How many Somali-born people live in the United States in 2025 and where are they concentrated?

1. Numbers disagree because different studies measure different things

Counting “Somali-born,” “Somali ancestry,” or “Somali alone or in combination” yields very different totals; the 2020 Census count of people identifying as Somali (alone or in combination) was reported as 221,043 in one summary, while ACS-based compilations give lower totals—examples in the results range from about 163,000 to 169,000 and other outlets list 167,300 or similar—so headline totals depend on which dataset and definition the author used ^{[1] [3] [4]}.

2. Minnesota is the clear epicenter, but estimates of its share vary

Multiple analyses identify Minnesota as the largest single concentration. One Minnesota-focused analysis reports about 61,353 Somali residents in the state and asserts that constitutes roughly 37.5% of a national Somali population of 163,769; other overviews put Minnesota’s Somali-descent population higher (up to ~86,000 in some compilations) depending on the metric used ^{[4] [1]}.

3. Ohio and Washington are the second-tier hubs

State-level breakdowns repeatedly list Ohio and Washington as the next-largest Somali communities after Minnesota. WorldPopulationReview and other state lists give Ohio totals around 21,000 and Washington around 15,000 in some compilations; Neilsberg’s county and state analyses also place Ohio among the top states with tens of thousands of Somali residents ^{[2] [5]}.

4. Local hot spots and city-level patterns

Within Minnesota the Twin Cities area — Minneapolis, St. Paul and neighborhoods like Cedar-Riverside (“Little Mogadishu”) — is repeatedly cited as the focal point, with other cities such as Columbus, OH and Seattle, WA named among principal urban centers for Somali communities ^{[1] [6] [7]}.

5. Why figures shift over time: methodology, migration and return migration

Sources note that ACS estimates (five-year rolling averages) and decennial census tallies can differ and that migration flows—new arrivals, secondary migration within the U.S., and some returns to Somalia after 2012—affect counts. MigrationPolicy’s coverage of Somali migration underscores shifting flows and diverse origins among Somali immigrants, which complicates fixed point estimates ^{[1] [8]}.

6. Independent compilations and dashboards add detail but not consensus

Sites like ZipAtlas, WorldPopulationReview, Neilsberg and assorted dashboards publish state-by-state ranks and numbers (e.g., totals like 167,300 or 163,769) that are useful for local comparisons but rely on differing ACS selections and “Somali” definitions; the net effect is many plausible but non-identical totals rather than a single authoritative 2025 number ^{[3] [2] [4]}.

7. What journalists and policymakers should take away

Reporters and officials should cite the specific underlying metric—“Somali-born,” “Somali ancestry,” or “Somali alone or in combination”—and the data source (ACS vs. Census year) when quoting totals, because the choice changes both the national total and the relative rank of states ^{[1] [3] [4]}.

8. Data gaps and limits of current reporting

Available sources do not present a single, official 2025 U.S. government tabulation labelled “Somali-born people in 2025”; instead, public reporting compiles ACS and prior census measures and yields a plausible range rather than a precise count. The sources in this packet do not provide an unequivocal 2025 “Somali-born” figure broken down by city for the entire country ^{[1] [3] [4]}.

9. Competing perspectives and potential hidden agendas

Some trade and niche websites present rounded or simplified totals (e.g., “167,300”) that are easy to quote but obscure methodological choices; advocacy, local-government and community sources often emphasize larger local counts to support services and recognition, while some third‑party aggregators aim for clear state rankings—readers should treat all such published numbers as estimates conditioned on definitions ^{[3] [4] [1]}.

10. Practical answer to the user’s original question

Using available reporting, the Somali-origin population in the U.S. in recent 2021–2025 compilations ranges roughly from the mid-160,000s up toward ~221,000 depending on definition; Minnesota is the largest concentration (commonly reported between ~61k and much higher by different measures), with Ohio and Washington consistently identified as the next-largest state populations and Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Columbus and Seattle among the main city hubs ^{[1] [2] [3] [5] [4]}.