As of July 1st, 2025, there were 341,784,857 residents in the United States, with 343,048,254 anticipated by the end of 2026. Much of the country’s population growth is (and has historically been) down to immigrants.
Yet immigrant growth in the U.S. has stalled, with the number of net international migrants down by more than half between 2024 and 2025, falling from 2.7 million to roughly 1.3 million. And while births outpaced deaths, that was by a comparatively modest 518,858 people.
In this study, we’ll consider the reasons for the dwindling immigrant numbers. We’ll look at how discriminatory issues like hate crimes are negatively shaping the wider immigrant picture, and how a southward migration is redefining the racial complexion of the U.S. We’ll also uncover the most and least diverse states in the melting pot that is present-day America.
Let’s first take a broad look at the most populous U.S. states.
The Most Populous U.S. States
America’s population has never been more racially and ethnically varied, and yet that characteristic diversity is unevenly concentrated and subject to constant evolution.
The ten most populous U.S. states account for approximately 53.8% of the total U.S. population. Together, they represent a varied demographic cross-section that’s unrecognizable from the United States of a generation ago.
Top 10 Most Populated U.S. States
184,001,131 residents reside in the ten most populous states. That’s 53.8% of the entire U.S. population residing in just ten of the country’s fifty states.
California is the nation’s most populous state by a significant margin. Its 39,431,263 residents combine the population totals of the 21 least populous states. It’s one of the most expensive places to live in the United States, yet it remains a huge draw for domestic and international migrants drawn by its economy, climate, and cultural diversity.
California’s sheer size means that racial, ethnic, and language shifts regarding its demographic composition carry national significance.
Texas (31,290,831) is the second most populous state: it’s also the fastest-growing, driven by sustained domestic migration from high-cost states like California and New York, a historically high birth rate, and a large and established Hispanic population.
Florida rounds out the top three (23,372,215), reflecting decades of retiree relocation, international immigration (especially from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Haiti), and a year-round population influx that has transformed it into one of the country’s most demographically diverse states.
Together, California, Texas, and Florida account for around 28% of the total U.S. population, confirming how disproportionately the population is distributed across the country and how much the demographic story of America is shaped by those three areas.
New York takes fourth spot with 20 million residents, anchored by one of the most diverse cities on earth (New York City), which features over 800 languages. Nearly 40% of New York’s residents were born outside the United States.
Pennsylvania and Illinois, former industrial states that powered much of the country’s 20th-century economic growth, both feature around 13 million people. That said, both have experienced relatively slow population growth compared to their Sun Belt counterparts, with younger residents often migrating to lower-tax, lower-cost environments in the South and West.
Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan round out the top ten, each with between 12 and 10 million residents, and represent a geographically diverse cross-section of the country that spans the Midwest, the Upper South, and the Southeast.
The notable presence of Georgia and North Carolina in the top ten reflects an ongoing demographic shift, as population growth across the American South and Southeast continues to outpace older population centers in the Northeast and Midwest.
People are flocking towards warmer climates, lower living costs, and expanding tech, finance, and logistics job markets. The population data perfectly captures this gradual transition and illustrates a country whose center of gravity is shifting southward.
How the ten most populous states are evolving tells a distinct story about where America has been and where it’s heading. Taken as a whole, they form a composite portrait of a nation undergoing a profound demographic transformation: one that’s reshaping its politics, economy, culture, and collective identity. And domestic migration is a key factor in this evolution.
Domestic U.S. Migration
One of the most consequential demographic forces reshaping the American map is the mass migration of residents away from high-cost states toward more affordable alternatives. This is a trend that’s significantly altering the racial and ethnic composition of states that were, until recently, far less diverse.
According to 2024 Census estimates, Texas, North Carolina, and South Carolina led domestic migration gains between 2023 and 2024; California lost a net 239,575 residents to other states, with New York (120,917) and Illinois (56,235) other big migration losers.
A 2024 NAR migration report found that 46% of homebuyers who relocated that year moved to the South, with affordability and proximity to family leading the cited reasons. It’s a simple fact: residents in high-cost metros increasingly find that the same income stretches significantly further a state or two away.
For the second consecutive year, South Carolina led all states for incoming domestic migration, while North Carolina‘s population grew by 1.3% between July 2024 and July 2025, driven primarily by people arriving from other states.
