With Thanksgiving coming up, what better way to celebrate the melting pot that is our country than with a look at the foreign-born living in Georgia.
Below, we’re looking at the continent of origin among immigrants who entered the country in 2010 or later. As it shows, locally, our immigrant community has solid representation from most parts of the world, with the highest rates of the foreign-born hailing from Latin America and Asia.
The map below shows the foreign-born as a percent of population at county and tract level. This represents immigrants from all continents and all years of entry. From this, we can see that the 10-county area lights up when it comes to looking at clusters of immigrants. However, some of our smaller counties with less population actually have the greatest rates of immigrants. Steward County, with an estimated population of 6,042 residents all together, has an estimated 32.2 percent of residents hailing from outside the U.S. Gwinnett, which often is our mental go-to when it comes to immigrant populations, actually comes in second for the rate, with an estimated 25 percent of its 902,298 residents hailing from outside the U.S.
When it comes to the tract level, a slightly different view emerges, with immigrants representing 64 percent of DeKalb County Census Tract 220.08’s 8,114 residents. Not surprisingly, this tract is in Clarkston, sometimes called the most diverse square mile in the U.S. From the map we can see, however, that its international diversity extends far beyond one square mile.