What are the Immigration number in the state of Minnesota
Executive summary
Minnesota’s immigrant population — defined as foreign‑born residents and encompassing naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, refugees, students, temporary visa holders and people without authorization — is roughly in the half‑million range, with recent estimates clustered between about 473,000 and 524,000 people (roughly 8–9% of the state’s population) depending on the data source and year [1] [2] [3]. Estimates of the unauthorized (undocumented) population are smaller and more uncertain: widely used research estimates put Minnesota’s unauthorized population in the low hundreds of thousands (social reporting around a 130,000 figure), while Migration Policy Institute and federal administrative sources emphasize methodological differences that produce variation across reports [4] [5] [6].
1. What the headline numbers mean: foreign‑born vs. unauthorized
A headline number for “immigration” in Minnesota can mean different things: several authoritative profiles count the state’s foreign‑born population — people born outside the U.S. whether now citizens or not — at roughly 472,849 (8.5% of the state) according to a Minnesota Chamber analysis citing the state demographer, while USAFacts reports about 524,000 foreign‑born residents in 2024 (about 9% of residents); MN Compass summarizes this as “nearly half a million” immigrants calling Minnesota home [1] [2] [3]. By contrast, the unauthorized‑immigrant total is estimated using different sampling and imputation methods (Migration Policy Institute’s methodology and Pew Research Center approaches), which yield lower absolute numbers but wider uncertainty; social media and some fact‑checks referenced a 130,000 unauthorized‑resident figure for Minnesota, noting that these estimates are time‑bound and sensitive to methodology [4] [5].
2. Recent change: immigration as the driver of population growth
Census and state reporting indicate international migration has recently become the leading component of Minnesota’s population growth: nearly 30,000 new international arrivals were recorded between July 2023 and July 2024, and more than 81,000 newcomers moved to Minnesota from 2020 to 2024, contributing roughly 94% of net growth in that span — figures highlighted by the Minnesota Chamber’s Grow Minnesota! reporting of Census data [7]. Those rapid increases mean mid‑decade tallies (e.g., 2024 vs. 2026) can diverge substantially; sources caution that pandemic dips and then rebounds have reshaped recent trends [7].
3. Who is included and why counts differ
Differences among data products arise from scope and source: Migration Policy Institute and the State Demographic Center derive foreign‑born and unauthorized estimates from pooled American Community Survey and supplemental surveys plus imputation rules, and explicitly include nuanced categories like DACA, TPS, parole, and pending asylum cases in some unauthorized counts [5] [6]. State administrative feeds (Department of Homeland Security reporting) provide counts of legal statuses and flows (naturalizations, green cards, refugee arrivals) but do not directly estimate hidden populations; Minnesota’s own Demographic Center notes survey undercount risks related to language and trust that likely lead to underestimates [8].
4. Local composition and economic context
Immigrants in Minnesota are diverse and concentrated in specific communities: Mexican origin residents remain the largest immigrant group while Somali and other East African communities are prominent, and immigrants are younger and disproportionately in the workforce — patterns emphasized by MN Compass and Minnesota Chamber reporting and by the American Immigration Council’s state overview, which also highlights entrepreneurial and tax contributions [3] [1] [9]. Policymakers cite immigration as a key lever for labor‑force replenishment as native births decline, a rationale underpinning recent attention to migration flows [1] [7].
5. Caveats, disputes and data transparency
All figures carry caveats: unauthorized estimates rely on imputation and are not direct counts, different sources use different reference years, and rapid recent migration means some published 2023–2024 snapshots may already be out of date; fact‑checks and state demography teams explicitly warn against treating a single number as definitive [4] [8] [5]. Political reporting around enforcement operations and legal disputes further complicates the public conversation, but those operational stories do not replace demographic measurement and should not be conflated with broad population totals [10].