Conversely, New York and California each lost 0.61% of their residents to other states in 2024 alone; both states have lost a similar proportion of residents to other states over a number of consecutive years. Rising housing costs, high state income taxes, and cost-of-living pressures continue to motivate residents to relocate to a cheaper state.
The result is a circular affordability loop that drives migration, which drives diversity, which in turn reshapes the political and cultural complexion of entire regions. The clear population shifts among the top ten most populous U.S. states tell us that affordability and opportunity is pointing southward.
In terms of raw numbers, the states adding the most domestic migrants further confirms a general southward shift.
Population Growth In The United States
The Vintage 2025 estimates released by the Census Bureau make it clear that the country’s national demographic weight is continuing to shift southward: Texas gained the most residents of any state between 2024 and 2025, adding 391,000 residents for a cumulative population of 31.7 million.
Since 2020, the Lone Star State has grown by nearly 2.5 million people, the largest absolute gain of any state over that five-year period. Florida wasn’t too far behind over the same period, adding an estimated 1.87 million residents.
The fastest-growing state by proportion was South Carolina, which was subject to an estimated population increase of 1.5% between 2024 and 2025, adding nearly 80,000 residents to reach a population of over 5.57 million.
Idaho and North Carolina were the next fastest-growing states by percentage, primarily driven by domestic migration as opposed to international arrivals.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, California’s population fell by more than 9,000 between 2024 and 2025, the largest absolute decline of any state. This was almost entirely due to a drop in net international migration, which fell from 361,000 people in 2024 to just 109,000 in 2025.
Vermont recorded the fastest-declining population by percentage, with a drop of 0.29% year over year. The pattern is consistent and accelerating: states with lower taxes, more affordable housing, and expanding job markets in the South and Mountain West are accommodating migrating residents at rates that are reshaping the country’s political map, congressional representation, and demographic composition.
Discrimination Against U.S. Immigrants
Different types of immigrants experience America differently, as the data confirms. A 2025 Pew Research Center survey found that 82% of Americans say undocumented immigrants face some form of discrimination, the highest share of any group surveyed.
Nearly three–quarters of Americans say Black and Hispanic people face at least some discrimination, and about two–thirds say the same about Asian people.
By contrast, relatively few Americans say White people face any discrimination, with a consistent gap between how discrimination is perceived across varying racial lines.
Those perceptions adhere closely to documented outcomes. About one in five Black adults and roughly one in eight American Indian and Alaska Native adults report unfair or disrespectful treatment by a health care provider due to their racial or ethnic background, compared to just 3% of White adults.
The disparities are similar when we consider employment. Among Asian immigrants, one in three report receiving worse treatment than U.S.-born people in stores or restaurants, when interacting with the police, or when buying or renting a home.
Hispanic Americans saw the largest homeownership gains over the past decade, rising from a 45.2% share to 51%. Despite this, Black and Hispanic mortgage applicants are denied in 21% and 17% cases, respectively, compared to just 11% of White applicants and 9% of Asian applicants.
The American immigrant story is far from uniform. It’s stratified by race, and the distance between the most and least protected groups is measurable, documented, and increasingly hard to ignore.
Let’s find out which U.S. states deserve the epithet ‘most diverse’.
America’s Most Diverse States
If we measure states by how racial and ethnic groups are distributed across their population, ten states emerge as the most diverse in the country. Combined, they perfectly illustrate America’s uniquely diverse population.
California, as well as being the most populous state in the nation, is also among its most racially complex, with no single group commanding a clear residential majority.
Hispanic residents make up 40.8% of the state’s population, White residents account for 38.1%, Asian residents represent 16.1%, and the combined Other/Multiracial category comprises 38.7%. These figures reflect the degree to which California’s population defies racial categorization, and preview what many demographers project the broader national population will soon look like.
New York, the second most populous state on the list, mirrors California’s complexity at a smaller scale. White residents represent 54.3% of the population, Black or African American residents 14.2%, Hispanic residents 20.2%, and a significant Asian population (9.5%) is concentrated primarily in New York City and its surrounding metro area.
Georgia and Maryland, respectively representing the South and Mid–Atlantic, both owe much of their diversity to substantial Black or African American populations, which account for 30.6% of Georgia‘s residents and 29.1% of Maryland‘s.
That makes both states outliers: they’re two of the few states in the country where Black or African Americans represent such a high level of the total population, a demographic reality rooted in centuries of history.
