health care business has grown
At Manchester Place Care Homes and Cambridge Caregivers, two senior care businesses that I co-own and operate in Dallas, we are aggressively hiring new employees. Business is up 75% year-over-year, which is fantastic, but our growth has created a big problem: There just aren’t enough job seekers to fill the 100-plus openings… Read More
New Data Shows Immigrants Made Up Nearly 30 Percent of STEM Workers in North Texas in 2017
GRAPEVINE, TX – New data from New American Economy (NAE) shows that immigrants make up nearly 30 percent of North Texas’s science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workers. The report, which looks at immigrant contributions to the North Texas workforce, tax base, and major industries, was released at… Read More
New data shows the number of immigrant entrepreneurs in the Washington, D.C. metro area grew by more than 11 percent in one year
New York – Today New American Economy (NAE), a bipartisan research and advocacy organization focused on immigration, released new data highlighting the significant contributions immigrants make to the Washington, D.C. metro area’s community and economy. The data shows that immigrants in Washington, D.C. are driving economic growth… Read More
New data shows immigrants in Pittsburgh paid more than $1 billion in taxes in 2017, an increase of more than $80 million in just one year
New York – Today New American Economy (NAE), a bipartisan research and advocacy organization focused on immigration, released new data highlighting the significant contributions immigrants make to Pittsburgh’s community and economy. The data shows that immigrants in Pittsburgh are driving the small business economy — there were… Read More
New data shows Miami’s immigrants paid more than $16 billion in taxes in 2017
New York – Today New American Economy (NAE), a bipartisan research and advocacy organization focused on immigration, released new data highlighting the significant contributions immigrants make to the Miami community and economy. The data shows that immigrants in Miami are driving economic growth — the metro area’s… Read More
New data shows that immigrant household income in the New York metro area grew by more than $11 billion in one year
New York – Today New American Economy (NAE), a bipartisan research and advocacy organization focused on immigration, released new data highlighting the significant contributions immigrants make to the New York metro area’s community and economy. The data shows that immigrants in New York are playing an essential… Read More
New Research shows immigrants were responsible for more than one-third of total population growth in America’s 100 largest metro areas
New York – Today New American Economy (NAE), a bipartisan research and immigration advocacy organization, released new data showing the significant contributions that immigrants make to America’s 100 largest metro areas. The data, which shows taxes paid, industries supported, and businesses started, is featured on Map the Impact,… Read More
New Report Shows Immigrants in Lowell Accounted for Nearly 90 Percent of Recent Population Growth
Lowell, MA – Immigrant households earned nearly $1.5 billion and contributed $402 million in taxes in 2017, according to new research by New American Economy (NAE) in partnership with the Lowell Refugee and Immigrant Support and Engagement (RISE) Coalition and the Greater Lowell Chamber of Commerce. The report also finds… Read More
From Surviving the Khmer Rouge to Running Her Own Business
Bora Chiemruom was 1 when the Khmer Rouge separated her family. It was 1975, the year the communist revolutionaries seized power and set out to create a collective agrarian society, labeling intellectuals enemies of the people. Chiemruom’s father, a teacher who spoke seven languages, was shot dead, along… Read More
New data shows immigrants in Detroit paid more than $4.4 billion in taxes in 2017, an increase of more than $400 million in just one year
New York – Today New American Economy (NAE), a bipartisan research and advocacy organization focused on immigration, released new data highlighting the significant contributions immigrants make to Detroit’s community and economy. The data shows that immigrants in Detroit are driving economic growth — there were more than… Read More
Household Income of Immigrants
In 2014, more than 72 percent of foreign-born population in the United States was working-aged, compared to less than half of U.S.-born residents. This reality allowed immigrants to earn well over a trillion dollars of income in 2014—a greater amount than their portion of the U.S. population overall.
Tax Contributions
A notable portion of the income earned by immigrants each year funnels directly back to our government in the form of tax revenues. In some states, immigrants contribute more than one out of every four tax dollars paid by local residents each year—supporting taxpayer-funded services like public schools and police departments.
States Where Immigrants Contributed the Largest Share of Total Tax Revenues, 2014
Spending Power
Spending power is the disposable income left to households after deducting their annual tax contributions. The $9.3 billion in total spending power held by immigrant led households in 2014 allowed them to hold considerable power as consumers. By spending on goods and services, immigrants strengthen the U.S. economy and provide jobs to American workers as well as the businesses dependent upon paying customers.
Foreign-Born Population’s Amount and Share of Spending Power by State, 2014
Medicare and Social Security
Our Social Security and Medicare programs are already facing serious financial challenges—a pattern expected to worsen as large numbers of Baby Boomers retire and leave the workforce altogether. While the United States had roughly 16 workers paying into our entitlement programs for every one retiree in 1950, that number is projected to drop to just two workers for every retiree by 2035.1 Immigrants are already playing an important role supplementing our entitlement programs: One NAE study found that between 1996 and 2011 immigrants contributed $182.4 billion more to Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund—the core trust fund in the program—than was expended on their care.
Sources:
1 “10 Truths About America’s Entitlement Programs, Address by R. Bruce Josten Executive Vice President of Government Affairs U.S. Chamber of Commerce,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce, accessed September 21, 2016. Available online.
Bolstering the Housing Market
By purchasing homes in neighborhoods formerly in decline, immigrants in recent decades have had a positive impact on U.S. housing values overall. From 2000 to 2010, each of the 40 million immigrants in the United States added, on average, 11.6 cents to the value of a home in their local county. That seems small, but it adds up. In fact, it resulted in immigrants growing U.S. housing wealth by $3.7 trillion during that period.2 Immigrants are also expected to play a key role buying up homes as baby boomers downsize in the coming years: Almost 30 percent of American homeowners were older than age 65 in 2014.
Sources:
2 Jacob Vigdor, “Immigration and the Revival of American Cities,” New American Economy, 2013 Available online.
Immigrant Subgroups
Regardless of where the immigrants came from, they contribute a tremendous amount of money to the U.S. economy as taxpayers and consumers. In this section, we show the amount earned and contributed in taxes by different ethnic and national origin groups within the foreign-born population.
Taxes & Spending Power of Major Immigrant Subgroups
Make a contribution
Make a direct impact on the lives of immigrants.
