U.S. immigrants now total 37.5 million




Associated Press - September 12, 2007 12:33 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) - New Census Bureau data illustrates the wide-ranging effects of immigration.

The Bureau finds that nearly one in five people living in the U.S. speaks a language at home other than English.

According to the 2006 data, California led the nation in immigrants and in people who spoke a foreign language at home. West Virginia had the smallest share of immigrants. It also had the smallest share of people speaking a foreign language.

The number of immigrants nationwide reached an all-time high of 37.5 million in 2006. And while almost half of the immigrants from Latin America failed to get a high-school diploma, Asian immigrants raised average education levels in many states, with nearly half of them holding at least a bachelor's degree. Among people born in the U.S., about 27% were college graduates.

The data come from the American Community Survey, an annual survey of 3 million households that has replaced the Census Bureau's long-form questionnaire from the once-a-decade census. It does not distinguish between illegal immigrants and those who are in the U.S. legally.

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