New Jersey is notable for a balanced population that includes multiple proportionately equal groups. Hispanic, Black or African American, Asian, and Other/Multiracial residents all hold double-digit percentage shares, a reflection of the state’s proximity to New York City and its long history as a gateway for immigrant communities.
Nevada‘s diversity is driven primarily by a large Hispanic population (30.6%) and a substantial Other/Multiracial share (30.8%). That’s largely due to decades of migration into the Las Vegas metro from Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands, with many arrivals serving the hospitality and service industries.
Hawaii occupies a unique place on the list as the only state in the country where Asian residents form the largest single group at 36.3%. Additionally, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander residents represent 9.5% of the population, and White residents account for just 21.9%, their lowest state share in the U.S., reflecting the state’s position in the Pacific and its history as a crossroads of Polynesian, Asian, and American cultures.
Delaware, Alaska, and the District of Columbia round out the list. Delaware‘s diversity is anchored by a Black or African American population share of 22%, which is a legacy of the state’s position as a border state and a destination for generations of communities migrating northward.
Alaska‘s diversity is shaped by one of the largest American Indian and Alaska Native population shares in the country (14.1%), a proportion that reflects the state’s deep indigenous heritage and the continued presence of Native communities across its vast geography.
The District of Columbia – perhaps the most striking entry on the list – features a 41.3% share of Black or African American residents, the highest share in this dataset, with White residents accounting for just 37.6%.
Overall, the ten states in question demonstrate that diversity in America rarely follows a single template. Instead, it’s shaped by geography, immigration history, indigenous populations, and decades of demographic change.
Diversity and high proportionate shares of a population is one thing: but which states go the extra mile to look after their immigrant residents?
Immigrant-Friendly States
A broad variation in state-level policies, protections, and economic conditions are key factors when we measure the immigrant-friendliness of states, irrespective of population numbers.
California ranks as a leader when it comes to immigrant-friendliness. It’s home to more than 829,000 immigrant entrepreneurs (the most of any state), with ballots legally obliged to be printed in more than 14 languages to ensure full accommodation across the state’s diverse communities.
California, New Jersey, and Washington have all enacted sanctuary laws that offer extra legal protections for immigrants. And Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, and Vermont have laws that prevent local police from assisting with federal immigration enforcement.
New York has expanded protections even further. The state allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses and apply for financial aid.
Additionally, research from the Bush Institute shows that immigrants moving within the United States increasingly choose Sun Belt destinations. Dallas–Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Nashville, Charlotte, and Tampa emerge as leading metros where immigrant populations are actively thriving, drawn by job growth, lower costs of living, and communities that actively welcome immigrant newcomers.
The contrast with the least welcoming states is significant. West Virginia has the lowest immigrant population share of any state (1.8%), while 34 states have foreign-born population proportions of 10% or less. That’s a gap that doesn’t just reflect migration patterns: it also reflects the extent to which a state’s policies and local economies are immigrant-friendly.
While states like California, New York, and Georgia are defined by their broad mix of multiple racial and ethnic communities, many states remain overwhelmingly homogeneous. And understanding a lack of diversity is as important as understanding where it thrives.
America’s Least Diverse States
The ten least diverse states in America share one defining characteristic: a White population that accounts for at least 80% of residents.
Vermont features the highest White population share of any state (90.1%), followed closely by Maine (89.7%) and West Virginia (89.4%). The demographic composition of all three states has remained consistent for decades, with each state resisting the rapid diversification that’s reshaped much of the country.
West Virginia has not only remained overwhelmingly White but has also suffered a sustained population decline driven by economic contraction in the coal and manufacturing sectors. The forces of demographic change that typically accompany population growth and domestic migration have not taken hold in West Virginia’s case.
New Hampshire, the fourth least diverse state (87.6% White), is also in the rural Northeast. That’s a region in which international immigration has historically been low and where domestic migration patterns have not yet influenced the kind of demographic variety visible in nearby states.
Montana and Wyoming occupy a distinct geographic category: Mountain West states whose low diversity is shaped not just by a high White population share but also by a significant American Indian and Alaska Native community presence (5.4% in Montana and 1.7% in Wyoming).
That’s a reminder that the least diverse states are not necessarily completely alike and that indigenous populations may add a layer of complexity to the demographic picture.
Iowa and North Dakota round out the Midwest’s presence on this list. For both states, the White population share is above 80%, and a relatively small but growing Hispanic community reflects the expanding reach of agricultural labor migration.
