Whether you consider it a melting pot or a salad, America is home to a mixture of people from all over the world. Current and historical data document waves of immigration and community growth across the country. Social Explorer’s resources and tools enhance storytelling and research into immigration.
New York City is home to 3,106,148 immigrants, representing 36.6% of the city's population, roughly three times the national average (around 14%). The New York City Planning Commission published the latest portrait of immigration in New York City. The report, The Newest New Yorkers: A Statistical Portrait of Foreign-born Residents and Their Role in Shaping the City’s Population (2026 edition), details immigration trends in the city and the region. Social Explorer helps curious New Yorkers and researchers of all kinds to dig deeper in New York City and around the country.
Using detailed 2024 five-year American Community Survey (ACS) estimates, the following Social Explorer map shows census tract level details on the foreign born population in New York City. Zoom in to explore neighborhood by neighborhood.
Analyzing ACS data from 2009 to 2024, immigrant populations in the boroughs shifted in different ways. Queens remains the most immigrant-dense borough at 47.6% (a slight increase over 2009 at 47.1%). By contrast, Staten Island saw the largest gain (+5.5 percentage points), rising from 20.3% to 25.8%. Its foreign-born population went from 98,086 to 127,461, a real and well-documented surge driven largely by Sri Lankan and other South Asian immigration.
The Bronx also grew notably (+3.2 percentage points) with most immigrants coming from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and other Latin American countries. Manhattan increased by a modest 0.7 percentage points. Meanwhile, Brooklyn is the only borough where the foreign-born share declined (-1.3 percentage points), but it continues to be the borough with the largest absolute foreign-born population.
The Planning Commission’s report details the different origins and settlement patterns of immigrant groups across the city. Social Explorer users can quickly view which origins are most common in different counties and neighborhoods. The following side-by-side maps show the regions of origin for 2009 and 2024. Multiple origins are available on a single display with different colors representing residents from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania. Concentrations of different groups stand out, and mousing over the map enables you to dig into the full picture for each census tract.
The Planning Commission report also detailed the increase in Chinese and Dominican immigration. According to the ACS 2024 five-year estimates, Dominican-born immigrants are the largest country-of-origin group in NYC, making up 12.9 percent of the foreign-born population. Chinese-born immigrants (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) rank a close second at 12.7 percent. A custom map from Social Explorer shows the settlement patterns of these two groups in detail–with Dominican immigrant areas in blue and Chinese immigrant areas in orange. Explore the unique neighborhood-by-neighborhood dynamics and mouseover for population numbers.
Research Immigration Populations in NYC and Around the US with Social Explorer
Social Explorer has the full ACS data including foreign-born origin details for over 128 countries and territories. The rich ACS dataset includes details about nativity and English proficiency, poverty rate, education, income, year of entry, employment, and more. Check out Social Explorer's data and tools to dig deeper into the NYC immigrant community or your own locale.
New to Social Explorer? Sign up for a free Social Explorer account to try it out today.