California's Foreign-Born Population Fell by About 214,000 in a Year in 2025 American Community Survey, the Only State With a Drop Beyond the Margin of Error
CALIFORNIA, November 2 — California's foreign-born population fell by about 214,000 people in a year, according to the US Census Bureau's 2025 American Community Survey one-year estimates released on October 29, making it the only state where the decline exceeded the survey's margin of error.
According to the survey estimates, California had 10,687,553 foreign-born residents in 2025, down from 10,902,022 in 2024, a difference of about 214,469. Foreign-born residents include naturalized citizens, green-card holders, people on temporary visas, and people without legal status. Nationally, the foreign-born population was 50,409,320, about 174,000 more than in 2024, a change too small to be statistically meaningful, and equal to 14.8 percent of US residents, the same as a year earlier.
The composition of California's change was larger than the net change: noncitizens fell by about 433,000, while naturalized citizens rose by about 218,000. By country of birth, the Mexican-born population fell by about 221,288, more than the state's entire net drop; the Guatemalan-born population fell by about 36,723 and the Vietnamese-born population by about 38,028. The Philippine-born population fell by about 5,237. Estimates for residents born in China, India, Iran and Korea rose, including a rise for the China-born population from 720,261 to 734,032, an increase of 13,771, but according to the analysis those increases were below the margin of error and cannot be read as confirmed growth.
By metropolitan area, the Los Angeles metro area lost about 75,000 foreign-born residents, the most of any large metro; Sacramento lost about 40,000 and San Diego about 31,000. California still has more foreign-born residents than any other state, and 27.2 percent of its residents were born abroad, the highest share in the country.
The figures carry a methodological caution: they are survey estimates, and poverty experts interviewed by The Philadelphia Inquirer about the same release said immigrant households may be more reluctant to answer census surveys amid stepped-up immigration enforcement, which could make the results less representative. The Census Bureau's separate population estimates show net international migration to California falling from 312,761 in the year ending July 2024 to 109,278 in the year ending July 2025.
(Source: U.S. Census Bureau)
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 洛杉矶市中心天际线。 Downtown Los Angeles skyline. CC BY-SA 4.0，图片来源：Wikimedia Commons。 CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