That particular trend is something demographers suggest will accelerate as labor shortages in farming and food processing industries draw a growing number of workers and families from Latin America into traditionally low-immigration states.
Kentucky, the most populous state on the least diverse list, is notable for having the highest Black or African American population share of any state in this group (7.1%). That’s a legacy of its complex history as a border state during the Civil War era, and its position at the edge of the culturally much broader Southern demographic belt.
Idaho completes the least diverse list with the lowest White population share in the group (80.9%). Its Hispanic population of 14.3% and Other/Multiracial share of 15.5% make it the most demographically varied state on this list, a reflection of longstanding agricultural and ranching labor communities in the Snake River Plain.
What unites all ten of these states is not just their demographic composition but their stubborn resistance to change. While many states diversified between the 2010 and 2020 Census cycles, the states at the bottom of the diversity spectrum did so only sparingly.
The distance between the least and most diverse states in the country continues to represent a significant and underreported demographic divide in modern American life. And it’s a divide that has real consequences for policy, representation, resource allocation, and the lives of all minority communities that may lack the institutional support and cultural infrastructure that larger and more established communities enjoy.
That demographic isolation has other permutations. Racial and ethnic homogeneity in certain states, combined with limited help for minority communities, creates conditions where bias-motivated incidents are more likely to occur and less likely to be addressed. The FBI’s annual hate crime data offers the clearest federal snapshot of where that hostility surfaces.
Hate Crimes
The FBI’s 2024 hate crime data (released in August 2025) paints a sobering portrait of bias-motivated violence in the United States. Law enforcement agencies across the country reported 11,679 hate crime incidents involving 14,243 victims in 2024, the second-highest total on record.
More than half of all hate crimes reported in 2024 involved racially- or ethnically-motivated attacks. Black Americans were the most targeted group, followed by Jewish Americans and gay men.
There were 3,004 anti-Black or African American incidents in 2024, the largest number of single category of race or ethnicity-based hate crimes. Anti-Arab incidents totaled 137 in 2024, the second-highest number of anti-Arab hate crimes on record.
In terms of states, California reported the highest number of hate crime offenses in 2023 with 1,970. New Jersey, New York, Washington, and Massachusetts rounded out the top five.
These raw totals must be interpreted carefully, as they partly reflect population size and reporting culture. States with a robust hate crime reporting infrastructure, stronger community relationships with law enforcement, and rigorous local tracking systems tend to record higher numbers.
That usually means higher reported hate crime totals do not necessarily indicate more hostile environments, and could suggest a higher level of transparency.
It’s worth pointing out that the FBI’s data is widely understood to reflect a fraction of hate crimes. The Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that more than 300,000 people experienced hate crimes in 2019 alone, 40 times more than are on FBI records regarding that year.
Overall, the data makes it clear: bias-motivated violence is a persistent and pervasive feature of American life, with minority communities bearing a disproportionate share of the problem.
Those minority communities speak a plethora of languages. Here are those most often spoken in the U.S.
Commonly Spoken U.S. Languages
The U.S. linguistic landscape extends far beyond English, with the 2024 American Community Survey making it clear how vast and varied that landscape is.
Spanish dominates the list by an extraordinary margin with 44,407,130 speakers. Those numbers mean it’s the most widely spoken non-English language in the country by a factor of more than twelve.
That figure reflects generations of Spanish-speaking communities with deep roots across the Southwest, Florida, and a linguistic presence so large that the United States is one of the largest Spanish-speaking nations on earth.
Chinese (including both Mandarin and Cantonese dialects) ranks second with 3,677,048 speakers, a reflection of longstanding Chinese American communities in California, New York, and Hawaii, combined with more recent waves of immigration from mainland China and Taiwan.
Tagalog (including Filipino) ranks third with 1,819,986 speakers, driven by large and established Filipino American communities in California, Hawaii, Nevada, and the Pacific Northwest.
Vietnamese follows with 1,569,609 speakers. The large Vietnamese community in the United States is rooted in the post-1975 refugee resettlement that brought hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese families to states like California, Texas, Washington, and Virginia.
Arabic ranks fifth with 1,468,743 speakers, a number that encompasses a highly diverse array of national origins, including Lebanese, Egyptian, Yemeni, Iraqi, and Syrian communities with a significant presence in states like Michigan, California, New York, and New Jersey.
