(Almost) 200 Years of Legal Immigration Numbers

The Department of Homeland Security's Yearbook of Immigration Statistics is chock full of interesting numbers. Table 1 of the Yearbook displays the annual number of legal immigrants to the United States in every year going back almost 200 years—to 1820. These numbers provide context for today's immigration debate...

• Number of legal immigrants admitted to the United States in 1820: 8,385
• First year the annual number of legal immigrants exceeded 100,000: 1842
• First year the annual number of legal immigrants exceeded 1,000,000: 1905
• Number of years annual legal immigration has exceeded 1,000,000: 23
• Peak number of annual legal immigrants: 1.8 million in 1991
• Number of years annual legal immigrants were at least 1% of total population: 21
• Most recent year annual legal immigrants were at least 1% of population: 1914
• Number of legal immigrants in most recent year (2017): 1.1 million
• Number of years annual legal immigration has exceeded 2017 level: 8
• Legal immigrants in 2017 as percent of total US population: 0.35%
• Number of years annual legal immigration has exceeded 0.35% of population: 91

Source: Demo Memo analysis of the Department of Homeland Security's 2017 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics