1. Tennessee
Change in immigrant population since 2010: +14.7%
Current immigrant population: 332,000
Foreign-born population is Tennessee increased 14.7% from 2010 to 2015, going from 289,000 to 332,000. 5% of Tennessee’s population is with immigrants. Considering these statistics, it’s a significant increase from 1990, when the state’s immigrants make up 1.2% of the population.
According to Vanderbilt Poll-Tennessee, following the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, the number of Tennesseans who said immigration should be the country’s top priority nearly doubled from 7% to 13%. So, immigration is a big problem in Tennessee and maybe the number-one priority for the U.S.
2. District of Columbia
Change in immigrant population since 2010: +16.4%
Current immigrant population: 95,000
The District of Columbia’s 95,000 immigrants make up 14.1% of the area’s total population. 41% of the immigrants in the District of Columbia were naturalized citizens in 2011. One-third of all business owners in the greater D.C. metro area were foreign born as of 2013, according to the American Immigration Council.
