One in Four American Children Has an Immigrant Parent, and in California and New Jersey It's Closer to One in Two

Immigration is usually covered through politics, court cases, and headlines. A new report from The Mendoza Law Firm looks instead at the children growing up in immigrant families, a group that now makes up a large part of the country’s next generation. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey, 26% of U.S. children, almost 20 million, have at least one immigrant parent. Most are citizens: 12% of all children are citizens with a noncitizen parent, 11% are citizens with a naturalized parent, and only 3% are noncitizens themselves. In total, 88% of children with an immigrant parent are U.S. citizens.

This share has been growing for decades. In 2000, about one in five children had an immigrant parent. That rose to just under one in four during the 2010s and is now just over one in four. By 2050, second-generation Americans are projected to make up 16% of all adults, double their 8% share in 2012. Most of these families are well established: more than 40% of children with immigrant parents have a parent who has lived in the U.S. for over 20 years, and slightly fewer have a parent who has been here 10 to 19 years. About half of these children are Hispanic, one in five is Asian, and 15% are white.

The share varies widely by state. California leads, with 45% of its children (about 3.8 million) having an immigrant parent, the highest share and largest total in the country. New Jersey follows at 43%, then New York at 38% (about 1.5 million children). Florida (1.6 million) and Nevada (237,000) are tied at 36%. Texas (33%), Massachusetts (33%), Maryland (32%), Washington (31%), and Rhode Island (30%) round out the top ten. Texas ranks only sixth by share but has the second largest total, 2.5 million children. At the other end, West Virginia (3%) and Mississippi (under 5%) have the lowest shares in the country.

Maryland shows how quickly this has changed. In the early 2000s, 15% of Maryland’s children had an immigrant parent. Today the share is 32%, an increase of 17 percentage points. Nationally, the share has grown in nearly every state since 2000 and has more than doubled in 16 states. Schools reflect the same trend. More than 5.3 million English learner students now attend public schools from kindergarten through 12th grade, nearly 11% of all public school students. The highest concentrations are in California, Texas, and Nevada, which also have some of the largest immigrant family populations.

Bilingual homes are also common across the country. About 32% of children under nine, roughly 10.8 million, grow up using English and another language before starting elementary school. After English, the most common home languages are Spanish, Chinese languages, Vietnamese, Arabic, and Hindi. The report notes that bilingual homes can build strong thinking and problem-solving skills. They can also make schoolwork harder when parents have limited English, which often shifts responsibility onto the children or older siblings.

Family finances depend heavily on a parent’s citizenship status. The national child poverty rate is about 18%. For children of immigrants, the rate ranges from 9% for those with no added risk factors to 48% for those whose parents are noncitizens, have limited English, have less education, and have lived in the U.S. for less than ten years. Children whose parents are all noncitizens are three to four times as likely to live in poverty as children with citizen parents. Family structure tells a different story. Seventy-four percent of children in immigrant families live with two married parents, compared with 61% of children in U.S. born families. Mothers in immigrant families are less likely to work (47% vs. 58%), which the report links to caregiving duties, language barriers, and professional licensing hurdles.

The report concludes that children of immigrants are not a small or regional group. They are an established, overwhelmingly American part of the country, spread across nearly every state and every public school system.