French (including Cajun French) ranks sixth with 1,221,179 speakers. Francophone immigrant communities in the Northeast, historic Cajun communities in Louisiana, and Haitian Creole-adjacent speakers in Florida and New York make it one of the oldest and most regionally rooted non-English languages in the U.S.
Korean ranks seventh with 1,127,142 speakers, concentrated most heavily in California, New York, and New Jersey; Portuguese follows with 1,085,747 speakers, driven by Brazilian, Portuguese, and Cape Verdean communities concentrated primarily in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and California; Hindi ranks ninth with 1,054,957 speakers, a figure that reflects a rapid rise Indian immigration to the United States over the past two decades; and Haitian rounds out the top ten with 1,038,302 speakers, a community most heavily concentrated in Florida.
Summary
The United States is in the middle of a demographic transformation. Its July 1, 2025 population numbers (341,784,857) offer us a useful statistic, but they don’t tell us who those residents are, where they live, and what kind of America they experience.
And population growth has slowed to its lowest rate since 2021, driven primarily by a historic decline in net international migration, which dropped by more than half in a single year from 2.7 million to roughly 1.3 million.
That’s a shift that troubles demographers and policymakers alike due to its knock-on effects regarding labor markets, housing demand, and regional economies.
Hispanic Americans saw the largest homeownership gains over the past decade, rising from a 45.2% share to 51%. Despite this, Black and Hispanic mortgage applicants are denied in 21% and 17% cases
More than half of all Americans (53.8%) live within just ten of the country’s fifty states, and those ten states together form a demographic cross-section that looks nothing like the country of a generation ago. The top three (California, Texas, and Florida) account for nearly 28% of the national population and together represent the full range of what modern American diversity looks like.
The states that are now gaining the most immigrant residents are overwhelmingly concentrated in the South and Mountain West, due to housing affordability, lower tax burdens, and expanding job markets in technology, logistics, and healthcare. Concurrently, high-cost states like California, New York, and Illinois continue to lose residents to domestic migration.
Texas gained more than 391,000 residents between 2024 and 2025; since 2020 the state has added nearly 2.5 million people, the largest population gain of any state over that period. South Carolina, North Carolina, and Idaho are growing fastest on a percentage basis, all driven by people arriving from other states as opposed to from other countries.
A 2024 NAR migration report found that 46% of all homebuyers who relocated that year moved to the South. This dynamic is significantly altering the racial and ethnic composition of some states that were traditionally far less diverse.
Yet 82% of Americans believe undocumented immigrants face at least some discrimination, the highest share of any group surveyed, with Black and Hispanic mortgage applicants facing respective denial rates of 21% and 17% respectively (compared to just 11% for White applicants). Simply put, the racial composition of the country varies dramatically depending on your location.
The ten most diverse states (led by California, New York, Georgia, Maryland, and Nevada) are home to layered multiracial populations where no single group commands a clear majority. Whereas, the ten least diverse states, concentrated in the Northeast and Mountain West, are each made up of more than 80% White residents, and are changing at a far slower pace than the rest of the country.
The FBI’s 2024 hate crime data marked the second-highest rate of hate crimes since records began: 11,679 incidents involving 14,243 victims, with Black Americans bearing the brunt of attacks. Sadly, experts widely acknowledge that the FBI figures represent a significant undercount.
Such behavior counters a key American fact: the country is built on diversity. A good example of that is the 44.4 million Spanish speakers in the United States, plus large communities conversing in a wide range of non-English languages including Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic, French, Korean, Portuguese, Hindi, and Haitian.
Ultimately, this campaign delivers a rigorous, data-driven portrait of a nation that’s more diverse than ever been and as wide-ranging as it’s ever been regarding how that diversity is experienced.
Currently, the migrant center of gravity is shifting southward and inland despite multiple structural barriers, bias-motivated violence, and a patchwork of state policies that range from welcoming to hostile. As diversity rates and attitudes continue to evolve, the United States will remain a country not only reliant upon but characteristically synonymous with immigrants.
An immigration lawyer is a trained and certified legal advisor who will process your legal documents during or after a migration process.
At The Mendoza Law Firm, we provide proven immigration methods, representing immigrants and families undergoing the relocation process to the United States. We have proudly represented countless successful cases. Send your case to a Mendoza Law immigration lawyer for evaluation.