Analysis of the immigrant population
characteristics in the Seven Metro
Counties provided general understanding
of the people of foreign birth. The total
numbers of immigrants in all Seven Metro
Counties were combined here though they
could be further analyzed by individual
county or city
Immigrants were identified two
ways: by Language Spoken at Home other
than English and by Country of Birth. The
language spoken at home information gave
a good estimate of immigrant populations
but was likely an overestimate due to the
large number of natives who speak other
languages. The Country of Birth data were
more accurate and produced a better
estimate of the immigrant populations.
Both methods were used to identify and
compare immigrants in this study.
According to the American Community
Survey (n.d.), from data collected in 2006
and 2008, one in ten Twin Cities residents
or approximately 12 percent are foreignborn.
Roughly 500,000 of the Seven Metro
counties residents were born outside of the
United States and close to half of these are
naturalized citizens. The other half are
non-citizens. Nearly 45 percent of the
foreign-born residents live in Minneapolis
and St. Paul (Figures 2 and 3)