According to a newanalysis of data about the U.S. foreign-born population from the 2007 AmericanCommunity Survey (ACS), a higher percentage of people born in India have a bachelor’sdegree or higher (74 percent) than people born in any other foreign country.Egypt and Nigeria had rates above 60 percent.

Based on 2007 ACS data, these figures come from new detailedcharacteristic profiles on the foreign-born population — people who were notU.S. citizens at birth — available by country of birth.

Meanwhile, among the nation’s foreign-born, Somalis andKenyans living in the United States are the most likely to be newcomers, and Somalisare among the youngest and poorest.

 “These new ‘selectedpopulation profiles’ highlight the diversity among the many differentforeign-born groups in the United States,” said Elizabeth Grieco, chief of theCensus Bureau’s Immigration Statistics

Staff. “This diversity is due in part to the way the variouscommunities were established, whether it be through labor migration, family reunificationor refugee flows.”

The new data reveal the diversity among the 38.1 millionforeign-born living in the United States in 2007, not only by where they wereborn, but also by where they live now.

For example, about 80 percent of the nation’s populationborn in China are high school graduates. In the New York metropolitan area,about two-thirds of those born in China are high school graduates, while in themetro area of San Jose, Calif., the figure rises to 93 percent.

Other findings available for foreign-born populations of65,000 or more in areas with a total population of 500,000 or more include the following:

Country of Birth

·    Mexico tops thecountry of birth list with more than 11.7 million people. The next highestcountries by birth     include China (1.9million), the Philippines (1.7 million), India (1.5 million), El Salvador andVietnam (both at 1.1 million), and Korea (1 million). Cuba, Canada and theDominican Republic round out the top 10 countries of birth.

Educational Attainment

·    Foreign-born fromseveral African nations are among the likeliest to have graduated from highschool, specifically from countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and SouthAfrica.  About 96 percent or more of the foreign-bornage 25 and over from these nations are high school graduates.

·    Overall, about 85percent of the total U.S. population, 68 percent of the U.S. foreign-born and88 percent of the native-born are high school graduates.

·    About 27 percentof the foreign-born and about 28 percent of natives have bachelor’s degrees.

Household Income

·    Among theforeign-born, those from India, Australia, South Africa and the Philippineshave the highest median household incomes. The median household income for U.S.residents born in India is $91,195. The foreign-born from Somalia and theDominican Republic had some of the lowest median household incomes.

·    Median householdincome is $50,740 for the total population, $46,881 for the foreign-born populationand $51,249 for the native population.

Age

·    Europe is thesource of some of the “oldest” foreign-born. U.S. residents born inHungary     (64 years) and Italy (63.1)share the distinction, statistically, of having the oldest median ages. The foreign-bornfrom Greece, Germany and Ireland also have median ages of about 60.

·    U.S. residentsborn in Somalia have the youngest median age (26.8).

·    Nationally, themedian age for the total U.S. population is 36.7. The total foreign-bornpopulation has a median age of 40.2 and the total native population has amedian age of 35.8.

Year of Entry

·    The foreign-bornfrom Somalia and Kenya are the most likely to have entered the United States in2000 or later. Nearly 60 percent are in this category.

·    Overall, about 28percent of the nation’s foreign-born entered in 2000 or later, 29 percentbetween 1990 and 1999, and 43 percent entered the United States before 1990.

Employment and Occupations

·    Approximately 81percent of the foreign-born age 16 and over from Nigeria and Kenya are in thelabor force. Nationally, about 65 percent of the U.S. population in this agegroup are in the labor force, compared with about 67 percent of theforeign-born population and 64 percent of natives.

·    U.S. residentsborn in India have the highest percentage of civilian-employed people workingin management, professional and related occupations (69 percent). Theseoccupations employ about 36 percent of the native civilian-employed U.S.population and 27 percent of the foreign-born.

·    The foreign-bornfrom Liberia and Haiti have the highest percentage of civilian-employed peopleworking in service occupations (at 40 percent and 39 percent respectively, thedifferences are not statistically significant). About 16 percent of natives and23 percent of the foreign-born civilian-employed populations are working inservice occupations.

·    The foreign-bornfrom Jordan (40 percent) and Bangladesh (36 percent) are among the most likelyto work in sales and office occupations (the differences between the two arenot statistically significant). Among natives, 27 percent work in sales andoffice occupations, compared with 18 percent among the foreign-born population.

English Language Ability

·    About 97 percentof the foreign-born population from Mexico and the Dominican Republic age 5 andover speak a language other than English at home. Those born in Nicaragua, ElSalvador, Armenia, Honduras, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ecuador also have highrates of speaking a language other than English.

·    People born inMexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador age 5 and over are most likely tospeak English less than “very well.” More than 70 percent of the foreign-bornpopulation from these countries identified themselves in that category.

·    On average, 52percent of the foreign-born population, 2 percent of the native population and9 percent of the total U.S. population speak English less than “very well.”

Poverty

·    Among people forwhom poverty status is determined, about 51 percent of residents born inSomalia are living in poverty. About a quarter of the population born in Iraq,the Dominican Republic, Jordan and Mexico are also living in poverty.

·    On the low end ofthe poverty spectrum for the countries of birth, U.S. residents born in theNetherlands and Ireland each have a poverty rate of about 5 percent.

·    About 13 percentof both natives and the total U.S. population are living in poverty, whileabout 16 percent of the foreign-born are.

The 2007 ACS estimates are based on a nationwide sample ofabout 250,000 addresses per month. In addition, approximately 20,000 groupquarters across the United States were sampled, comprising approximately200,000 residents. Geographic areas for which one-year data are available arebased on total populations of 65,000 or more.

As part of the Census Bureau’s reengineered 2010 Census, thedata collected by the ACS helps federal officials determine where to distributemore than $300 billion to state and local governments each year. Responses tothe survey are strictly confidential and protected by law.

As is the case with all surveys, statistics from samplesurveys are subject to sampling and non-sampling error. All comparisons made inthe reports have been tested and found to be statistically significant at the 90percent confidence level, unless otherwise noted. Please consult the datatables for specific margins of error. For more information go to http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/index.htm