Children of at Least One Foreign-Born Parent

The foreign-born population of the United States has grown since 1970. This increase in the past generation has largely been due to immigration from Latin America and Asia and has led to an expansion in the diversity of language and cultural backgrounds of children growing up in the United States.15 Potential language and cultural barriers confronting children and their foreign-born parents may make additional language resources at both school and home necessary for these children.16

Indicator FAM4: Percentage of children ages 0–17 by nativity of child and parents, selected years 2010–2020
Indicator FAM4: Percentage of children ages 0–17 by nativity of child and parents, selected years 2010–2020

NOTE: Data for 2020 exclude the approximately 210,000 household residents under age 18 who were listed as family reference persons or spouses. Children living in households with no parents present are not shown in this figure but are included in the bases for the percentages. Native-born parents means that all of the parents the child lives with are native born. Foreign born means that one or both of the child's parents are foreign born. Anyone with U.S. citizenship at birth is considered native born, which includes people born in the United States or in U.S. outlying areas and people born abroad with at least one American parent. Foreign-born children with native-born parents are included in the native children with native parents category.

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement.

  • In 2020, 22% of children were native born with at least one foreign-born parent, and 3% were foreign born with at least one foreign-born parent. Seventy-one percent of children were native born with native-born parents.
  • From 2010 to 2020, the percentage of all children (native and foreign born) living in the United States with at least one foreign-born parent rose from 23% to 25%.

table icon FAM4 HTML Table

15 Grieco, E. (2010). Race and Hispanic origin of the foreign-born population in the United States: 2007. In American Community Survey reports (ACS-11). https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2010/acs/acs-11.html

16 Hernandez, D. J., Denton, N. A., & Macartney, S. E. (2008). Children in immigrant families: Looking to America's future. SocialPolicyReport,22(3), 3–11. http://www.srcd.org/sites/default/files/documents/22_3_hernandez_final.pdf

Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics

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